Fiona Diamonds Presents The Man Behind The Sparkle | NDTV Profit
Discover the journey of Fiona Diamonds, a name trusted for the lab grown diamonds – crafting jewellery ethically.
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00:00Diamonds are a girl's best friend, and this man who is with me is making it affordable
00:08to us and making it sparkle more.
00:11So thank you for that, Virat.
00:14Thank you, Meera.
00:15Okay, let me introduce you to the people who don't know.
00:19This man thought, let me start a business because I want to be a businessman and he
00:24chose diamonds without any backing, without knowing what he was getting into.
00:29But here you are talking to us at NETV Profit.
00:34Please tell me, why did you choose this profession?
00:37What motivated you?
00:39Diamonds?
00:40Well, the motivation was hunger and diamond was never on the cards, but it just happened.
00:46It was serendipity, I feel, and it was a certain sequence of events that happened in life.
00:50So post my engineering from VJTI, having my majors in electronics, and the only idea
00:56was I wanted to do something in one industry from people and build some equipment for people
01:02who has money.
01:04So diamond took my attention for some reason, and I could see that there was no equipment
01:09for testing real and fake diamonds.
01:12So that's how the journey began.
01:14And I was always open to ideas of doing any kind of business.
01:18So it was started between by me and my brother, Saurabh Agrawal, who's also my co-founder.
01:24And we started with two companies, one was a tech company, which would do IT solutions
01:28because he did his master's from the US and started this company.
01:31And at the same time, we started Fiona Diamonds back in days, but initially, okay, so backtracking
01:38before the diamond business, we started with the diamond testing equipments, which could
01:42differentiate between natural and fake diamonds.
01:45But I'm sure this idea must have come from somewhere like, normal people don't think
01:50like that, you know, let's test diamonds.
01:53Yes, yes.
01:54So okay, yeah, you're right.
01:55So I had a friend in school and his father was a jeweler back in our city there in Dhule.
02:01And he suggested that, why don't you come up with these equipments, this is a gap in
02:05the industry.
02:06And since you are an electronics engineer, why don't you develop a machine, which could
02:09test different gemstones.
02:12And that inspired me and that really fascinated me.
02:15So I got a survey with 500 jewelers, local retailers, what kind of equipments they would
02:20be using to test these stones.
02:22So in back in days, there was a stone called moissanite, which is still very popular.
02:25And we sell it under the brand Fiona also, as one of the products.
02:29And that was being sold in the name of diamonds by many jewelers, many retailers.
02:33But it is very easy to identify the difference in everything.
02:36And in that journey, we met certain scientists who were trying to grow diamonds in the lab.
02:42And that's where you?
02:43Yes.
02:44So we were very lucky, I would say, to get introduced to these in 2009, when no one even
02:50knew that something like this is possible.
02:53And you know, he got this idea when he was 22.
02:57But there are people at 22 right now, people who are watching, they know that 22 people
03:04are still figuring out their life.
03:05They don't know what they want in life.
03:08But 22, you already was out there with Fiona Diamonds.
03:13I mean, such a huge step.
03:15What was the response of the family, the support from them?
03:18And how were you so clear about your wants and what you need at 22?
03:23Please, we need tips here.
03:26That's very kind of you to ask me in that manner.
03:28But yeah, it was my father and my entire family who always supported the decision.
03:33And I was an achiever back in school, scoring good marks.
03:36So they believed in me.
03:38And the clarity was there that I want to do, I want to be an entrepreneur.
03:43So with the support of the father, I remember, so this specific day when, you know, all after
03:49doing my engineering, all the friends were successful, they were having great packages.
03:53And those days 10 lakhs and 5 lakhs were considered to be good packages back in 2004 and 5.
03:58So I decided to go the other route.
04:01And I got a job interview and a call for job from Hyderabad.
04:06Then I met one entrepreneur right there in our city, who sells weighing scales.
04:12And he has a similar journey.
04:14So after his engineering, even he opted to find a product.
04:18So he guided me that if you want to be an entrepreneur, don't go for a job because then
04:22you will be in a rat race.
04:24And every year you will think about it and you'll get an evaluation done, a promotion
04:28done and you will keep killing your dreams.
04:30So if you want to start, start now, but look for a product.
04:34So you don't start a company and look for a product.
04:36What I believe in, you find a product and then build a company around it.
04:40Yeah.
04:41And now the main question, who is Fiona?
04:45And why is it called Fiona Diamonds?
04:46Please tell me who is Fiona?
04:47I always joke about it that that's one of my girlfriends, but certainly not.
04:52Okay.
04:53So Fiona has a very funny story.
04:54It was me and my brother sitting and watching Shrek.
04:56Kids, are you watching this?
04:59Watch NETV Profit.
05:01You will get to know more about Shrek.
