What's up, DTC Pod? Today we're joined by Gretchen Hollinsworth, who is one of the founders of Ink and Alloy. So Gretchen, I'll let you kick us off. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what Ink and Alloy is all about and maybe a little bit about yourself and how you got started.

Sure. Well, Ink and Alloy was really my second chance at building something that I love from the ground up. I previously had started and founded a business called Patty Wax. So I kind of got a jump start in this business since I had that experience. But for my 2.0 career, I just really wanted to build a brand full of joy and color and empowerment. And I just felt like women's accessories was just a really nice angle to that. It's kind of the spice of life or the icing on the cake and just kind of where my life is for 2.0. So that's how we got started.

Yeah. And one reason that we're really excited in the conversation today is Patty Wax is a very sizable business. I know you have scaled this. This wasn't just like a quick thing. That was one or two years. You guys started this in the mid ninety s. And it's grown and grown and grown over several years. You got the Patty Waxes in several major national retailers across the US.

So before we get too far into Ink and Alloy, why don't we just talk a little bit about your super successful career in terms of building Patty Wax out and what that journey was like?

Sure. Well, I was super young when I started. Patty wax. I was right out of college and I was literally like, I think I was 25. And it's kind of funny. I bought a house that had a greenhouse in the back, and the greenhouse was packed full of little terracotta pots. And I had no money to buy Christmas presents for my family, so I made candles and it just kind of went crazy from there. And it was like those old commercials that you see where the orders are piling in and first you're really happy, and then you're like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? So that was grown literally from my kitchen until 2009.

We brought on an investment partner and that really kind of changed the dynamic of patty Wax. We had already were a nationally recognized brand before that, and I had already sold to places like Anthropology and Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters and people like that. But the investment partner came on, and at the time I was married and my husband was a big fan of selling the business. In a weird way, I really wasn't because it was really my baby. But in the big scheme of things, it turned out great because I went through a divorce and then I was just left with a partner, the new apartment or partner, and I stayed on for five years. That business got massively big, and I always told people it kind of felt like selling your business felt like you got to be the nanny. It's like your kid grew up, but now he's not really your baby, but you're the nanny. So I was on for the last five years, but it really changed the dynamic of how I felt.

And ultimately, I'm an entrepreneur. I'm not just a creative, and I love all aspects of the business. And so it got to where, no, I want to do this again. I love every piece of it. And I was in a situation where it was like, go be the creative, and we'll run the books and the financials, and I found that I love that piece, too. So it felt great to get back into it. And I was very lucky that I have a wonderful team of women that came with me here to ink and alloy that we've been together in the business for over 20 years, and so we've got a really core group of people that we're having fun.