What would happen if we all consumed fewer better things?

That question is the driving force behind Carla Gallardo's company, Cuyana. You have likely

seen their beautiful leather goods, their silk dresses, and cashmere sweaters. This is a story of how

Carla's vision came to life, a carefully calculated step she took to prepare herself to run a global,

direct-to-consumer e-commerce business and the surprising

challenge that she, a self-proclaimed perfectionist and hustler, did not anticipate.

Carla, thanks for doing this. Hi. Thank you.

Carla, you say growing up in Ecuador was a life of fewer, better things. How did that show up in the

way that you were raised? I would say primarily in the objects that we purchased and how long we made them last.

Ecuador itself is in our country where there's just disparate realities in terms of financial

statuses and most of the population lives below the poverty line.

And that still kind of instills a way of living, at least when I grew up, that even if you could

afford to go to school and you could afford proper meals and a uniform, you still were careful

on how you spent. And it's just from a supply standpoint, there wasn't a lot of

excess going on around us. And so we were just very mindful and food never went to waste in our

home. Never. My dad and my mom, they went to the German school in Ecuador and there was European influence on their education.

And my dad, he just had a very European mindset when it came to, no, investing in nicer things,

but fewer things. And that's how, you know, we went about purchasing things for our house and our day today.

And so as a teenager, that was sometimes not the ideal or the thing that I actually cared about, right?

Well, all my friends were wearing flared pants and for me, my dad, just would want to go with the classics that was

last for many years.

It's funny because like all things, however you grow up is sort of how you just figure

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