Lindsey Massimiani Pepe, a career marketing and communications professional, launched her own jewelry company in 2020 after being laid off amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
After a brief foray back into the corporate world, Massimiani Pepe is now looking to grow the business, called Studio Twenty Nine, and land larger retail partnerships.
Though the company was the result of unfortunate circumstances, it built on years of working with entrepreneurs. More than creating a space for herself in the industry, she hopes her story inspires others and serves as an example of persistence.
Massimiani Pepe spent much of her marketing and communications career at Temple University, including early on at its Fox School of Business. Her first role there was in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute, where she was tasked with helping startups.
After years in various roles at Temple, Massimiani Pepe’s career eventually led her to a national hospitality company. There she continued to work in marketing and communications, but with a focus on restaurants and cultural institutions – all of which were hit hard by Covid-19. Early into the health crisis, Massimiani Pepe was furloughed and ultimately laid off.
During that time, she began considering her options, such as creating her own agency, something she said she wouldn’t have done had the circumstances not been what they were.
“I personally am not the kind of person who ever would have left [a secure full-time job],” she said. “My identity was wrapped up in my career.”
To her surprise, Massimiani Pepe found business inspiration that took her in an entirely new direction. One day that July she was trying to fix a piece of jewelry and while looking at it she recalled thinking, “I bet you I could make this.”
It turned out she could.
More than just making a single piece, she began making multiple pieces of jewelry. Soon, Massimiani Pepe decided to turn her newfound interest into a business, launching Studio Twenty Nine in August 2020 as a direct-to-consumer brand.
While the business launched on Aug. 29, the name is actually a nod to Massimiani Pepe’s street number. “When you build a business from your kitchen table in the middle of the pandemic, I named it after that,” she said.
The brand – which is based in Washington Township in South Jersey – offers necklaces, earrings, bracelets and anklets. Necklaces range from those with initials or zodiac signs to designs featuring flowers, the sun or a compass. Necklaces are priced from $42 to $99. Earrings include a range of hoops that start at $20 and max out at $119.
She envisioned Studio Twenty Nine as having a mix of bold pieces and everyday staples that could be “this outward reflection of who you are as a person,” she said.
Studio Twenty Nine launched with a big push on social media, as well as on e-commerce marketplace Etsy.
The company grew organically in its early days, with Massimiani Pepe’s network being big supporters. “I had so many people, friends and former colleagues, people that I had worked with who knew my story, who knew that I had lost my job and who kind of just rallied behind me to help spread the word for this,” she said.
In turn, she is using the brand as a way to uplift others. The company’s tagline is “Designed to give you the confidence to be bold and unapologetically you.” Massimiani Pepe’s own story is part of it, but she wants it to serve as a reminder to women going through any number of difficulties that they can find strength within.
“We pick ourselves up and we brush ourselves off and we figure out how to basically redefine ourselves and create an entirely new story,” she said.
She added, “[Jewelry] felt like it put me in a space to be able to have a platform to sort of support and empower other women, female-owned businesses, small businesses.”
Fittingly, it was her network and another woman-owned business that helped push Studio Twenty Nine to new heights. Through a contest during the height of the pandemic, Philadelphia events venue Old City Social offered space to local companies to showcase and sell their goods.
The April 2021 pop-up helped put Studio Twenty Nine on the map. To pay it forward, Massimiani Pepe invited several other small women-owned businesses to showcase alongside her.
“In terms of growth here, that was a game changer,” she said.
The brand was stocked at Local PHL prior to it shuttering and Massimiani Pepe is now looking for local retail opportunities, whether through wholesale or consignment. Her ultimate goal, she said, is to land in major department stores or retailers like Nordstrom, or even be acquired.
“Having that opportunity, you reach a wider audience and it's great to be able to direct people there when they're looking for something in person,” she said.
Studio Twenty Nine ships internationally, but the vast majority of consumers thus far are in Greater Philadelphia. It has also gained traction in states such as California, Florida and Texas.
After a short hiatus to dip her toes back into the corporate world last year, Massimiani Pepe is focusing on growing Studio Twenty Nine through e-commerce, retail and events. She also has launched a similarly named marketing consulting business, S29 Consulting.
With all her energy once more focused on the brand, she's hoping to rebuild momentum. From her first year to her second year in business, Massimiani Pepe said she doubled the brand’s growth. That stalled last year when she returned to the corporate world, and in 2023 she wants it to return to its prior level before growing the brand beyond that.
Currently the sole employee, over the next one to three years she said she “would like to grow this to the point where I can have employee number one.”
