It’s very evident that building a brand that leans heavily on the power combination of culture and community has been a major win for Lisette Scott. The founder of New York-based jewelry brand Jam+Rico launched in 2016 with just $500, and she scaled the business into six figures after four years–all while working a full-time corporate job in the early days.
She eventually transitioned out of corporate life and into full-time entrepreneurship, taking her brand to the next level by participating in opportunities to showcase her collections, interact with customers via event activations, and cultivate a brand presence on social that attracted new customers while re-engaging with the loyal.
Triumphantly pushing through the pandemic in 2020, Lisette continued to offer high-quality Jam+Rico pieces made with brass, gold, silk tassels, and semi-precious stones. Each piece infuses notable aspects of Caribbean life, food, and culture—from elements of nature to popular slang to illustrative currency. They’d ultimately land spots on the favorite lists of Oprah Daily, Essence, and Vogueand in Target’s 2022 Black History Month collection. There’s even a special collection of fine jewelry perfect for heirlooms, like the exquisite Fine Tostones Lariat necklace and the Fine Tropical Tree earrings, both made of 18-carat gold and featuring diamond-encrusted shapes of plantains and coconuts.
The brand recently launched its second collaboration with iconic ‘tween retailer Claire’s, making Lisette’s colorful imprint of Caribbean-inspired designs even more accessible, providing a new generation of girls a chance to learn more about the beauty and richness of the African diaspora. She pays it all forward, advocating for and partnering with other Caribbean women entrepreneurs in the space and serving as events chair for the Black in Jewelry Coalition.
Her Agenda sat down with Lisette to talk about her exit from corporate life into entrepreneurship, the key motivator behind infusing her Caribbean roots into her creative process and business model, and how she’s made it almost nine years later in a very competitive and lucrative jewelry market set to reach a value of $432.8 billion by 2033.
Her Agenda: Your launch of Jam+Rico was partly rooted in the desire to transition out of corporate life and build a business that offers fulfilling work. What was the specific “Aha” moment you had back in 2016 that led you to take action to launch your first collection?
Lisette Scott: A lot of my peers were excited about who they were going to work for next—if they were going to go to a higher brand, like Versace or Dior. They had all these ambitions to get to the next level within fashion. And I realized that I didn’t have that drive or that motivation like they did.
I was like, ‘I wonder why I’m not as excited as I used to be about the industry?’ And I had to do a deep dive to think about what I wanted next. It just relayed that I was missing that creative spark. I was designing for other brands that had their own mission and their own brand identity, but that was never truly what I enjoyed creating. And when you’re designing for those brands, you have to assimilate to what they like and start dressing like what they have for sale or available. And I was just like, ‘This is not what I want to do anymore. These brands don’t exude what I look like, nor are [they] pushing a look that is a little bit more unique and celebrates Black women.’
So, I started to dive into what I wanted to push forward in the next few years of my career within the fashion industry. That evolved into me looking into jewelry again, which I had always had a passion for.
Eventually, it just evolved. It grew. People liked the product. They liked what I was creating. They liked my designs. And I did it for four years working full time.
Her Agenda: I love that. And you got into basically scaling because you mentioned, for four years, you were doing both the corporate and what was then a side business, correct?
Lisette Scott: Yes, yes. I had this great position. I had security, I had mobility within the fashion industry. So I was so nervous, honestly, to decide to take that leap to do it full-time and to pursue it. And I kept pushing my date to quit. It was like, ‘OK, let’s see what happens. Let’s, you know, hold it back a little bit more.’
And I kept honestly putting it on my calendar, and the date would come, and I was just like, ‘Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m ready. And what had happened was, when COVID came about and positions were getting moved around within the company, I had to get let go. And it was more so a realization and the revelation for me to have someone just push me out the door so that I can go ahead and pursue it full time and take that leap.
Her Agenda: Even though you were pushed toward your destiny, by then, you had been running what was then a side business for a few years, so you were able to cultivate the customers. Did you lean more into social media and the fact that people were home? Talk more about the transition.
