Soha and Aubree Javaherian.
He’s the 10th generation in a long line of jewelers. In fact, his name means “family of jewelers” in Farsi. “My grandfather is a jeweler, all of my uncles are jewelers — but I am the first one to be born here in the U.S.,” says Soha. “The rest of my family was born in Iran. So I joke with my brother that I could be president, but he can’t.”
Growing up, Soha traveled to Iran to visit family and see the way they worked. He became a diamond grader at the Gemological Institute of America and worked at Tiffany & Co. But Soha wanted to break the mold and do things differently. After graduating from UW-Madison in 2010, Soha and his wife, Aubree, started thinking about launching their own business. With his background in gemology and her eye for design, they worked together to create their startup. “We wanted to be a modern jeweler, by millennials for millennials,” says Aubree.
(Left) All diamond wedding bands are made with lab-grown diamonds and 100 percent recycled precious metals. Love My State necklaces are available in white, yellow, or rose gold.
That meant rethinking the traditional jewelry gallery to cater to a younger, Web-savvy generation. Rather than investing in a brick-and-mortar store, with sales staff and inventory, Soha Diamond Company has what the couple calls a “clicks-and-mortar” store. Clients can browse the gallery of options online, then connect with the Javaherians via Skype, Google Hangout, or other video call options. They can customize jewelry virtually, then have wax models made before ordering to get a feel for how the product will look in real life. “Millennials expect transparency,” says Soha. “They want to do the research and shop on their own terms.”
The Javaherians are passionate about being a socially conscious jeweler. Their designs use 100 percent recycled precious metal, and all of their gemstones are lab-grown. The stones are chemically and physically identical to the ones mined from the ground, but they come without the shadow of human-rights abuse. “A million children still mine for metals and gemstones as we speak,” says Aubree. “And since we only sell lab-grown diamonds, we know that a child didn’t mine for our gems.” A one carat lab-grown diamond typically starts at about $3,500.
The Javaherians run their company out of a one-room office in the StartingBlock Madison entrepreneurial hub at the new Spark building. The space fits the company model perfectly. “We work really well together, which is good because we spend all day together,” says Aubree. “We work on the business every day, and we talk about work and our dog. This is our life, and it feels great. It’s been rewarding to be creative.”
Soha Diamond Company
821 E. Washington Ave.; By appointment daily, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
800-608-0476; sohadiamondco.com
