What it's like to launch a business with a friend
Over a glass of wine with a friend, many of us may have toyed with the idea of starting a business together. Very few of us would follow through, least of all to the extent of Claire Ferrini and Nathalie Morrison, whose idle musings over a couple of glasses has become an overnight success story; the lab-grown diamond brand Astrea which was the only jewellery of its kind worn on the Cannes red carpet this year.
“She doesn’t like me to say this, but we were both quite drunk…” Morrison says, laughing, before Ferrini can interject. “I make a lot of wine, OK?” she adds, referencing her existing job, as a manager of her family’s wine estate in France.
The two women had decades of work in finance behind them: Ferrini at Investec and Stonehenge, and Morrison at Coutts and Hay Hill, as both a private banker and a wealth management specialist. Neither of them had launched a brand and both were thinking of slowing down, with a sports team of children between them. It was, in fact, through their children that they met. A classic school-gate meet-cute that fostered a true friendship.
"I had taken some time off work with my youngest, who is now five," says Ferrini. "And we were just talking about what I would like to do next. I said to Nathalie, I've got this hair-brained idea that my grandmother gave me years ago, which is to start producing lab diamonds. And Nathalie had no idea what that was, so I told her, and the whole crazy story."
Ferrini’s grandmother Margaret Coglin was a style icon known as the ‘Grace Kelly’ of Kenya, where Ferrini’s family were based. She was an early adopter of lab-grown diamonds and gave her granddaughter a necklace that she still has today (and wore on her wedding day) telling her she should one day sell them. "They’re the future," she told me, of her family matriarch’s remarkable prescience.
"We both have such respect and love for our families," Nathalie says. "That was the thing with Claire, I had never met a girlfriend with such similar values to me, let alone gone into business with them." She alludes to her own existing project, managing her family’s vineyard in France. You get the sense that, for both, their business ventures are a way of continuing a family legacy.
Nathalie was immediately intrigued and is now equally evangelical about lab-grown diamonds. And Ferrini’s grandmother was right: they could just be the future. The market valued at $224 billion in 2024, is poised to surge to $345 billion by 2032. They are also formally recognised as authentic diamonds, which geologists cannot discern from the naturally mined variety. They are also, of course, overwhelmingly better for the environment. Diamond mining often entails deforestation, water pollution, and destruction of ecosystems, in stark contrast to the all-but minimal impact of the lab-grown variety. The latter can, in fact, now be produced with renewable energy.
The brand launched this year after months of exhaustive research across the world by the two women ("It was so much fun," says Ferrini. "An adventure together!"). Part of Astrea’s USP is Claire and Nathalie's connection and, as such, they insist on control over their company. "At the moment, we are the only shareholders, and we like it that way," says Ferrini.
After decades of working in finance and running their own businesses, they were keenly aware of what they did and didn’t want to do. There have been many learning curves to Astrea, however. While logistically and financially the pair were secure in their knowledge, it was the branding side that proved a new frontier.
"Brand-building is not easy!" Nathalie says. "But we have got PR help and I don't think any brand has been worn four times on the red carpet just two months after launch. We've also had people calling us from all over the world. So, we're going to continue on the front foot, hopefully."
Another connecting thread is the emphasis on giving back. For both women, this was enshrined in them from a young age (Claire’s godmother, believe it or not, was Mother Theresa, and Nathalie runs a charity in South Africa) and they were adamant that their company had a strong sense of purpose to their brand. As a lab-grown diamond brand, sustainability is obviously at its core (one of their slogans is "beautiful diamonds that will not cost the earth"), but Astrea also has a philanthropic arm, investing a portion of its profits in health and education organisations in Africa.
So, what is it like running a business with one of your best friends? "We're on the phone 20 times a day, if not more; the kids and our husbands are closer than ever; and we've never had any problems so far," says Nathalie. "Honestly, she’s the best business partner I have ever had."
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