If her Vogue-worthy headshot didn’t catch your attention, THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY will. Casey and her sister are the founders of customizable 3D printed jewelry that is changing a 57 billion dollar industry. If you ever needed a sign to switch up your current career path, THIS IS IT.

Read on to learn Casey’s journey from leaving law school to modernizing the jewelry business.

TECHSESH: You’re at a cocktail party and someone says, “What do you do?” How do you answer?

I really miss having these conversations in person!

Another head-turning photo of Casey wearing THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY ‘s latest collections

My usual response is: I am the co-founder of THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY, a 3D-printed, custom jewelry company with a really cool platform that allows anyone to design their own signet ring in 3D.

The “3D-printed” usually catches peoples’ attention.

I am always wearing at least six of THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY custom signet rings with different designs on my hands at all times. I will usually take off a few of them to show them that each one is different. Then I pull up our Signet Ring Customization Platform on my phone and walk them through adding their initials, doodling their name, or uploading a logo to show the interactivity and ease of use of the web app. I definitely have performed more than one live demonstration.

If I am there with my partner, TFOJ CMO Jake Hougaboom, we have developed a pretty effective routine where one of us is explaining our vision and demonstrating our platform, while the other hands our rings and business cards around to the group.

TECHSESH: What inspired THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY?

The real inspiration behind our brand was a plain signet ring that my sister wanted to buy to commemorate a summer semester abroad together. In the Summer of 2016, I was 28 and my sister Nina was 24. We had just finished our 1L year of law school. We both had worked in the law in the intervening years between undergrad and entering law school in 2015, so we knew that summer would be the last time we would be able to study abroad. In law school, your 2L summer is when the fierce competition begins for lawyer/clerkship jobs. We knew this was our last “hurrah.” So we both applied and were accepted to a comparative law program at Oxford University in the UK. Neither of us had ever spent a significant time abroad, and we were so excited--we planned to take full advantage of those ten weeks together.

Casey (left) and her sister, Janine, leaving for their Summer abroad in June 2016

One weekend, we were hunting for matching souvenirs in Spain when Nina spotted a plain gold signet ring she liked. The ring was too big for her fingers, but (luckily) it did fit me. I bought it and we both watched as the shop owner hand-engraved my initials on the face. I LOVED the ring. I never took it off. I felt bad and wanted to try and surprise Nina with a similar one in her size for Christmas that year.

I honestly thought that I would be able to easily find a match for Nina online in her small size and within my price range. Signet rings have been around for thousands of years. We had thought for sure that there would be a company that offered custom and quality engravable signet rings in a range of sizes. I was shocked at the lack of quality and affordable options that also offered Nina’s size.

I brought this to my sister’s attention. After discussing it and doing our own research, we realized there was a void in the market-- one that existed due to the high cost of skilled craftsmanship necessary to create custom jewelry pieces (like signet rings) in the past. With the progress in technology made in recent years, we believed they could automate this customization process through software development and manufacture each ring to order using technologies like 3D printing...and so THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY was born. We incorporated in February 2017, took leaves of absence from law school, and we never looked back.

THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY’s design feature, here we’re customizing the TechSesh logo in 14k Rose Gold

TECHSESH: As a CEO, what are the pros and cons of working from home?

Because of the nature of our business model, TFOJ has operated as a distributed remote team for the past four years, and we have done so effectively. So we were accustomed to working between home and our loft office headquarters even before the pandemic. While it is definitely a pro to have the option to work remotely from home, I find that I am more easily distracted.

TECHSESH: Now that you’ve created your own company, could you ever go back to working for someone else?

I don’t think so. I’ll never say never, but it would be quite an adjustment. I think anyone who knows me would tell you that I am not very good at being told what to do, and that personality trait pre-dated the founding of TFOJ by decades. After working for myself for the last four years, it would be even more difficult.

TECHSESH: Everyone must want to “pick your brain” about being a female founder. How do you decide which random emails to answer?

I am bad at responding to those kinds of emails! I definitely read all of them--I might even craft a response in my head--but I rarely follow through to respond to general “pick your brain” questions.

TECHSESH: What have you found is the best way to lead your team?

I am the opposite of a “helicopter” boss. I treat my team like adults and as I would like to be treated if roles were reversed. Take our developer team, for instance. They operate as a team of five under the leadership of our CTO Thanos Saringelos. I trust my CTO to run his team in the manner he sees fit. We are in constant communication about long-term and short-term priorities, upgrades, bug fixes, and future projects on our Slack channel, but it is still his team to run and operate on a daily basis. And we check in twice monthly with full team meetings via video chat.

TECHSESH: How has being a founder changed the way you shop?

Even before I was a founder, I always loved trying new products or emerging brands. Since founding THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY, I have made a conscious effort to support more emerging products and startups--especially those founded by women and people of color. I am also much more empathetic to how difficult logistics can be at times, so I would say I am more patient and understanding if a package arrives late or if a mistake was made during processing.

TECHSESH: How do you champion other people’s ideas while staying true to your vision?

THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY vision is to make creating one-of-a-kind jewelry easier, more accessible, and affordable for all, starting with our signet ring customization platform. As a CEO, it is in my interest to encourage and incentivize team members to freely share their ideas. It makes our platform and our company better. My team tracks the suggestions for improvements to the existing platform and keeps a list of ideas for future features or apps in JIRA. Sometimes those features are not feasible at the moment or maybe there are other, more pressing, tasks that need to take precedence. But I always value others’ input. I have no bias as to whose idea it was that makes our platform better, I just care that it does continually get better.

TECHSESH: What about helping female-led businesses while still focusing on your own success?

During the pandemic, my “uniform” has consisted of black leggings and matching tank top with either THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY merch or a hoodie/sweatshirt from a women-owned business, podcast, or professional athlete or league. It’s something small, but it is a way to financially support them while also spreading the word. Most recently I have added to my rotation, which now includes my pink & red AMBITIOUS crew neck from Phenomenal (by Meena Harris), my orange WNBA hoodie with the Lisa Leslie logo on the front, and my oversized bubble-gum pink hoodie from Glossier (led by CEO Emily Weiss). I tried but couldn’t find merch for one of my favorite women-founded and -led businesses, Canva (led by CEO Melaniew Perkins). Canva’s cloud-based graphic design platform is so easy-to-use and has the best templates for everything from presentations and Instagram stories . I have recommended that platform to many people. I try to lift others up.

TECHSESH: What’s your smartest work-related shortcut or productivity hack?

Listening to content! Like a lot of people, I picked up taking long walks to break up some of the monotony of being home all the time during the pandemic. I love listening to all genres of podcasts from tech/business Pivot (hosted by Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway) to sex/comedy Whoreible Decisions (hosted by Mandii & Weezy). I listen to a lot of articles on the Audm app, and a lot of books on Audible. Recently, I also discovered the awesome “Build Volume” group on the audio app Clubhouse that has brought together a lot of voices from the 3D printing and additive manufacturing industries. I listened to a lot of live CNN coverage during the election on TuneIn. Whatever I am listening to, when I am exercising and enjoying good content, I feel like I am being super productive.

TECHSESH: What are 3 words to describe your personal brand?

Risk-taker, Curious, and Strong-willed

WHERE CAN WE FIND YOU AND THE FUTURE OF JEWELRY!

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/caseymelvin

https://www.linkedin.com/company/thefutureofjewelry

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefutureofjewelry/

https://TFOJ.com/