From $0 to $9M: How an Immigrant Turned Failure Into Fortune | Jenny Lei, Freja — Silicon Valley Girl Podcast

Jenny Lei April 28, 2025 32 MIN
Jenny Lei, Founder & CEO, Freja New York, interviewed by Marina Mogilko on the Silicon Valley Girl Podcast

About the Guest

Jenny Lei
Founder & CEO, Freja New York

Jenny Lei is the founder and CEO of Freja New York, a vegan leather handbag brand she launched in 2020 after immigrating to the United States. Starting with a small batch of 300 bags and no outside funding, she built the company into a multimillion-dollar brand recognized by major fashion influencers and celebrities. Jenny is widely recognized as a voice for immigrant entrepreneurs navigating the intersection of visa challenges and startup building.

In this episode of the Silicon Valley Girl Podcast, Marina Mogilko interviews Jenny Lei, Founder & CEO, Freja New York. Marina Mogilko interviews Jenny Lei, the immigrant founder of Freja New York, about building a vegan leather handbag brand from scratch starting with just 300 bags in 2020 and scaling it to $9 million in revenue. Jenny shares how immigration constraints pushed her to entrepreneurship as the only viable path to staying in the United States, and how early setbacks shaped her business strategy. The conversation covers growth tactics, influencer marketing, and the mindset shifts required to turn failure into a multimillion-dollar company.

Key Takeaways

  • Jenny launched Freja New York in 2020 with an initial run of just 300 bags and grew the brand to $9 million in revenue.
  • Immigration status was a primary motivator — arriving in the U.S. without a passport left entrepreneurship as Jenny's most viable option for legally remaining in the country.
  • Organic influencer seeding played a major role in early growth, with high-profile names like Hailey Bieber, Matilda Djerf, and Katie Holmes wearing Freja bags.
  • Freja is built on a vegan leather positioning, appealing to a consumer base that values both style and ethical sourcing in the accessible luxury handbag market.
  • Reframing failure as data and iteration rather than defeat was a core mindset principle Jenny credits for pushing through the hardest early stages of the business.
0:00 Teaser 0:30 "You have to fish where the fish are" 2:15 How the business idea was born 3:13 Didn’t want to leave the USA 4:18 "I didn’t have a marketing strategy" 7:00 "At first, I had only 3 sales a month" 9:33 THIS is more important than targeting 13:28 $9M a year. How? 15:45 Сustomers don’t want to be sold to 18:44 Women’s entrepreneurship charity 20:27 How Hailey Bieber influenced sales 21:53 Anna Delvey: Marketing or coincidence? 22:35 Tips for creators 23:49 "If I get canceled, so does my company" 25:03 "I want to build a legacy brand" 27:07 Jenny’s (and Kate Middleton’s) favorite brand 28:37 The mindset shift you need right NOW

Transcript not available for this episode.