Lisette Scott: Before everything shut down, we were doing a lot of pop ups—a lot of in-person events. I honestly was leaning more heavily on that aspect of the business because it was easy. I live in [New York City]. There were a lot of opportunities. But once everything shut down, it was like a reset for everyone within every industry. We just had to think of new and exciting ways to connect to the customer.
We started doing [Instagram] Live, started going on social more, started sharing more about the behind-the-scenes [of] what we were working on, the challenges of what was going on and the unknown of what could happen for the business. That really helped the community stay connected.
A lot of influencers and people in the blogging and sharing space found our brand and connected with our story.
Her Agenda: You’ve mentioned ‘fun’ and ‘creative,’ which is what I see with the brand itself, especially that first collection. What was the thought process behind it—the fun of creating the pieces?
Lisette Scott: I’d been designing for multiple brands and sharing their brand mission—their brand story. And I was like, ‘I feel like my story and the Caribbean— the story of the Caribbean woman—should be shared also. So I decided to focus on my identity, which is Jamaican and Puerto Rican, and really dive into what that is as a Caribbean American woman and having these stories of my grandparents from both islands. They both migrated to Brooklyn, [N.Y.], and have these stories of their island traditions— the food, the music, and my upbringing—really drove me to want to connect more with where they were from.
Growing up, it was always, ‘Yeah, we’re from here, this is where our ancestors, our culture, our heritage, is here, but we’re American.’ There’s so much more to learn and discover on the islands that you’re from, and I definitely create that connection.
Her Agenda: Well, that is so true. I do know in Trinidad, for example, getting gold—you get that as a baby. And in Black American culture, getting the Nefertiti bangles and the herringbone necklaces and things of that nature—it was a thing. We had a lot of competition between the cousins when someone was getting, like, a gold bracelet, or your grandmother gifted you, you know, a diamond ring.
Lisette Scott: [Laughs] Ah yes!
Her Agenda: You talked about the cultural connection, along with building your brand and the audience and the customer base. Now, you’re working with an iconic brand like Claire’s. Share more about how that came about. What was the creative process like working with them?
Lisette Scott: In the beginning, I was reaching out to businesses and trying to get our foot in the door. And as we grew, these brands [started] to reach out to us, which [was] amazing.
With Claire’s, we were able to do two collections, one in the spring and one in the fall. They were so great to work with. They gave me 100% of creative freedom, which was really exciting to be able to come in as a new brand.
When they looked up my brand, and they saw that we were all about the Caribbean–all about the islands—the first collection, they were like, ‘Go for it. Share that story about how the Caribbean is a part of this brand identity.’ So that was a really fun collection to do that was very Island-inspired—palm trees [and ] cowry shells. We brought all of that into the mix.
And then for the second collection, I really wanted to connect to the diaspora of Africa and bring the cultural connection of that into how the Caribbean identity has been shaped and formed. And again, they gave me the freedom to design the pieces and share a new collection with them as well. It was wonderful both times to see how we could bring these new shapes, new styles, and unique cultural references into a larger market and how it would be received. And it was phenomenal.
Her Agenda: Where do you see the legacy of Jam+Rico in 10 years?
Lisette Scott: The sky’s the limit for me in many ways because I am somewhat fearless [when it comes to] taking risks and doing new things. I really want the legacy of the brand to show that through craftsmanship—through artistry—we can share our stories, and jewelry has a long-lasting way of connecting and sharing that story. You can pass it on. We started doing more custom jewelry, so we dove into wedding bands and engagement rings. We really want to dive into that custom element more so that we can create things that people are interested in having and sharing with their loved ones or with themselves or creating for themselves.
We [also] want to build more partnerships within the Caribbean. Right now, our focus and our hub has been in New York, but we really want to find new ways to bring artists within the Caribbean, have collaborations [and partnerships] with artists in the Caribbean, and bring more features with the islands that we collaborate with. We’re trying to find ways to connect those dots in the next 10 years, and we want to keep bringing people with us. So, having the retreats and opportunities to do cultural exchanges with these islands is what we really want to share. We think [that] is key to keeping the brand identity alive.
[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For more on Lisette and Jam+Rico’s latest collections (with a new release showcasing Barbados available for pre-order), visit JamandRico.com.]
