088: Lisa Hu (Lux and Nyx)

Lisa Hu on Innovation City

“Life is short and if don’t take the chance, you’ll never know.” — Lisa Hu

Welcome to Innovation City—powered by Venture Cafe—where Tyler Kelley and Michael Johnson, Co-Founders of SLAM! Agency, interview innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency in cooperation with Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community. Venture Cafe is the largest combined gathering of entrepreneurs and innovators anywhere in the world. Events are held every Thursday in St. Louis, Miami, and other leading innovation cities around the globe.

Today’s guest is Lisa Hu, Founder & CEO of Lux and Nyx. Lux and Nyx is a luxury hand and travel bag company that creates products with a social conscience. Lisa sits down with the team to discuss how she came up with her business idea, the importance of staying organized and creating a business plan, the demands of being a full time entrepreneur, how to network and market a new product, scaling up her business and her next steps for growth, and much more!

They discuss:

• Lisa’s corporate background spanning more than a decade
• Documenting her first year startup journey
• Lux and Nyx’s name origin story
• Her on-the-go lifestyle led her to create a bag that could keep up with her
• Researched and shadowing her manufacturer
• Her biggest challenge in leaving the corporate world was the fear of the unknown
• Her internal struggle to explore her passion or to stay on her steady corporate path
• The importance of creating a business plan
• Understanding that the true cost of a startup is about 2-3X more what you might plan it to cost
• The demands of being a full time entrepreneur
• Getting featured in Forbes twice this year: Link 1 & Link 2
• The importance of networking and marketing when you’re selling a new product
• Finding a balance of getting the word out but not being annoying about it
• Finding a way to get in contact with press
• The little details of her products that set them apart from others
• Lux and Nyx bags are made from eco-friendly materials
• Scaling up her business and her next steps for growth
• Give your passions all that you can
• Be prepared for both positive and negative feedback
• You will know when it’s time to go after your passion when you can’t stop thinking about it
• Reach out to Lux and Nyx on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, & their website