PASCAL’s Adam Hua on Raising $8M, Partnering With Fanatics, and Reimagining the Diamond

Adam Hua’s path to founding PASCAL didn’t start in a jewelry showroom. It started at UC Berkeley studying physics and computer science, ran through an engineering role at Amazon Lab126, and then took a sharp turn into sneaker resale and streetwear, where he built EDGE into a peer-to-peer marketplace with more than 5 million active users and roughly $150M in annual GMV. Along the way, he picked up two convictions that would eventually shape his next company: science can change what a product is capable of, and culture decides what it comes to mean.

In 2022, he brought those ideas together and launched PASCAL, a Los Angeles-born brand built around colored lab-grown diamonds. Backed by nearly $8 million in funding, including $2.5 million from Andreessen Horowitz, PASCAL has grown across DTC, Amazon, TikTok, Nordstrom, and its own Los Angeles store, with an officially licensed Dodgers collaboration through Fanatics along the way.

In the conversation below, Adam talks about what he learned in his first year, how he thinks about product, channel, and cultural relevance, and why he believes diamonds should mark far more moments in life than the ones the industry has traditionally sold them for.

Tell us about yourself and your business.

I’m Adam Hua, the founder and CEO of PASCAL, a Los Angeles-born colored lab-grown diamond jewelry and watch brand. I studied physics and computer science at UC Berkeley and later worked as a software development engineer at Amazon Lab126. 

Before PASCAL, I built businesses at the intersection of technology and culture, first through sneaker resale and later established EDGE, a peer-to-peer streetwear marketplace. In 2022, EDGE grew to more than 5 million active users and around $150M in annual GMV.

Those experiences taught me two complementary lessons: science can change what a product is capable of, while culture determines what it comes to mean. At PASCAL, we bring those ideas together through colored lab-grown diamonds, design, and storytelling. We create jewelry and watches for people who want to celebrate love, achievement, reinvention, and the shining moments that make a life feel more personal.

How does your business make money?

PASCAL is a physical-product business. We design and sell jewelry and watches featuring colored lab-grown diamonds. Customers can shop through our DTC website, Amazon, TikTok, Nordstrom, and our own store in Los Angeles. As we grow, we plan to expand our physical retail presence across the United States.

What was your inspiration for starting the business?

Working in sneakers and streetwear taught me that materials alone never explain why a product matters. Community, identity, timing, and story can turn an object into a cultural symbol. When I looked at diamonds, I saw a category with extraordinary emotional power, but also one still governed by inherited rules about scarcity, occasion, and meaning.

Lab-grown technology created the possibility of bringing vivid diamond colors and expressive design within reach of far more people. I started PASCAL to connect that scientific possibility with culture—to help diamonds celebrate not only engagements and weddings, but also championships, graduations, comebacks, creative breakthroughs, and personal reinvention.

How and when did you launch the business?

PASCAL was founded in 2022. We launched as a digital-first brand and have since expanded across DTC, Amazon, TikTok, Nordstrom, and our Los Angeles store.

How is the business funded? 

PASCAL was venture-backed from the beginning and has raised nearly $8 million in total funding, including $2.5 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in early 2023. Today, the business is financially self-sustaining, with its operations supported by its own revenue. This gives us a healthy foundation for long-term, disciplined growth.

How did you find your first few clients or customers?

We found our first customers through our own DTC website. From the beginning, PASCAL had a distinctive design language that looked noticeably different from most lab-grown diamond jewelry on the market, particularly in our use of color and more expressive styling. That difference attracted an early group of customers who strongly connected with our aesthetic. They were not simply looking for a lab-grown diamond—they were looking for jewelry that felt more personal and reflected their individual style.

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What was your first year in business like?

My first year in business was really a process of learning fast and making mistakes even faster.

I interviewed more than 500 people to build the best team I could across design, brand, and operations. But those interviews also became my education. I realized that one of the fastest ways to learn is to have a concentrated number of conversations with people who are much better than you at something—and that the quality of your questions often determines the quality of what you learn.

I did the same with the supply chain, visiting more than 100 factories to understand how the industry actually worked and eventually find the right partners.

E-commerce and operations taught me a different lesson. I started out thinking almost like a consultant: define the perfect strategy, then execute it top-down. Building from zero taught me the opposite. Sometimes you have to do things that aren’t perfectly aligned with the long-term vision just to get the machine running. Then you learn, adjust, and move it closer to where you ultimately want it to be.

My biggest takeaway was that strategy is a North Star, not a map. Knowing where you want to go matters, but building a company is really about finding the next workable step—and making sure each step takes you a little closer.

What strategies did you use to grow the business?

The first part of our growth strategy has been product clarity. We are not trying to build a lower-priced imitation of the traditional diamond category. We are building a distinct design language around colored lab-grown diamonds, jewelry, watches, and the belief that diamonds can mark many more moments in life.

