We were lucky to catch up with Joan Dao recently and have shared our conversation below.

Joan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

Honestly, I wish I started later but I’m grateful I started at all. I started this as a student project university with no real experience in fashion, engineering, technology. let alone how to start a business. Needless to say I was severely underqualified and delightfully naïve. I was a neuroscience student on the brink of dropping out. My immigrant mom was robbed in broad daylight on my birthday and pissed off enough to do something about it. My parents were not particularly supportive about the endeavor considering my job was to be a student and I wasn’t even doing that well.

I’m sure going to school would have been an easier and smarter way to learn than by “trial by fire”. Certainly having built some funds beforehand would be super helpful. But I don’t know if I would be willing to risk as much as was when I was in my early twenties. I’m grateful for all the adventures and people who were willing to take a chance on me.

Joan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Ilesovi mission is to provide luxurious security through peace of mind. We developed high tech luxury handbags that are timeless and unique so women are free to live their lives to the fullest knowing their personal items are safe where ever they go. We are most proud of debuting in NYFW F2023 and patented in US and China in (in 2022-2023). We are looking forward to developing the necessary infrastructure and relationships to manufacture our flagship line and sell to the public.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

“It can’t just be whatever… the problem won’t solve itself and avoiding it just makes it worse.”

I want to say that student projects are fun. The early parts of ideation for a company are also fun. But you can’t run a company under the same expectations as a chill student project. Company requires more engagement and clear expectations. I wanted to be a chill person leader that gets along with everyone and is super understanding. Leadership that is whatever, chill laisse faire leads to nothing. There’s a line between flexible and doormat and I had found myself quickly in the second camp and missing on milestones which killed morale.
I needed to fire my team or have clear attainable/tactical goals that my team of free students could actually reach. But I was being unclear and didn’t want to look like the bad guy. I ended up being an even worse leader by avoiding very obvious team issues that I ‘t didn’t follow through with boundaries and consequences. I also didn’t support my team adequately with resources. It was an all around mess.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I think I’ve had multiple hard resets in the last 5 years but the one that sticks out was when I was hospitalized for a later discovered brain abnormality. I was in my last year of university and beyond burnt out. I wasn’t taking care of myself and suffered from severe migraines about a month from finals (great timing I know). My body couldn’t handle the abuse I was putting it through ( early morning and late nights, barely sleeping, caffeine by the pots, overbooked schedules, unbelievable amounts of pressure/stress) and for better or worse, it revolted. No medication was working. ‘t way I was running my life in hustle culture was quite literally sending me to an early grave if I didn’t do something to change.

I had to start over and slowly learn to take care of myself and learn what I wanted. It meant no more rushing and saying yes because people asked. I had to be more intentional and efficient with my time and energy. I had to learn to reclaim myself. These days I make sure I have things in my calendar that are just for me. I schedule in rest, In fact, I actually use a schedule near religiously. Its still a work in “prog-mess” but taking a few steps back to build some structure has helped give me direction and hope.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ilesovi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilesovi_inc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilesovi/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ilesovi-inc/

Image Credits
Nance Musinguzi for headshot Vivian Tran for product shots