Amalfa Founders Ishita Ajmani & Neha Walia on Building a Bootstrapped D2C Jewelry Brand in India 💎👑

“Two girls can’t work together.” That’s the one myth about female founders that Ishita and Neha want to break, because, as they put it, they’re a force together. 💪

In the latest episode of Inside A Hustler’s Brain, I visited the Chandigarh office of Amalfa, a bootstrapped D2C jewelry brand founded in 2023, and sat down with its co-founders Ishita Ajmani (an engineer and digital marketer) and Neha Walia (a fashion designer). 🎙️ This conversation ran so long we split it into two parts. 🎬

Ishita described their journey in one word: roller coaster. 🎢 Here’s the full story, from a failed first business to celebrities wearing their earrings.

📊 In this episode, we unpacked:

• 🔥 Rising from the ashes: a shut-down business and a forced rebrand
• 🔄 Transformational jewelry that switches roles with you
• 🛡️ Hypoallergenic, anti-tarnish and “no questions asked” returns
• 💸 Why affordable luxury can’t cost ₹500
• 🌟 Celebrity orders, PR and customers as influencers
• 🤖 How AI speeds up creatives and design
• 👑 What “alpha woman” really means
• ❤️ Love stories, fears, money and advice to their 18-year-old selves

🎥 Watch the full episode:

🔥 The Amalfa Origin Story: Rising From the Ashes

Ishita and Neha met through their husbands, who are business partners. They bonded over the same jewelry frustrations: pieces that tarnished, were low quality and served just one purpose. They also travelled a lot together and kept swapping jewelry, until they said: “Come on, let’s start something in jewelry, because we love jewelry.” ✈️

The road wasn’t smooth. They started with another business idea that collapsed, and in 2023 they had to shut that previous company down. Then, just as they had built a good customer base, someone told them the brand name was theirs, so they had to switch names and start again. ⚖️

That’s why the Amalfa logo is a phoenix, rising from the ashes. 🐦‍🔥 And the name itself? It says “I am alpha.” Today, Ishita says, the trademark and everything else is in place.

Every time, we stood up stronger. That was the main thing, and we are here now.

Ishita Ajmani, Amalfa

Ishita’s husband is Rohit Ajmani, whom I interviewed earlier about scaling Facebook ads at Idea Clan. In Part 2, Ishita and Neha talk about having watched their husbands go from struggling on a bike to staying awake 48 hours at a stretch to build their business. 🙌

🔄 Transformational Jewelry: One Piece, Many Roles

The biggest gap they saw: jewelry solved just one purpose. An earring was just an earring, a necklace just a necklace. Amalfa wanted pieces to be transformational. 💡

Many Amalfa pieces convert. A necklace can be worn as a bracelet at the office, then switched back to a necklace for an evening coffee date. Neha showed a necklace with removable parts: wear it as a pendant at home, or fully styled at the office or a party. 👗

Neha, the fashion designer, says her eye wasn’t “shaped” so much as trained by observation: how deeply you look at things to find an edge. They add that other brands with good quality lacked unique designs. 🎨

Their logic is that a woman may play four roles in a day, and one piece should cover all four.

🛡️ Amalfa’s Quality Promise

Comfort was personal. Ishita used to end up with itchy ears and neck from artificial jewelry, and in India’s sweaty weather that’s a big problem. So Amalfa made hypoallergenic, anti-tarnish pieces with high-quality plating a priority. 🌡️

They describe it as jewelry you can sleep in, which matters if you’re sleeping next to a child. When I guessed that Ishita’s bold bracelet was real gold, she smiled: it’s gold-plated, and that’s exactly the reaction they want from customers. ✨ One of the founders said a ring from their first collection has been worn almost daily for about a year and a half.

Their customer policy is just as firm:

• 🔁 No questions asked returns, even when they suspect a piece was worn and returned
• 📦 COD is available in tier 1 and tier 2 cities, along with return policies
• 🛠️ When feedback reveals a design issue, they’ve changed the entire next lot
• 📞 Their customer care team’s first instruction for a negative comment: call the customer and solve it

Everything else can bring you the first sale, but the quality will bring you the next five sales.

Amalfa co-founders

The comment that powers them right now came from a customer who bought one of their necklaces: “You have got a customer for life. We love the design and the quality.” 💬

💸 Why Affordable Luxury Can’t Cost ₹500

The biggest misconception, Neha says, is that people want luxury quality for ₹400-500. Behind every piece is a design team, artisans, machines and materials. 🧑‍🎨

So Amalfa keeps most pieces around ₹1,500-2,000, with higher ranges too, but nothing below that, because they refuse to compromise on quality. You want unique designs and thick plating with two or three coatings? Then it can’t cost ₹500. 💎

International shipping isn’t live yet, but they said they were starting very soon, on a new domain. 🌍

🌟 Celebrities, PR and Customers as Influencers

Amalfa’s first celebrity order came from Divyanka Tripathi, and the team was thrilled. Since then:

• 🎵 Sanya Malhotra wore their earrings in a Diljit Dosanjh song
• 🤝 Collabs with Dhvani Bhanushali and, most recently, Pooja Hegde
• ⭐ Huma Qureshi ordered, and Madhuri Dixit started following them
• 📰 Features in Vogue, and earlier in The Times of India, Hindustan Times and The Daily Guardian

On influencer marketing, they invest a little every month, but far less than most brands. For them, customers are the influencers: paid creators make videos because you paid them, while your own customers give honest feedback, and that looks real. They expect to do more as the business needs velocity. 📣

