TELUS Business presents Grit + Resilience,
a 3-part series on young Chinese Canadian entrepreneurs during COVID-19.

Interviewed and Edited by Jennifer Lau
Written by Mabel Lee
Photography Courtesy of the Author

It was a passion project. I was on the path to be a lawyer in university but I also had an addiction to false lashes. Why? It gave me confidence, similar to how people feel more confident when they wear lipstick. At the time, I didn’t see any good quality lashes and noticed the void in the market. So these lashes were created to make money on the side. (I had accumulated student debt during my undergraduate studies and wanted to use these lashes to earn some money for law school as well.) A friend encouraged me to make a website to sell the products and I kept selling even after graduating. Eventually, my best friend and I went to some tradeshows and that’s when I knew I would dedicate myself to this project.

I was 21 at the time and with that contract, my world became an MBA crash course. I knew that with my age and experience, I had much to learn but I was passionate. 

In our 5-year plan, we wanted to launch at Sephora. We gained enough traction through organic influencers — in the United States especially — and had built a great brand reputation. There was no one out there with the same quality and comfort as our product. Our goal was to be the luxury lash company. When Sephora signed with us, that’s when the company really changed into a business. It’s hard to believe VELOUR is now a 9-year-old company and business.

For me, during this pandemic I learned a great deal. As the CEO, I was nervous when the pandemic hit the city. We had just put our leadership team in place, and immediately had to transition to working from home. With a small business, I really enjoyed seeing the team each day and I think I also didn’t want to let go of the control. But the pandemic made me lean into my team more than ever before. The leadership team really stepped up and they helped grow the business with me and it just proves that the business is stronger when we all work together and lean on one another. It seems our team became even more productive.

For us, 80% of our sales came from stores prior to the pandemic, when they closed, it was tough. I had to furlough our store staff for a while until the government subsidies came to be. It was definitely hard. But we learned to shift our focus and bring our products to customers instead of through retailers. We’ve now shifted our focus and budget to grow our DTC and there’s no longer a ‘long term’ plan. Things are changing every day and so quickly, so our team has learnt to be nimble. We worked on our online strategy and had to keep up with the times!

Coming out of COVID, our company will be moving permanently to working from home! That is probably the biggest change as I saw how well everyone was working and going above all expectations. I look forward to leaning in more on their individual strengths and spending time developing new products.

We can’t wait to see where Mabel will go as she continues to pursue her passions in the next decade.