Just Make a Choice

Sometimes in business, making a choice and moving on can help you immensely to get ahead.

In case we haven't met, my name is Marija and I'm the founder of ROBE—a lingerie startup currently in its product development phase. Right now, I'm working on revising the second sample and developing the third.

When I started this journey, I knew little about supply chains. My strengths lie mostly in the creative side of business and strategy. The supply chain humbled me to my core. It's endless back-and-forth with factories, attending trade shows, networking, following up. It all comes down to making a choice every day and sticking to the plan.

It took me a while to truly understand how a bra and knickers are made. I knew them as a consumer, but diving deeper meant asking countless questions. Or maybe I learned most when manufacturers started asking me questions.

Sample knickers fitting, February 2026 in Hong Kong

I chose a pretty difficult category. Recently, I spoke with an amazing founder named Karin, who owns Once a Day, a tailoring business creating elevated everyday essentials for men. She shared the same sentiment: "Well, we chose a tricky category because it requires a very high level of craftsmanship." She reminded me that this is all part of the game. And it really is.

I'm now one year and one month into formally developing my products and bringing them into the world. I genuinely love this work. As a consumer, I was so frustrated with the maternity category that making the choice to enter this business was probably the hardest part.

Now, there's no going back. Commitment, learning every day, and connecting with other founders has been essential. So is pivoting when needed—and sticking to choices when you see they're working.

Now, onto the next sampling phase: sourcing the exact shade of fabric and finally adding the hardware I designed.

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