To make online shopping feel personal, every product page shows the piece in different situations, with a saree, at a party, in the office or with a casual suit, plus a video and “shop the look” styling tips. They’ve also started adding real, unfiltered customer photos to landing pages. 📸

🤖 How Amalfa Uses AI

The video description calls Amalfa India’s first jewelry brand to use AI in design. In the conversation, they explained that their background is performance marketing, where Meta needs creative velocity, so they use AI for creatives. AI also helps them modify designs faster. ⚡

Next on the roadmap: an AI “try it on yourself” feature, and maybe an AI avatar at checkout that suggests “this will go well with that too.” 😄

On jobs, they compared AI to the computer revolution. It’s not AI versus humans, it’s people with AI knowledge versus people without it. Ishita’s recent favourite tool is Claude; Neha likes Lovable for website work, plus the latest ChatGPT. They expect many more startups, because AI turns a 10-day job into a few hours. For more on this, see Siddharth Ajmera’s take on AI and jobs. 🤖

👑 What Being an Alpha Woman Means

Amalfa’s mission is to celebrate “the Alpha in every woman.” Neha points out we always picture alpha as male, like the alpha wolf. But today’s women, whether homemakers, business owners or professionals, lead whatever they do. 💪

Alpha is not about being the loudest. It’s about taking ownership of whatever you are doing.

Neha Walia, Amalfa

Neha sees a drastic shift in who buys jewelry: from mostly men gifting it to women, to, by her estimate, around 90% bought by women for themselves. Ishita says feminism in fashion is mostly about comfort and feeling confident. 👗

On motherhood, they say it taught them patience, multitasking and ownership: “Nobody is going to take care of my son. Nobody is going to take care of my business. It’s me.” Neha was honest about the hard days: “I have been on the floor of the bathroom crying.” But her kids, family and brand are worth it, and her team is her support system. ❤️

For another founder who built a global brand, read how Marisha Lakhiani grew Mindvalley. 🌍

❤️ The Personal Side of the Amalfa Founders

💑 Two love stories

Ishita, from Himachal Pradesh, was a software engineer at Infosys when she met her husband at a club with friends in 2017. One look, and she knew. They married in 2021, delayed a year by Covid, and her first baby came in 2024. 👶

Neha met her husband through a school senior in 2012. He was so focused on marriage that when she wanted to wait, he simply didn’t chase her, and that’s when she knew he was different. They married in 2016, and she now has two sons. 💍

💰 Money, fears and a lottery

• 💵 Does money buy happiness? Both said yes. As one put it: “It’s better to cry in a Mercedes than on the road in the rain.”
• 🎯 Enough money? Around ₹100 crore would be enough for one of them; the other just wants to look at the left side of the menu, not the prices
• 🎁 If they won a lottery: 50-60% into an Amalfa NGO for children’s education and food. Neha, a former government school teacher, has seen kids with potential but no facilities
• 😱 Biggest fears: lizards for Ishita, getting badly sick for Neha
• 📚 Neha’s books: Ikigai, Atomic Habits and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

🗣️ Advice to their 18-year-old selves

Neha: “It will all be sorted one day.” What feels huge now will look tiny later, so don’t overthink. Ishita: make mistakes, be whoever you are, and face the challenges, because they make you who you are. 🌱

On culture, they give the team freedom to fail, just make a new mistake each time, and they ask for feedback often. Their favourite and least favourite part of the job is the same: being the boss. 😄

🚀 Advice for Founders and Where Amalfa Is Headed

Their advice for new founders: don’t chase perfection. Put what you have on the table, work on it and learn in the process. Perfection comes later. 🛠️

In five years, Ishita wants Amalfa to be customers’ first choice, known for top-notch quality and value for money, at the top of India’s affordable luxury list. Neha’s answer: “Same. The vision matches. That’s why we are partners.” 🤝

For more Indian founders who bootstrapped to scale, read Udit Verma on building Trackier and Alex Micol’s ecom secrets. 📈

📝 Key Takeaways From the Ishita Ajmani & Neha Walia Interview

• 🔥 Amalfa rebuilt after its founders shut down an earlier company and were forced to rename the brand
• 🔄 Its core idea is transformational jewelry: one piece for many roles
• 🛡️ Hypoallergenic, anti-tarnish, well-plated pieces are non-negotiable
• 💸 Most pieces are around ₹1,500-2,000, because real quality can’t sell at ₹500
• 📣 Customers are their main influencers, and real customer photos build trust
• 🤖 AI powers creative velocity and faster design changes
• 👑 Alpha means ownership, not being the loudest

❓ FAQs About Ishita Ajmani & Neha Walia

Who founded Amalfa?

Amalfa was co-founded in 2023 by Ishita Ajmani, an engineer and digital marketer, and Neha Walia, a fashion designer. The brand is bootstrapped.

What makes Amalfa jewelry different?

The founders design transformational pieces, like necklaces that convert into bracelets or pendants, and focus on hypoallergenic, anti-tarnish, high-quality gold plating.

How much does Amalfa jewelry cost?

According to the founders, most pieces are priced around ₹1,500-2,000, with some higher, and none below that range.

Does Amalfa use AI?

Yes. They use AI for performance-marketing creatives and to modify designs faster, and plan an AI try-on feature on their website.

Which celebrities have worn Amalfa?

The founders mentioned Divyanka Tripathi (their first celebrity order), Huma Qureshi, Sanya Malhotra, and collaborations with Dhvani Bhanushali and Pooja Hegde.

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If Ishita and Neha’s story gave you even one idea, share it with a friend who’s thinking of starting a brand. One conversation can change someone’s life. 💬

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