How She Sold $13M in Handbags In 1 Year with Jenny Lei of Freja

Millennial Life Crisis

Shelby Church

Business, Leisure, Education, Fashion & Beauty, Arts, Self-improvement, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of Step-by-Step, I chat with Jenny Lei, the founder of Freja — the minimalist handbag brand that grew from an idea into a $13M business. 🩺 This episode is sponsored by Zocdoc Stop putting off those doctor appointments and go to zocdoc.com/shelby to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. https://zocdoc.com/shelby ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 - Intro 2:08 - The Interview Bag That Started It All 6:20 - Launching Right Before the Pandemic 10:15 - Manufacturing Struggles & the $2,000 Sample 14:45 - From Dropshipping to a Real Brand 20:58 - Breaking Even, Then Breaking Through 27:30 - Building a Brand, Not Just a Bag 34:02 - Celebs, Content, and Going Viral 40:47 - Team Growth & Staying Independent 47:55 - Mindset Shifts & Journaling as a Superpower 👜 Check out Freja: https://frejanyc.com 📸 Jenny's Instagram: / jennyleii 📍 My Instagram: / shelbychurch For business inquiries please email [email protected] with Step By Step Podcast in the subject line. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It wasn't like, oh, I need to start a bag brand and I need to get this much funding to start that.
0:03.8	It was more of, I think this could work.
0:06.3	My first red flag should have been, this is what you need to get me.
0:09.2	So I'm like, I thought that was your job.
0:11.0	I sat and waited for eight weeks and it was terrible.
0:13.7	They reported that you guys made $9 million in revenue.
0:16.4	13. How much should you make from drop shipping in profit? My budget was, I'm going to spend as little as I can to make this happen.
0:23.2	So my factor was like minimum quantity, 500 is like, no, I can only pay for 100.
0:31.9	Okay, guys, welcome back to step by step with me, Shelby Church.
0:35.4	Today we have Jenny here who started Freya, which is a handbag
0:39.9	collection company really that I feel like is blowing up right now. I feel like I'm seeing it
0:45.8	everywhere like all over Instagram and stuff. So I'm excited to chat today. Yeah, I actually found
0:50.4	you from that CNBC video. They did a video on your company and how it had like a really
0:56.3	good year. And I was like, well, but I recognized it. I was like, I've seen this for sure on
1:00.5	Instagram and stuff. Yeah. So I want to give some background of what the company is, how you got
1:05.3	started and all of that. So Freya's my baby. It just turned five. I started Freya out of college because I, well, I didn't have a job. And I had this one last really important interview that I thought, okay, this is my chance. Yeah. And I went to this interview, but I didn't have a bag that I felt really confident bringing to this interview. So I end up picking out a bag from like a convenience store, like a $20 one.
1:28.2	I walk into the interview, didn't feel confident, obviously didn't get the job, bombed it really hard.
1:33.1	I'm like, you know, I think it was a bag.
1:34.8	And I'm sure I'm not the only one that has that problem.
1:37.1	So I went back to school that day and I started designing a bag.
1:41.8	And I thought, you know, I'm not a designer, but I think I can make one work bag really,
1:46.6	really well. So that's what we did. Took a year to kind of get the design down and then started
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 16 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Shelby Church, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Shelby Church and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.