Alyssa Kuchta is the founder and designer of fyb jewelry and the author of Follow your Bliss: Wisdom from Inspiring Women to help you Find Purpose and Joy with Quarto Publishing. Alyssa started her business in college in 2011, and under her leadership, fyb has grown to encompass a thriving brand ambassador program and a network of 500+ nationwide retail partners. Alyssa’s work has been featured in international publications including Vogue, ELLE, The TODAY Show, CBS News, and the Huffington Post. She runs the company today with her husband Sam and female-led team at their Brooklyn HQ. 

  • You started FYB Jewelry while still in college, studying psychology. How did leaning into your network of friends and sorority community help grow the business in those early days, and how did that shape what FYB has become today?

    I can’t imagine starting fyb in those early days without the love, confidence, support, and excitement from my sorority sisters and friends on campus. My college community was how I built our first customer base, awareness for the brand, and overall inspiration for collections and brand direction.

    After I had graduated, a few younger girls in my sorority reached out about internships and wanting to continue to grow the brand presence on campus. That’s what sparked our campus brand ambassador program that we ran for several years in the 2010’s and grew across Universities nation-wide. It was a very grassroots, word of mouth marketing strategy early on built from this network.

    So many of our big milestones also came from my network of college friendships - from one of our first editorial features, to landing our first big retail partner, to a feature on CBS News. It’s also been so rewarding to stay in touch with so many customers from those early days who went from buying sorority jewelry with us to bridal pieces to wear on their big day. Creating this positive female community within our brand has made this journey all the more meaningful.

  • Can you tell us a little about yourself? Anything you want to share from your child/young adulthood in China to creating a life and building a family in the US?

    I grew up in Chengdu in a family of 5 kids living in a 2 bedroom apartment. My mother and father were both doctors, so I was raised with that being that path set forth for me too. At 16 I left home, and eventually moved to Chongqing for medical school. I learned how to be very independent and survive on my own at an early age. After medical school, I moved to Beijing and became an Anaesthesiologist. China at that time was just starting to open to the west, and we were seeing how much of a better life people had in the U.S. I started dreaming of opportunities to pursue a better life for myself and my family. 

    I was the first in my family to immigrate here, but had to start over from scratch. I was able to come through an exchange scholarship program at St. Joseph’s Hospital, but my medical credentials didn’t transfer here. I couldn’t speak English and I didn’t have friends or family to lean on. Having Alyssa encouraged me to work hard and do whatever I had to do to survive here and eventually create stability and security for us.

  • You’ve shared that your mom is one of your biggest inspirations. In what ways has she shaped who you are — as a woman, a founder, and now a mother yourself?

    My mom is a tough cookie. She’s brutally honest, hard working, fiercely independent, proud, strong, at times very stubborn (haha), but with the kindest and biggest heart. She’s experienced so much adversity and hardship in her life, but has always moved through challenges with grace and come out on top.

    A lot of her life was lived in survival mode - navigating life in the U.S. at age 35 as an immigrant who couldn’t speak English, climbing us out of poverty and a tumultuous marriage to my father, and raising a young daughter without her friends or family here to support or help her. My mom worked hard, saved, invested. She put me through college entirely on her own so I could graduate with zero debt. She’s always been my living role model of what’s possible when you believe in yourself, and that you can change and pivot your life at any time. 

    So much of my ambition and grit comes from her, and as a mother, I’m 100% the tiger mom that she was with me.

  • What has your experience been like navigating entrepreneurship alongside motherhood? Do you have any advice for women balancing ambition, family, and the many roles they hold?

    It is definitely not easy, and the saying “it takes a village” couldn’t be more true. My biggest piece of advice is to make sure you figure out your support system and child care plan early on. You can’t do it all, and there will be days you’re able to be productive and show up for your business, and days you’ll have to be okay with surrendering to being behind on things because you had to prioritize your family.

    You also don’t have to sacrifice your ambition or lose your identity to motherhood. It’s so important for me to still feel like “me” and not lose myself too much. Having solo time or time with your girlfriends, is incredibly important too (for your sanity!). 

  • Are there any lessons, values, or stories you hope Alyssa carries with her — and perhaps passes down to her own children?

    Always be who you are. Be honest to yourself and to your friends, to your family. Work hard. Believe in yourself and who you are, don’t pretend you’re someone you’re not. Save money. Freedom is being financially independent. Never compare yourself to others.

  • Congratulations on baby number two on the way! How has your understanding of motherhood evolved over time — from watching your own mom, to now raising a two-year-old and growing your family?

    Motherhood is something I think you don’t fully understand until you’re in it - or at least I definitely didn’t. I have so many moments now where I’m like, wow I really understand why my mom was like that! (haha) Nothing prepares you for the love, the anxieties, the messiness, the beauty of it all. You learn just how strong you are, and find new multi-tasking superpowers you didn’t know you had in you. I feel so bonded with my friends that have children, because I feel like we’re all in this club of mutual unspoken understanding. 

    I love my son Rory more than anything, and I can only imagine how much more that love will expand when our daughter arrives.

  • If you could gift your mom one piece of jewelry for mother’s day, which piece would it be? 

    My mom is very classic and simple when it comes to jewelry. She loves a matching set, so definitely the Mae Pearl Earrings and Mae Pearl Necklace set is what I’d pick for her. She also never takes off her Initial bracelet with an R for Rory that I gave her when he was born <3  

  • So many young women feel pulled between the path they thought they’d take and the one that feels more authentic to them. What advice would you give to someone pursuing a passion project or carving out a less traditional career path?

    Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” 

    A book that I really love is Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo, and in the book she has an excerpt about exactly this. It’s the idea of thinking through the worst case scenario and fears you have surrounding pursuing your passions, and in doing so realize that you’ll always be able to handle whatever outcome occurs. When you have a fallback plan in place, which for me was knowing I could always apply for jobs, taking that risk feels a lot less daunting.

    You have to also really love and believe in what it is your pursuing, and have a big vision for the life you’re wanting to build, because it is not easy. There will be countless days of overwhelm, feeling unsure of yourself, and considering giving up. But when your vision is so clear and you enjoy your day to day work, you have a different level of motivation and desire - a magic sauce if you will - that will help you overcome challenges that come your way. The path less taken is harder, but all that much more rewarding in the end. 

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