The second has been channel diversity. Customers can discover PASCAL through DTC, Amazon, and TikTok, shop the brand through Nordstrom, or experience the products in person at our Los Angeles store. Each channel plays a different role: digital creates reach and speed, while physical retail creates trust and a deeper emotional connection to the product.

The third has been cultural relevance. We draw from sport, music, art, architecture, and Los Angeles culture, and we treat customers as participants in shaping what diamonds can mean next. One concrete example is our officially licensed Los Angeles Dodgers jewelry through PASCAL × Fanatics, which translates team identity and a championship moment into colored-diamond products. 

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What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?

The biggest challenge has been confronting the inherited rules of the diamond industry—and changing the way consumers think about what a diamond can be.

The old diamond world was built around mined scarcity, white stones, traditional gatekeepers, and a narrow set of occasions, particularly engagement and marriage. We believe the next diamond world can be built around technology, color, self-expression, and personal choice. A diamond should be able to celebrate a championship, graduation, comeback, creative breakthrough, or any moment that matters to the person wearing it.

Changing an established category requires more than introducing a new product. It means giving consumers a compelling reason to question the old rules and participate in creating something new. That is the disruption PASCAL is pursuing.

What have been the most significant keys to your business’s success?

The principles guiding our growth have been first-principles thinking, product conviction, and staying close to culture. First-principles thinking helps us separate enduring human truths—the desire to celebrate, remember, and express identity—from industry rules that can change. Product conviction keeps the design and quality at the center. Cultural awareness helps us understand how objects become symbols in people’s lives.

We have also worked to meet customers wherever they are, from social and digital discovery to department-store distribution and our own physical retail experience.

Tell us about your team.

We have a small team with about 50+ people, with roughly half based in the United States and the other half working across different parts of the world.

We believe that in the age of AI, a relatively lean team can create outsized value. By using technology to work faster and reduce organizational friction, we can stay focused, move efficiently, and give each person greater ownership and impact.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned growing the business?

Technology creates possibility, but culture creates meaning. A product can be technically impressive and still fail to matter. Founders need to understand the human truth behind a category—not only the industry’s existing rules—and then build a product that gives people a meaningful new choice.

What separates your business from your competitors?

Much of the lab-grown diamond market focuses on white diamonds and traditional engagement or bridal occasions. PASCAL takes a different approach: we focus on colored lab-grown diamonds.

Mined colored diamonds have historically been exceptionally rare and expensive. Lab-grown technology opens up an entirely new creative possibility, making vivid diamond colors accessible to far more people. We use that possibility to build a distinctive design language across both jewelry and watches, drawing inspiration from sport, music, art, architecture, and Americana culture.

We are also expanding what diamonds can celebrate. Love and marriage will always matter, but diamonds can also mark a championship, graduation, comeback, creative breakthrough, or personal reinvention. Just like champagne celebrates the night, a diamond can carry the moment forward.

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What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

Separate enduring human needs from inherited industry rules. 

For example, people will always want to celebrate, belong, express identity, and remember important moments. But the way an industry serves those needs can change. If you understand what must remain true and what is simply convention, you can create something genuinely new without losing what made the category meaningful in the first place.

What are your future plans for the business?

TikTok has become one of our most important growth platforms. We have seen breakout growth there this year, and we plan to continue investing in the platform—not only as a sales channel, but also as a place to introduce colored diamonds to new audiences and learn directly from our community.

More broadly, our next chapter is about making PASCAL easier to discover and experience. We plan to deepen our presence across DTC, Amazon, TikTok, and Nordstrom while gradually expanding our own retail footprint beyond Los Angeles and across the United States.

Our larger ambition is cultural. We want diamonds to become a lasting ritual of celebration—not only for love and marriage, but also for achievement, resilience, creativity, and personal transformation.

If you had to start from scratch, where would you begin?

I would begin with a human truth, not an existing market category. What do people want to express, celebrate, or remember in their life? Then I would use first-principles thinking to separate that need from the inherited rules around it.

From there, I would build the smallest product and story capable of testing whether people want to participate in the new idea. The goal is not to be different for its own sake. It is to give people a better and more meaningful choice.

What are some of your favorite books, blogs, podcasts, or YouTube channels?

Books:

1. Thus Spoke Zarathustra — Friedrich Nietzsche
2. The World of Yesterday / Decisive Moments in History — Stefan Zweig
3. Caesar 
4. My Years with General Motors — Alfred P. Sloan Jr.
5. The True Believer — Eric Hoffer
6. Shoe Dog — Phil Knight

Podcasts & Channels:

1. Acquired — Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal
2. Founders — David Senra
3. Invest Like the Best — Patrick O’Shaughnessy
4. Masters of Scale — Reid Hoffman
5. The Knowledge Project — Shane Parrish