Editor’s Note
This profile of Ring Concierge founder Nicole Wegman details how a $2,000 investment grew into a $175 million business by building trust and redefining accessible luxury for a new generation.
The story of how Ring Concierge turned trust and accessible luxury into a global brand.
Nicole Wegman founded Ring Concierge to bring affordable luxury to millennial jewelry shoppers.
Like many future brides, Nicole Wegman spent frustrating months searching for the perfect engagement ring with the man who would become her fiancé. It wasn’t that she couldn’t find the right cut, color, or clarity after multiple visits to New York’s Diamond District; what discouraged her was the entire process itself. Months later, Wegman finally found her dream vintage ring—with a 4.5-carat Old Mine Cut diamond—in a small boutique in the district.
At 26 years old at the time, Wegman knew she wasn’t alone. After her wedding in 2013, she became what she herself had been looking for: a ring concierge. Born in New York and a fashion design graduate from Cornell, she began advising friends and other women on ring purchases in the back room of a jewelry store in the same Diamond District that had so frustrated her before she said “yes.”
After a few months, Wegman knew she had a business on her hands. That same year, after brief stints in product development at Macy’s and as a buyer at Bloomingdale’s, she launched Ring Concierge with an initial investment of $2,000 to form an LLC, buy a web domain, and make business cards. At that time, she charged approximately a 10% commission for sourcing stones and designing rings for her clients.
The company grew organically through word of mouth and social media, and a few years later expanded into jewelry production.
Thirteen years later, Ring Concierge reached $113 million in annual revenue. The business, valued at $175 million according to Forbes estimates, has been profitable every year except 2024, when rising gold prices affected margins. Currently, fine jewelry (precious metals like gold and platinum, and genuine gems like diamonds) represents 80% of the business, while the bridal segment accounts for the remaining 20%.
The company designs engagement rings, divorce rings, and other high-end jewelry pieces worn by celebrities like Olivia Culpo, Hailey Bieber, and Simone Biles. It also handles a wide variety of custom orders, from setting inherited diamonds to embedding a moonstone in a ring for a proposal made aboard a spacecraft.
That personal touch—often filled with emotion—is an essential part of Ring Concierge’s DNA. To better navigate the complex and traditionally male-dominated world of diamonds, Wegman enrolled in courses at the Gemological Institute of America and recruited two mentors who agreed to share their knowledge and introduce her to their suppliers in exchange for a share of profits from each ring sold during the business’s first two years.
In 2017, Ring Concierge expanded its offering beyond engagement rings and launched its online store. Despite the company’s name, Wegman states that the best-selling product is the Mini Diamond Tennis Bracelet, priced at $1,000, followed by the Classic Diamond Tennis Bracelet ($2,500) and Classic Diamond Earrings ($1,700). She defines its positioning as “affordable luxury” aimed at millennial women.
Wegman attributes much of the brand’s success to its early presence on Instagram, before many competitors adopted the platform as a marketing channel. The social media strategy, which often features her as the face of the brand, drove organic growth and helped build what she calls Ring Concierge’s competitive advantage: “trust at scale.”
The pandemic marked a key turning point by altering how people buy engagement rings. The global diamond jewelry market, valued at $80 billion, had traditionally been physical. But when mall stores, local jewelers, and major retailers closed in 2020, digital brands like Ring Concierge were well-positioned to benefit from the shift towards online shopping.
