Meet 33-year-old Al Sandimirova,
the founder of Automic Gold.
Automic Gold is a fine
jewelry company that
makes and designs pieces
for queer, trans and
non-binary people and
people of different body types.
Al started their
business as a side hustle
in 2013 and grew their
sales from $165,000 to
$4.8 million.
In 1998, when Al was nine
years old, Russia went
through one of the worst
economic crises since the
end of the Soviet Union.
Due to malnourishment at
11 years old, Al broke
their back and was
paralyzed for two years.
At the same time, they
struggled with gender
norms at home.
To escape mental and
physical abuse, they
moved to the U.S. in 2009
on a student visa.
They were supposed to
live in Maryland but
stayed in New York illegally.
Al says they made $4 an hour
working at the gold refinery.
To make extra money,
they began their
side business in 2010
reselling jewelry online.
But Al began to realize
that none of the pieces
they were selling were
jewelry that they would
wear themself.
Al attended classes at
the Gemological Institute
of America from 2011 to 2013.
Al began selling their
own jewelry designs on
eBay in 2013.
That year, they brought
in $165,000 in revenue.
The following year, after
expanding to several
other online marketplaces
like Amazon and Etsy,
their sales jumped to $1.2 million.
In 2016, Al officially
launched Automic Gold as a
brand and brought in over
$2 million in online sales.
Al began selling their
designs exclusively
through the Automic Gold
website in 2020.
They also opened a booth
at a Manhattan artists market
iin 2017, but in 2020
it was permanently
shut down due to the pandemic.
Al now employs 15 full time employees
and two part time employees.
Automic Gold finished up 2021 with about
$4.8 million in sales,
their best year yet.
Last year, Al spent about
$762,000 on their
employees wages,
including their own salary
of about $128,000 a year.
Automic Gold also
spent over $2.2 million
on reclaimed gold and
about $580,000 on
advertising. After those
costs and other expenses
like rent, shipping and taxes,
Automic Gold finished 2021
with a net profit
of about $66,000.