218 | Empowering People Through Economies of Scale | with Umaimah Mendhro

Umaimah Mendhro is the Founder of VIDA, a global platform offering unique, sustainable, and beautifully design-driven products that aim to positively impact people's lives and overall well-being. 

Umaimah grew up in rural Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - with no access to formal education most of her life - but a deep passion for design and art and a drive to make a difference in the world. 

She paved her way to Cornell University and later Harvard Business School, and built a career in technology, working with a highly select portfolio of game-changing tech companies and managing and growing million dollar businesses. 

Umaimah is also the Founder of thedreamfly.org, a global initiative connecting communities in conflict around common causes with presence across four countries touching over 5,000 lives. 

dreamfly kickstarts seed initiatives that are 100% financially sustainable within one year.

Currently, Umaimah is the Founder and President of One League, a global education institution connecting the world’s highest potential talent with the world’s best opportunities by offering an Ivy League Plus quality education, irrespective of financial means. 

Umaimah has an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar, and a BSc from Cornell University in Human Development with coursework in Computer Science.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• [00:00] Intro
• [01:04] The types of products Vida brings to market
• [02:15] The idea of VIDA goes way back
• [02:56] Creating her own products initially
• [03:58] Noticing the divide between creators and brands
• [05:04] The impetus of VIDA
• [06:16] How Umaimah got started with VIDA
• [08:25] How VIDA achieved product-market fit
• [10:01] How VIDA takes advantage of economies of scale
• [11:34] Sponsor: Electric Eye electriceye.io/connect
• [12:30] Sponsor: JSON-LD for SEO jsonld.app
• [14:15] How VIDA does “digital manufacturing”
• [15:02] Getting customers for VIDA’s designers
• [15:55] COVID affecting VIDA’s manufacturing process
• [18:25] VIDA pivoting to health care because of COVID
• [19:30] Other health-related products developed during COVID
• [21:25] How VIDA products evolved over time
• [22:45] Investing in education and empowerment

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• A collaboration between designers and makers around the world that brings original, inspiring apparel and accessories to you - creating beauty every step of the way shopvida.com
• Connect with Umaimah linkedin.com/in/umaimah
• Take the first step towards Shopify success electriceye.io/connect
• Get your free structured data audit for your store jsonld.app

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