An Interview With Melissa Llarena

The perfect episode for a budding business owner or corporate leader responsible for rapid innovation and an easy to adapt strategy in light of recent seismic market changes. This is the story of a woman who takes mentorship seriously and knows how to adapt to change in a fast-paced world at the intersection of tech and fashion. Meet Adina Jacobs. She co-founded STM Goods back in 1998 with her business partner Ethan. They were early pioneers in developing protective backpacks and laptop accessories at a time when not everyone had personal tech. Getting their business off the ground took a lot of persistence and finding their audience.   Over the past 22 years, STM has expanded globally, undergone a major rebrand and launched a virtual AR app – which has given Adina lots of insights and business learnings she can share. Most recently, with many businesses moving to a remote setup, the demand for protective accessories for digital devices grew almost overnight, seeing a surge for the products STM had long been