We recently connected with Dr. Juliette Nelson and have shared our conversation below.

Dr. Juliette, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

NURILENS really came out of my growing love for unique eyewear and needing cost-effective eyeglass solutions. I worked in South Korea almost 10 years ago. During my time there, I discovered that I could get a pair of prescription eyeglasses at an exponentially lower price than in the U.S. I also was able to create a collection of unique styles in different shapes and colors that allowed me to express myself.

When I came back to the states, I continued to add to my collection; ordering frames from South Korea and having the prescription lens fitting here. In late 2018, I learned that gamers use blue-light-blocking lenses as protection from them sitting in front of the computer for hours on end. This led me to dig a bit deeper into blue-light-blocking lenses and realized that that would be a value add to students and professionals who spend hours using electronics.

From there, I began to be intentional about coming up with sketches for the designs, identifying a business model for filling prescriptions for customers like myself, and eventually launching the company.

Ironically, when I formed my first company, JUNURI, in 2018, I jokingly prayed and told God that the next pair of frames I purchased would be one I designed, and here we are.

Dr. Juliette, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce NURILENS to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

NURILENS offers wooden eyewear. It’s a unique approach that combined style + function + impact that offers a sustainable pair of eyewear, offers cost-affordable vision solutions, and also encourages customers to be impactful in all that they do. As in my experience, customers are often faced with significant costs for them to enjoy well-needed lens features, including blue-light filters, UV protection, and glare protection, among others. NURILENS offers ALL of our frames, whether prescription or nonprescription, with those premium features as our standard of quality. This also allows for more transparency in pricing for our customers.

Our mantra is “see through the lens of your purpose”. This is our commission to our customers to be vision and impact-oriented in all that they do. Everyone has a purpose on this earth and through our brand, we pass that challenge over to our customers. As a brand, we believe that our purpose is to increase awareness about the field and the importance of eye health, especially for Black and Afro-Caribbean communities where resources may be lacking.

As an Afro-Caribbean/Latiné, woman-owned brand, NURILENS hopes to create opportunities for others in the eyewear industry as well as the professional field.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

This question excites me because I work as an industrial-organization psychology practitioner during the day. This field applies research to understanding employee attitudes, behaviors, and needs, and takes a strategic approach to address employee needs to foster engagement, motivation, productivity, and psychological safety in the workplace.

I have a very small team of no more than ten members. I have to say that I am blessed to have people who also believe in NURILENS’ mission and its purpose. But one of my biggest priorities is to ensure that they have a workspace to thrive and do their best. Here is some of my advice from my experience:

(1) Acknowledge that as a business owner, you’re not perfect and you do not have all of the answers. You too can make mistakes and also make decisions that impact your team. Be willing to receive feedback from your team members and set a plan to take accountability.

(2) Have a one-on-one conversation either annually or bi-annually about what your team members need to thrive in their workspace. It allows you to be proactive in fostering a healthy work environment for them.

(3) Diversity & Inclusion also means diversity of thought. Welcome opposing thoughts, ideas, and opinions. You never know, which idea helps the business take off.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

I am the sole owner of the company, but my right hand in the company is Karl, who happens to be my godbrother. I’ve known him since he was a baby so we’ve grown as practically family. When I was planning the launch of NURILENS, he approached me about doing an internship on the team because he was interested in growing as an ophthalmology professional, to which I agreed.

He helped establish a process for filling our prescriptions and also putting out messaging that would support our customers in making informed purchase decisions when they placed their orders with us. Eventually, that progressed into Karl coupling our customer questions/feedback and coupling it with his professional experience working as an ophthalmic technician and proposing strategic recommendations that would enhance the customer experience. This formed a partnership between myself and Karl where we could combine my business and research focus with his eye health focus to grow the business and optimize the customer experience.

While I have known him for over two decades, this partnership in NURILENS has been a fruitful journey. When I look back, that was probably one of the best decisions I could have made for the company.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nurilens.co/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/nurilens
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nurilens/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nurilens
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nurilens
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKYuQP6HNdkDXB-IckPf4Kw?app=desktop

Image Credits
CThru Lens Dexterity Productions