That October - autumn 2019, freshly graduated and job-hunting, I opened a little Etsy shop selling music boxes while I figured out what came next. For me, a young international graduate in a foreign country where she had no clue how to navigate the job market, what happened was a Christmas miracle.
Everyone fell in love with the idea of a customised music box!
A name engraved under the lid, a wedding date, a line from a first-dance song — and before I realised it, Christmas orders were pouring in. Soon after the Christmas and Valentine's season ended, right at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, I took a full time job as a software product manager and ran the shop alongside it for a few years.
But some ideas keep badgering you.
At the end of 2024, I began building a proper home for my shop on an independent website. Then, in April 2025, life made the decision for me: my product manager role was made redundant. And I couldn't help but hear a whisper: Here's the runway, go build your dream. I put my redundancy payment into the business and went all-in.