22-year-old Hogoé Kpessou was born in the West African nation of Togo before moving to the US as a child. While in the States, peers made fun of her name, a name that she soon grew to dislike due to the ridicule it brought. However, her dislike of this name would change when she took the leap from being an Uber Eats driver to starting a company making luxury bags, which she eventually named “Kpessou”.
Hogoé was granted $10,000 from her mother to start her business, and now is nearing seven figure worth of revenue from her company before the end of 2023. Her bags are crafted with skill and have an iconic emblem of a golden bee. Currently, Hogoé runs the company alone, but plans on hiring a handful of people soon to help relieve the stress that comes with single-handedly running a luxury brand.
It is estimated that the brand is “seeing a 3,900% transaction increase… [while] social traffic has grown 31,000% and direct site traffic climbed 50,000%” (www.businessinsider.com). Hogoé Kpessou used her skill of making bags to make her name, which she was once ridiculed for, a name of luxury and inspiration.
Very cool story about how she was able to build an entire brand from getting bullied because of her name. Its extremely impressive how she is able to run a near 7 figure business alone. It’s very rare to see people turn something that they were once ridiculed for into a name and brand.
this is another very inspiring story. It is amazing to see her build off of something she was insecure of and now it is becoming a popular brand name. I have heard of her luxury handbags before.