05:03It was so funny and you know, because our approach was, okay, we understand branding
05:08and marketing.
05:09The only idea was while finding a brand name, that brand name should be very familiar, should
05:14be sounding great, should be easy to pronounce, should be short and it should sound international.
05:21And while it just popped up, the name was Stella, but it was taken.
05:24We heard Fiona in Shrek and we were like, this really sounds good.
05:27And Fiona Diamonds.
05:28Why not Shrek?
05:30Shrek was ugly.
05:31Poor Shrek.
05:32Yeah.
05:33So yeah, we checked with our lawyers and it was available and bingo.
05:38Wow.
05:39Amazing.
05:40That's a very cute story.
05:41Let's go back to when you started the business with no one to support you or guide you that
05:46time you were finding your own path.
05:49Tell me about the basic struggle that you had to go through or everybody goes through
05:54because it's quite inspiring.
05:56Yes, it was.
05:58The fun part was when I discovered these stones, I was going crazy that I have to tell
06:05this, bring it out to people and tell everyone that there is something like this which exists.
06:11So I was young, didn't understand how media works.
06:13So I was writing letters to Times of India telling them that you should be covering the
06:18story that there's a stone with lab-grown diamond, which has come up, but no one took
06:23me seriously.
06:24The price of this was so high that most of the retailers were busy mixing it with diamonds
06:29or something like that.
06:31And even the best of the best laboratories could not identify the difference between
06:34them and natural diamonds.
06:36So how do you identify the difference between a natural diamond and a lab-grown diamond?
06:40So how do you identify the difference between a test tube baby and a natural born baby?
06:44You can't.
06:46Exactly.
06:47So you can't.
06:48So humanly it's impossible to do that.
06:50But tell me which one is more expensive?
06:53Of course natural diamond, but for its own reasons.
06:56Now you would think, I think it that way, and these were the primary line of questioning
07:01that happened back in days when I started questioning the value of diamond, the price
07:05of diamonds.
07:06So the value proposition started with diamonds when De Beers and bigger companies started
07:11promoting it in a way that a girl's best friend is diamond.
07:16And your boyfriend doesn't love you enough if he doesn't gift you a diamond ring, which
07:21is 3x his salary, monthly salary.
07:24So it was a cell of emotion.
07:26And I could understand, OK, if it is so rare, why are all the brands in the world selling
07:31them?
07:33And retail business, how I understand from coming from a business family is you have
07:37to have certain margins to absorb your cost of establishment, salaries, and everything.
07:41So how can someone buy it at retail price and think of it as an investment?
07:46This was the biggest question.
07:48But then I started understanding the gap and the pricing, and it was all about aspiration.
07:54That's what I found out.
07:55You know, we have heard a lot about natural diamonds and how people get exploited trying
08:02to get the natural diamonds to us, to the retailers.
08:06Now I want to know, does Labron Diamond fix this issue?
08:10Yes.
08:11So if you don't do mining, I'm not saying that all the diamonds which are being mined
08:16are blood diamonds.
08:17Only the ones which are not coming from the right channel, which do not have the Kimberley
08:21process, those are the ones which are blood diamonds and which harm the society and the
08:28country with child labor or arms dealing.
08:32Because you know the reason why they're called blood diamonds, right?
08:34So not every diamond is like that.
08:36Go and watch the film.
08:38So the fight is not really against that.
08:41But yes, you need to preserve Mother Earth.
08:44And when you have some option, which is exactly the same, then why not?
08:48Then why not?
08:49The question is, why not?
08:50Would you not park your money with equities and better investment options like gold?
08:55Okay.
08:56You know, you are the first Indian retailer to introduce this concept.
09:00So tell me more about it, being the first one to do it in India and the support that
09:04you have got.
09:05Well, there was no support.
09:07In fact, there was a huge resistance from the diamond market itself.
09:11And later it happened that you can't beat them, so join them.
09:14That's a different story.
09:16But back in 2018, I remember, we were participating in one of the most prestigious show in the
09:22jewelry fraternity happening in Goregaon.
09:25And our booth was shut down, saying that, oh, you are participating in a wrong section
09:31and we are not allowing lab-grown diamonds to be sold here.
09:35The true reason was, everyone was jealous because we were pulling a lot of crowd.
09:39Can you give me three reasons why people should go for lab-grown diamonds?
09:42So give me three.
09:43Quick three.
09:44See, one is the same thing.
09:47There's no difference.
09:49The price is just fraction, 2 or 3% cost, you can get it.
09:53And number three, you have a buyback, same like natural diamonds.
09:56So you can exchange, return, and use variety.
09:58It has the same value?
10:00For the...
10:01When you are...
10:02Exchange for the same value.
10:03Yeah.
10:04And cashback at the market price, we did at 20%.
