More than 200 people climbed the vertiginous three flights of the trendy Norwood Club, to hoist a glass of champagne and celebrate the latest “one-night only,” The Art of Shopping pop-up store. On this night, five women entrepreneurs, all with complementary luxury products from vintage eye wear, handbags, women’s and men’s fashion to affordable art, enthusiastically greeted the steady stream of customers.
This was the second pop-up store in the last few months for EbK Eyewear (now rebranded as Kajal London) Founder, Kajal Sanghrajka. 
There are many stories here, and a video can easily be devoted to each of these intelligent, focused and impassioned entrepreneurs on how they continue to build their businesses.
In the video above we speak to three entrepreneurs, Kit Hickey, Co-Founder, Ministry of Supply, an active men’s wear clothing line created from Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Tze Chun, Founder of Uprise Art, a website that links artists with budget-friendly art collectors; and Erika Emeruwa, CEO and Creative Director of Emalle, the must-have handbag for the working woman. For a video on Kajal Sanghrajka and EbK Eyewear, please click here. One other company, a women’s line for working fashionistas, M.M. LaFleur, was not featured in the video, but we want to make sure its mentioned. Check out their phenomenal site here.
But the real story here is the power of collaboration that help these women, not only build their businesses, but create this pop-up store. Sanghrajka is an alumna of Columbia Business School. Chun is a graduate from Columbia College but they never met on campus. It was attending the happy hours at the startup incubator, Columbia Business Lab, where Sanghrajka is the Co-Founder that they struck up a friendship. Chun mentioned to her Milton Academy classmate, Hickey, about the pop-up store, and Hickey was in. A graduate of M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management, her business, Ministry of Supply is based in Boston, MA and she was keen for exposure to the New York market. But it turns out she might not have needed to make the New York trek, from the New York Times article about her company, Hickey has exceeded her expectations.
The collaboration behind this pop-up store is another shining example that if you are going to achieve anything worthwhile in this world, the power of networking and collaboration is key.
Can’t see it on Vimeo? Watch it on YouTube.