Creating DiamondHandBag a Digital-First Luxury Fashion Brand — Angel Pui

From creating a marketplace for weddings to launching a digital-first luxury brand, DiamondHandBag, Angel Pui, our guest from the latest episode of Bits & Bites podcast, has always had an eye for new entrepreneurial opportunities in the market. 3x VC-Funded Tech Founder, Head of Strategic IP Partnerships at Big Head Club, and Launch mentor, shares how her passion for computer science and fashion led her to web3.

From Computer Science to Studying Fashion in London

Angel was exposed to engineering and entrepreneurship as a kid: her grandfather ran a factory in China while her dad was a computer mechanical engineer. In seventh grade, together with her dad, she developed the programmable joystick for Street Fighter, and later, sold it to Logitech and Alienware. 

“I was one of those kids. I would run scripts when I was playing my mud game. …I did very well in school — until I hung out with the wrong crowd, a bunch of girls who said: “Oh, you don’t want to be in computer science, do you? That’s for boys.” Since Angel was creative, they encouraged her to choose fashion instead of computer science. Angel’s parents were so disappointed that they didn’t speak to her for years.

Online Marketplace for Weddings and Lessons Learned

Working with brides, Angel often noticed their stress around planning their weddings. To solve this problem, she decided to create a personalized planning and booking service where clients could choose vendors, upload guest lists, and manage budgets. “At that time, I didn’t even know what a startup was because I didn’t go to a tech school. So I was just in my basement doing my coding thing.” 

After launching the prototype, it got featured in the InStyle weddings magazine, and Angel got her first clients. In one of the meetups, she met Mike Tan, an entrepreneur who was working on TeamPages, a SaaS Sports Management Platform. He introduced Angel to Boris Wertz, one of North America’s top early-stage tech investors and the founding partner of Version One Ventures.

Running a New Startup While Raising Two Kids

Angel’s husband worked in pharmaceutical sales. One day, he got the same disease he was selling the drug for. “While this medication was a good option, there were better ones coming out in the pipeline, meaning the drug is being developed in a clinical trial, but not quite out in the market for a patient to experience.” As an entrepreneur, Angel wanted to find the best solution.

In 2016, she started working on Discover Therapies, a digital health startup, together with her husband. It was a three-sided marketplace connecting patients, clinics, and pharmaceutical companies so patients could access all treatment options and clinical trials. 

In the same year, the couple had their first child, and 20 months later, their second one. “There’s no strategy, there was a baby crying: it’s your turn, it’s my turn. Luckily, you know, my husband and I are quite flexible. We’re getting shit done kind of people.” 

In 2019, one of their clients acquired Discover Therapies, and Angel and her husband decided to take a break from entrepreneurship. 

Creating a Luxury NFT Collection for the Next Generation

While Angel’s husband started investing in cryptocurrency, she began collecting handbags. Her idea was quite simple: some luxury bags cost 10,000 USD, and some people sold them for more than 20,000 USD. It looked like a money-making investment, not an expense. 

About Angel