We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Xiomara Rosa-Tedla. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Xiomara below.

Xiomara, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

In all honesty, UnoEth started on accident. One day, my father, Dagne Tedla, returned home from visiting family in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and gifted me a custom, handmade, leather messenger bag from an artisan he had met. At the time, I commuted from Oakland to San Francisco everyday for work and thought it was perfect to carry my laptop and essential items and be hands-free.

For a month straight, I received countless inquiries and compliments about my leather messenger bag. From friends, family members, co-workers to strangers on the street, everyone wanted to know where my bag was from and where they could purchase it. I then told my father about all the attention the bag was receiving and he said the same thing was happening to him as well! He suggested that we start a business. At the time, I was working a demanding corporate job, a part-time styling job, planning a 200-person wedding and house hunting in the Bay Area, and thought the idea of starting a business was insane.

A couple months later, the messenger bag questions and compliments continued and folks asked when my father was returning to Ethiopia and if they could place pre-orders. At this point, I said, “OK, fine! Let’s start this business!”

My father reached out to the artisan, Muzeyen Siraj, who he had met in Ethiopia, and helped him obtain his leather export license to launch his business. I sketched a few designs, sent them over to Muzeyen, and we finalized on samples and finishes. My father then flew back to Ethiopia with two empty suitcases and came back with them full of the 20 pre-orders from friends and family. After sending out the pre-orders, we received even more requests from friends of friends who had purchased from us.

We took the next steps in building our new, ‘accidental’ brand by setting up a photo shoot, creating an online store on Shopify and officially launching in February 2015. We started small and vended locally at pop-up markets, boutiques and shows. Month over month, year over year, we expanded in our assortment, in wholesale, and partnered with more artisans.

During a trip to visit our artisan partner in Addis Ababa, we had an ‘aha moment’. Muzeyen had just rented his first new workshop for his business. We met his 4-5 employees, saw our products being meticulously handcrafted and witnessed the pride Muzeyen had in showing how much his business had grown. He shared how they planned to expand into apparel, working with different leather and materials, and he thanked us for partnering with him to help launch and grow his business.

At that moment is when we realized that our business was more than just about selling bags. It was about my father and I reaching back to our roots in Ethiopia and creating business and job opportunities that hadn’t existed before. This is when our mission was realized, where we wanted to duplicate our business model and partner with artisans and small businesses all over the globe.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Our brand, UnoEth, is a father-daughter, leather bag and accessories brand based in Oakland, CA. We design casual and classically-styled handbags, backpacks, totes, duffles, fanny packs, home decor and more and partner with artisans in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to craft them all by hand. Our styles are crafted with the softest, yet functional and durable leather from Ethiopia that gets better and better with time and wear. Each UnoEth piece is designed with intention for our customers to wear on their daily journeys and adventure travels.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Our biggest pivot throughout our 8 years in business was at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. At the time, 50% of our business was driven through in-person sales at pop-up events and markets. When shelter-in-place and mask mandates were set into motion, we weren’t able to sell at our planned pop-ups and events at all, which made us completely shift our focus to driving online sales. We invested our time, energy and efforts to social media and online advertising to drive sales through our website.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We started our brand with a simple, $1,000.00 investment in product. For the first year and a half, we kept re-investing our sales back into purchasing more and more inventory to keep up with demand, while I still had my full-time, corporate job in merchandising and my father as a college professor in political science. After I quit my job and took the leap into entrepreneurship full-time, we launched a crowdfund through Kiva and raised almost $10,000.00 through friends and family. We used the crowdfund to invest in more inventory and overhead expenses. We then carefully drafted an extensive business plan with one of our business advisors. A few months later, we applied for our first business loan of $40,000.00 with a non-profit organization called Working Solutions, which partners with small businesses under 5 years old and startups and helps them obtain funding to start and grow their businesses. In addition to funding, they also provided a vast network of resources and business advising for us to learn and build UnoEth. From then on, we paid off the initial business loan, applied for more funding in both traditional sectors and fintech, and we have been awarded multiple grants as well.     

Contact Info:

• Website: unoeth.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/unoeth
• Facebook: facebook.com/unoeth

Image Credits
Samantha Tyler Cooper, 54 Ghosts, Lance Carr