Kendra Scott says she launched her billion-dollar business from her bedroom with just $500—when she was pregnant with her first son

When Kendra Scott launched her jewelry business in 2002, she had no investors, no retail experience, and just $500 to her name. What she did have was a spare bedroom in her Austin, Texas home, a newborn baby, and the kind of determination that turns impossible odds into billion-dollar success stories.

“I built it out of my bedroom,” Scott said in a recent interview with The School of Hard Knocks , which has 5.6 million followers on TikTok. “Extra bedroom in my house, on a card table. 500 bucks, baby. That’s it.”

Scott designed her first jewelry collection while pregnant with her first son, hand-wiring each piece with semi-precious stones. For years, she made jewelry as gifts for her friends, but in the retail space, she’d always felt like there was expensive, or low-quality, but noth