10:06Okay, so your journey has been very inspiring.
10:10If you had to tell the youngsters out there who are struggling, who want to do something
10:14on their own, don't want to do regular jobs, what are the things that you would tell them?
10:19I would tell them, number one thing is, they need to find out what they are good at.
10:24The world tells and talks about passion and follow your passion, do what you like.
10:29But I think youngsters are getting confused with that statement.
10:32They should be thinking that whatever hobbies they have and passions to follow, that should
10:36be kept for the weekend.
10:38But what you...
10:39Okay, so tell me what kind of customers you'll see coming into your showrooms?
10:46Okay, so before I share that what kind of customers are coming now, I'll date back to
10:52when we started.
10:53When we first started, I had actually wasted two years of my life thinking that people
10:58who cannot afford diamonds are going to buy this.
11:01But to my surprise, it was the other way around.
11:03People who had a lot of diamonds would go for this because I realized that people who
11:08cannot afford it do not even aspire to have diamonds.
11:13You know, it took a while.
11:14And plus, one needs to understand that though Laguna diamonds are very cheap, they're relatively
11:18cheaper.
11:19They are yet not that cheap.
11:21And then plus, when you make a piece of jewelry, you in 18 carat gold, the gold prices, as
11:26you know, it adds up for a product, for a bracelet or a ring or a necklace, it just
11:31adds up.
11:32So yes, in the coming days, there are brands which are evolving with silver and Laguna
11:36diamonds with the Laguna diamonds pricing being corrected so drastically is going to
11:41become to reach of everyone.
11:44But the way it progressed was first the Ultra HNI started buying it.
11:49And then it came down to the CXOs and manager and leadership position people who are getting
11:55engaged.
11:56So engagement ring is one of the biggest markets we cater to our 40% customers are these CXOs
11:59and leadership position people.
12:01And then the third category then comes to the doctors, professionals, teachers.
12:05So it is just segmentation from our side.
12:07These are the three categories.
12:09The fourth one then comes from the NRIs who are Indians abroad.
12:12And as the sustainability story is so strong with Laguna diamonds, the nature of eco-friendly,
12:17conflict free, it has taken the West, they have all loved it.
12:23So the Indians staying there, they believe in an Indian brand more than the brand in
12:29the U.S.
12:30So it is very expensive.
12:31If you look at any brand selling Laguna diamonds in U.S.
12:34Australia compared to India, they are very, very expensive.
12:37So I am just interested, curious about this.
12:41What kind of, do you get these people coming in like, I want a diamond that looks like
12:45the one Deepika Padukone is wearing?
12:47Of course, so that happens all the time.
12:49Really?
12:50Yes.
12:51So we run.
12:52You get pictures like this is what I want?
12:53Yes, this is what I want, you know.
12:54Of course, we just have to check with the patents and copyright for the design and
12:57otherwise.
12:58Oh, you have that also.
12:59You have copyright.
13:00But for designers like, you know, Bulgari and Cartier, you can't do that design.
13:03So that's different.
13:04But the rock sizes, of course, so ovals are trending.
13:07If you see people are loving our five carat ovals and emeralds and fancy shapes.
13:12And it's like, you know, if you talk about the super rich and the wealthy people, they
13:17would want Rolls Royce of all the colors.
13:19So when you own diamonds, you would want to have all the shapes.
13:22Oh, my God.
13:24So when there is a big celebrity wedding happening, you must be like packed full.
13:30Absolutely.
13:31Everybody wants to just own that diamond.
13:34Yes.
13:35So we did when Deepika Padukone got married, Kiara Adwani, all the three stone rings.
13:40And with, you know, the concept of past, present and future, that design works so well.
13:45So when we were first starting, everyone was talking about lab-grown diamonds and stuff,
13:51but we were so focused on building our own designs around it because we get inspired
13:55by international brands like Harry Winston and Graf and Tiffany's and Cartier's.
13:59These are such big aspirational brands.
14:02And you look at their piece of jewelry, their diamonds, they're so expensive.
14:05So imagine if you bring that kind of styling in India and that's the biggest gap.
14:11You will find no brand in India with that kind of offering.
14:15So we were the first ones to do it.
14:17And because of that, we could have a captive audience who love it because of those thin
14:21bands, you know, whisper thin bands that you can stack with a big rock up there.
14:26Yeah.
14:27Yeah.
14:28Oh, my God.
14:29I can only imagine.
14:30But tell me what sets Fiona apart from the other brands here in India?
14:34So like I said, we having an engineering background that gave us an edge over the others while
14:40building the website and getting our SEO game right.
14:44So if you search for lab grown diamonds across from India anywhere, you'll see Fiona Diamonds
14:49is ranking on top three organically.
14:52So that is what sets it apart.
14:54You look at the Google reviews, what we have, there are so many customers vouching for it.
