I quit my finance job and set up LØCI, the sneaker brand loved by Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicki Minaj — here's how I did it

• Emmanuel Eribo left finance to become an entrepreneur, launching two footwear brands.
• In 2021, he cofounded LØCI, a luxury sneaker and apparel brand.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Emmanuel Eribo, CEO and cofounder of LØCI, who worked in finance before becoming an entrepreneur. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I never really considered a job in finance until I went out for drinks one day with a friend.

He was ordering a lot of expensive drinks, wearing a nice suit and shoes and said "Don't worry, I'm a banker." That was a lightbulb moment for me.

I didn't have a financial background as I studied psychology at university. Still, I tried unsuccessfully to get into banking for about eight months.

So, while living rent-free at my mom's house, I decided to buy some books on coding and teach myself how to code. I was lucky enough to get a coding job at HSBC and started programming for the trading floor.

But after a few months, I didn't feel like it was a culture fit and thought I would move on soon. I wanted to be my own boss and be in control, but because of the remuneration and lifestyle that comes with it I stayed in the finance industry for about eight years.

I wanted to get involved in building something I could be responsible for — at that time, it was a venture into consumer products. My brother, and school friend, and I bounced ideas around.

I remember telling my mom I was thinking of launching a business. She told me, "If you believe you can do it, I'm here for you." That was all I needed because I started with nothing, and if I leave with nothing, I'll probably be OK in the end.

At first, I was very afraid to quit my job, but being an entrepreneur, that fear is constant, and you get comfortable with it.

We ended up building a business called Butterfly Twists as a side hustle. It was a ballerina shoe brand we built up as a hobby while we had finance jobs and distributed online. We started selling a lot of shoes, so we quit our jobs and built this brand up. It grew to have an office with 60 employees in the UK and 30 internationally.

Over the next seven years, we learned how things worked in the industry. My time in banking taught me hard work, which was translated into running a business.

Butterfly Twists grew significantly; we were selling in 67 countries, had 32 stores, and sold a million pairs of shoes a year. On the surface, we were doing amazing, but I wasn't in love with the business because I couldn't really relate to it.

I was very proud of what we had achieved, but It felt like I was creating spreadsheets or PowerPoint presentations my entire time. The days of running around with sneakers in the bag and doing deals were long gone.

Building a new brand

During the pandemic, I considered whether I wanted to spend the next few years of my life on this business or do something I loved.

My friend, brother, and I spoke and thought, "Imagine if we could build another business that represented everything we believe." That's when we came up with the idea for LØCI, a luxury vegan sneaker and apparel brand.

LØCI comes from the Latin word "locus," which means center or place and the feeling of being at home. We wanted to build a business where we felt that way and built on our values, so we used repurposed, recycled, and biodegradable materials.

We spend a lot of our resources taking plastic out of the oceans, and from a human perspective, we've built a platform for artists and musicians. We host events at exclusive venues and hold performances with emerging artists.

LØCI is a platform for others, and for me, it allows me to be the person I want to be, express myself, and take control of my life. That's something I don't think working in finance offered me.

During the pandemic, we went to the US and started building relationships. When we launched LØCI in 2021 we had no money but a dream of building a sneaker brand. It wasn't the skillset we had, but we knew how to build a brand.

Since our launch, we've had a significant celebrity following who endorse our products, which was never something I could have dreamed of in the beginning. We've had Leonardo DiCaprio invest, and Nicki Minaj is an equity stakeholder, too. We've also done an exclusive sneaker collaboration with her.

Developing relationships

The worst way to pitch people and network is to cold-call them. I'd never want to be introduced to somebody in that form — it's annoying.

I've found the secret to success is patience, goodwill, being a great person, and enjoying it. People have always asked me how I do it and network, and I say it's organic.

For everything that's happened, five or 10 things haven't happened. We're always working from multiple angles, people, and opportunities. It's better to approach it with "how can I add value to their lives?" That's the first thing that me and my team try to do when we meet people because everybody's got a dream.

Building a brand takes time — you're on a journey and you must ride it out no matter how difficult it gets.