When you’re shipping a $100,000 engagement ring, you don’t take any chances.
That’s how Simone Kendle found herself on a plane to Toronto over the Memorial Day weekend.
“Delivery person” may not be part of the job description for Kendle, the CEO of Wove, a startup custom jewelry company founded and based in Lancaster. And while Wove is still benefiting from a wave of publicity after megastar Taylor Swift was spotted wearing one of its creations, the company is continuing to hustle to build its brand and its business.
“No task is too big or too small,” Kendle said in an interview last month. She decided to fly the engagement ring to the customer in Toronto to ensure it would be there in time for the marriage proposal. The diamond had been hand-selected by the customer.
“You do what you have to do, and that’s the stage we’re in,” said Kendle, who is based in Dallas. “And every single person on the team has that same mindset.”
Kendle joined the Wove team in October 2023 after co-founding and working as chief marketing officer of Parfait, a startup using technology to make customized wigs. Kendle, a graduate of The Wharton School who also worked for financial services giant Capital One, was attracted by the opportunity at Wove to become the CEO.
“I went to Wharton to run my own business, to scale, to lead,” Kendle said. “At Parfait, that was the furthest I was ever going to go. And I really wanted to be in a role where I could support and have a vision for all aspects of a business, not just marketing.”
Wove was founded in 2021 by former Army Rangers and West Point graduates Andrew Wolgemuth and Brian Elliott, who started out designing custom engagement rings for fellow service members stationed overseas. Wolgemuth’s family owns Koser Jewelers in Mount Joy.
Wove has drawn early-stage investments from state-backed venture fund Ben Franklin Technology Partners and York-based venture capital firm White Rose Ventures. In 2022, Springdale Ventures, a venture capital firm in Austin, Texas. led a $3.85 million seed round. Wove employs nine people, as well as contract jewelers and manufacturers for production,
Wolgemuth and Elliott remain involved in the company and are also still owners. But they felt Kendle was the right person to take it to the next level, particularly on the marketing side, Wolgemuth said. “She brought a new and fresh perspective to the brand.”
The company scored a major marketing coup earlier this year after pop singer Swift was seen on national television wearing a custom friendship bracelet made by the company. The bracelet was visible when Swift hugged her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, after the team’s victory in the AFC championship game in January. The moment stemmed from Wove’s relationship with Michelle Wie West, a professional golfer with whom the company launched a jewelry collection in 2023.
“Obviously, going viral is a great moment for a brand,” Kendle said, noting that Wove grew by every metric imaginable after the game. But, she added: “You don’t want it to just be that.”
Kendle spoke in May with biznewsPA about her plans for the company going forward, plans that include testing a brick-and-mortar retail location at its Lancaster headquarters at 617 N. Prince St. and eventually hiring more senior leaders.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
biznewsPA. How many other jewelry CEOs are delivering rings in person to the buyer?
Kendle: Not many! But that’s the care we take. We were talking to an influencer about a partnership, and she was considering a partnership with another big-box retailer. She was asking, ‘What would be the difference?’ And I said, ‘Look, we are a small brand, but you are our actual partner. We are going above and beyond to make sure you have everything you need. We are real humans talking to you about your designs, talking to you about what your audience is looking for. We will be there when you launch. We’ll be there to talk you through every step of the way.’ That white-glove-service mentality goes all through how we operate at Wove. We want to make sure that people are so happy with their experience. Even for me as CEO of this brand, I’m excited to see the delight on that client’s face when he sees that ring for the first time.
biznewsPA: What is your vision for the company? It started with custom engagement rings, but it sounds like you want to take it further.
Kendle: I’ve been thinking a lot about this, especially given the Taylor Swift moment and this culmination of realizing that we are applicable in so many different areas of life, not just engagement rings. For us, the big vision is creating a space where everybody’s a co-creator when it comes to fine jewelry. So, whether that’s your push present for your new baby, whether that’s your engagement ring, whether that’s a class present for a graduation, we are the collaboration company that will help you create that unique piece of jewelry based on your story and our skillset.
biznewsPA: What are some of the steps you’ve been taking to make that vision reality?
Kendle: We’ve doubled down on the custom jewelry access on our site. Before, you would go to wovemade.com, take a quiz, and the quiz understood what you were trying to create, what your budget was, what your timing was, all that good stuff. Now, that flow also includes custom jewelry. You can tell us if you want to build a bracelet, if you want to build a necklace, and then you get assigned a designer. We launched the custom jewelry bespoke process on our site last month. We’ve also launched multiple strategic partnerships, one of those being with FabFitFun (a subscription box company) that launched in May. We allow FabFitFun community members access to a $250 digital offer to come shop at Wove. That’s allowed us to get brand awareness across a whole new segment of people. Sticky, community-driven partnerships like that are really where we’re trying to get the word out in a way that’s distinct. The last part is locking in the next celebrity partnership. We know from the Michelle Wie experience that building a brand in connection with someone who has influence, who is iconic, who has trust in the market will jumpstart any other expansion we want to do. The next celebrity partner will launch a new category of jewelry for us.
biznewsPA: Wove opened its first showroom earlier this year in Lancaster. Do you have plans for others?
Kendle: Our Lancaster office is our test baby. We’re thinking about what that showroom experience needs to be, what elements need to be in that room to make it the best experience. You see a lot of showrooms for other brands, and so we’re just taking stock of what works for us, especially because our biggest thing is the design process. It’s not necessarily trying to sell something, so we’re figuring out what that flow is. But I do believe as we grow as a brand, we will need an omnichannel experience, and that includes some sort of physical presence in places where our clients are.
biznewsPA: Do you have a timeline for expanding that model?
Kendle: Probably in the next one to two years. We’ve only been open a couple of years, and next year, 2025, will be a big year for us. So, I would imagine between 2025 and 2026 will probably be the time we open up another one. I really want to scale that appropriately because brick and mortar retail is a dicey game right now. I want to be thoughtful about how we do that. Some of our competitors have over 50 showrooms in the United States and a couple places in Canada. Do we need that many? And do those showrooms stay forever? Are they popups? I believe 2025, 2026 will be the time where we say, ‘Okay, let’s put a strategy together after we’ve learned from the Lancaster showroom.’
biznewsPA: How does the funding model look going forward.
Kendle: We are definitely going to be fundraising. Our goal is to have our series A in Q1 or Q2 of 2025. But I will say as a seed-stage business, you’re never not raising. Right now, I’m keenly excited about bringing strategic partners and industry veterans onto our cap table. I also plan to hire a senior leadership team. In the next phase of growth, I see us needing a head of partnerships. I see us needing a head of retail. We need production. We need a COO. We need those things, but we’ve got to get to that stage. So, I’m making sure that at every step of growth, we’re being practical about what we really need, but also thinking three steps ahead.
