Nishit Mehta is the founder and visionary leader behind La Joya Jewelry, one of the fastest-growing ethical fine jewelry brands redefining the diamond industry. A third-generation diamond expert, Nishit brings over three decades of experience across global markets, supply chains, and luxury retail.
His journey began in Hong Kong in 1992, where he served as CEO of Diamart Ltd, growing the business into a thriving seven-figure enterprise. Later, as a senior leader at Gitanjali Gems Limited, Nishit oversaw global operations and a U.S. retail footprint of over 100 jewelry stores, spearheading acquisitions of prestigious Italian luxury brands and managing large-scale international distribution.
In 2013, he founded Azure Ltd, a direct-to-retailer supplier across Europe, the Middle East, and America, further deepening his mastery of the jewelry supply chain. Recognizing the disruptive potential of lab-grown diamonds, Nishit launched La Joya Jewelry with a bold mission: to democratize luxury by making heirloom-quality, ethically sourced diamond jewelry both accessible and affordable.
Under his leadership, La Joya has quickly become a trusted name in lab-grown fine jewelry, celebrated for its uncompromising quality, timeless designs, and values-driven approach. For Nishit, La Joya is becoming more than a brand but a movement challenging the traditional jewelry industry and empowering customers to embrace luxury without compromise.
Company: La Joya Jewelry
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Nishit Mehta: I am Nishit Mehta, Founder and CEO of La Joya Jewelry. I have spent over 30 years in the global diamond supply chain, operating across Hong Kong, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. La Joya is a vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand. We act as the “jeweler to the jewelers,” leveraging our Mumbai manufacturing unit to bypass traditional retail markups and bring true factory-direct pricing to the market. We specialize in “Smart Luxury”—pairing premium lab-grown diamonds with substantial, architectural solid gold settings for a modern, highly educated consumer.
What was the pivotal pricing insight or experiment that most dramatically improved your company’s growth or profitability?
Nishit Mehta: The pivotal insight was realizing that the modern affluent buyer is not looking for a “cheap” alternative; they are looking for pragmatic financial logic. For decades, the industry sold the illusion of scarcity. We experimented with shifting the budget weight from the stone to the setting. By removing the artificial markup of a mined diamond, we priced our rings so that clients could channel those massive savings into the metal itself—choosing heavy, substantial 14k and 18k solid gold architectural settings, like East-West emerald cuts, rather than the fragile, hollowed-out bands pushed by legacy retailers. Reframing our pricing around structural integrity rather than diamond scarcity attracted a highly deliberate, high-net-worth consumer.
How do you determine the true value your product or service delivers to customers, and how does that shape your pricing strategy?
Nishit Mehta: True value in 2026 is defined by compound interest, not artificial scarcity. We determine our value by comparing our upfront price against the guaranteed depreciation of traditional retail. A natural diamond functions as a consumption expense, instantly losing roughly 50% of its value the moment it leaves the store. We shape our pricing strategy around this mathematical reality. In fact, we built a Future Value Calculator micro-app for our clients to prove that taking the thousands of dollars saved by purchasing a La Joya lab-grown diamond and placing it into a standard investment vehicle completely obliterates the illusory “resale value” argument of a mined stone. Our pricing reflects transparency and craftsmanship, allowing our clients to turn a traditional expense into a wealth-building strategy.
Calculator: https://www.lajoyajewelry.com/engagement-ring-cost-calculator/
Can you share one pricing decision (such as packaging, tiering, or a bold price increase) that felt risky at the time but ultimately paid off significantly?
Nishit Mehta: Refusing to participate in the lab-grown diamond “race to the bottom”. As lab-grown production scaled globally, many competitors slashed their prices to rock-bottom, treating diamonds like disposable commodities and severely thinning out their gold settings to protect margins. We made the bold decision to maintain premium pricing for our flagship pieces, insisting on heavy gold construction and flawless step-cuts. It felt risky to be out-priced by discount aggregators, but it paid off immensely. It solidified our “Lived-In Luxury” narrative—giving buyers the confidence to wear their pieces from the gym to the boardroom without the anxiety of bending a flimsy band.
How do you continuously test and refine pricing without alienating existing customers or damaging brand perception?
Nishit Mehta: We execute a strict, dual-track omnichannel strategy. We utilize Amazon as our volume-driven cash engine for high-quality entry pieces in the $300 to $500 range. This marketplace acts as our testing ground, allowing us to aggressively test price elasticity, promotional tiers, and consumer trends at scale. Meanwhile, our flagship D2C website remains strictly quarantined for high-AOV bridal and bespoke pieces. This separation ensures we can refine our margins and capture market share without ever diluting the premium, expert-led brand perception of La Joya’s core collections.
For other CEOs who still treat pricing as an afterthought, what’s the single most important mindset shift or first step you would recommend they take?
Nishit Mehta: You must accept that the era of information asymmetry is dead. For decades, industries like ours built massive pricing markups because the consumer had no way to verify the data. Today, the buyer sitting across from you has already fact-checked your supply chain, compared your margins across three competitors, and verified commodity gold prices on their phone before the meeting even starts. The mindset shift is this: if your pricing logic cannot hold up to a highly educated consumer equipped with AI and internet access, your model is structurally flawed. Price for transparency, and you will win the modern buyer.