14:59Everything is a SEO game out there.
15:01Yes, it is one part.
15:03Otherwise, it's the game of being omnichannel.
15:06If you're available and your brand can be discovered and seen with like we in Shoppers
15:10Top as well.
15:12As we speak today, we opened at Prayagraj.
15:14Wow.
15:15Yes.
15:16Congratulations on that.
15:17Thank you so much.
15:18And Bansro is being opened at Lokhandwala today.
15:19Wow.
15:20That's amazing.
15:21While we are talking.
15:22Oh, you know, I had asked you about your struggles when you were setting up.
15:26Can we go back to that?
15:27And if you can share some incident during that time that you faced where it was like
15:32a backlog for you, where you thought that you will not be able to come back again into
15:36the business, into the game.
15:38And now you're top of the game.
15:40So when you look back now, how do you feel and share that incident with us?
15:44So it's been, you know, every founder, I think, goes under that journey when he starts thinking,
15:49oh, God, I'm not sure if I'm going to survive tomorrow or not.
15:52And COVID was one moment which happened with everyone.
15:56And we spread too thin with opening of so many stores at that time also.
16:00But I think we were way earlier than time, way ahead of time, because of which we had
16:05to shut certain stores because of COVID.
16:08And that is when we thought, oh, it's going to be a tough call to just drag this.
16:13And but yeah, everything worked fine.
16:15And how did you all come back into the game?
16:17Oh, so it was the online game.
16:18And COVID, the questioning I had in my head was, it's not possible that if people are
16:25coming up with the wedding with only 50 people and 100 people, there's one thing they were
16:29spending on, which was luxury and jewelry.
16:31So you must have seen how APs and Rolexes, everything came up so well.
16:35And we made sure that we were the best in SEO, the best website out there, which would
16:41have gamification.
16:42We run a beautiful auction on the website.
16:44So auction was one of the game changers.
16:46The biggest challenge, like you are asking what we always face, was that people never
16:51gave us references.
16:53Because whoever wore a lab-grown diamond didn't want to share with anyone that they're wearing
16:57this.
16:58Their lab-grown diamond.
16:59Because it would bring the value down.
17:01But they would think in their head that whatever natural diamonds they have in store, everyone
17:06would perceive them to be lab-grown diamonds.
17:09So that was a challenge.
17:11And because of which we did not get referral businesses.
17:14Otherwise, you can imagine how fast the growth can be.
17:18To come out of that, we started actually offering natural diamonds as well.
17:23And we came up with a beautiful gamification on the website, wherein we run an auction
17:28and we give products which are sometimes not even a cost price.
17:33And the game is so simple.
17:34Suppose something is for 1 lakh in MRP, we start the bidding with 20,000 or 30,000.
17:39You can bid an increment of 1,000 and whoever is the highest bidder just gets that product
17:43for that price.
17:44Oh, wow.
17:45So it's so transparent.
17:46It's great.
17:47And people love it.
17:48Every day there are 8 to 10 products being bought by different people across India.
17:53When you talk, for example, if I go on Instagram, will I see people tagging you guys and saying
17:58I'm wearing a Fiona diamond?
18:02There are some people who are doing that.
18:04And you're getting a lot of traction on a reel.
18:06So recently, there was a very funny incident.
18:09And so I have a great team who manages insights all in our team.
18:13And I was telling them, guys, why are you putting some irrelevant content?
18:18And that reel went viral.
18:20And I was like, you know what?
18:21Nothing is irrelevant.
18:22Yeah.
18:23Nothing is irrelevant.
18:24On social media.
18:25Nothing.
18:26So you don't know how the algo works and who's going to like what.
18:28And just yesterday, another reel went viral.
18:30It just simply said, it drew a letter A and said, this letter owes you a diamond ring.
18:36We got 100,000 shares, 500 comments and 10 million views.
18:41Oh, my God.
18:42So we realized when we did it with different letters, it didn't work that way because most
18:47people maybe are named with A.
18:49Abira.
18:50Remember.
18:51Abira.
18:52I'm going to remember.
18:53I'm going to remember.
18:54So tell me, when I walk into Fiona Jewels, what is that one thing I should go for?
19:00Solid earrings.
19:01Wow.
19:02Husband, are you listening?
19:05Of course.
19:06If he wants a brownie point.
19:07Yeah.
19:08So there's one thing we ask.
19:09Anytime there's a customer and the couple coming in the store, I like to ask this funny
19:14question.
19:15So is it a special occasion or general maintenance?
19:17General maintenance.
19:18Because a happy life is a happy life.
19:20Yeah.
19:21I can maintain myself.
19:23And you will see me soon in Fiona Diamonds.
19:24Sure.
19:25You're most welcome.
19:26Thank you so much.
19:27Thank you for talking to us.