Eric Ryan

But I think that's the right approach, the way he's thinking about it.

Ben, what I love what you're doing is you're putting a fresh spin on jewelry.

I mean, you're really creating digital jewelry.

And jewelry has always been about expressing oneself.

And what I love about the light approach is you're actually allowing people to express how they feel in that moment.

And I think there's something really, really powerful in that.

But you're also running the risk of becoming a one-hit novelty and also just getting run over by fast followers from China and Etsy.

So I think being really thoughtful about how you build a brand around this

and really laddering up to like, what is the big idea here?

Because the big idea is not jewelry that lights up.

I think the big idea is how this allows you to express yourself in a way that's always been inherent and true to jewelry, but it hasn't been done before.

And you're just applying a modern approach to that.

When people use the product, how do they really express what they love about it?

What does it give them?

Well, one thing I can tell you is the right time to raise money is when you don't need it.

And you're also kind of solving an imaginary problem right now, which is to take capital or not take capital.

But you don't know yet if you can even raise capital for this.

And so my advice would be don't worry about the decision to raise or not raise.

I would start reaching out to investors and really go into those conversations, not trying to prove yourself, but really improve yourself, like going in and really listening and understanding.

And the great thing is like you don't actually have to ask for the money because if anybody's excited about it, of course, they'll always offer to invest.