With a small budget but lots of motivation, we combined our skills — design, communication, and a bit of trial and error — and launched Upani in less than four months. From day one, I took care of the naming, branding, digital strategy, and the full design of the e-commerce, which I built on Shopify. We also explored areas I hadn’t tackled as deeply before, like email marketing automation, retention strategies, and content creation, learning on the go and adapting constantly.

Upani became my personal sandbox, where I learned what it really means to launch, grow, and sustain a business. Today, the brand still serves a small community of loyal customers, and all orders are prepared and shipped from my family’s perfumery in Vitoria. Even if it’s no longer a full-time project, it’s one of the experiences I’m most grateful for — both professionally and personally.

One of the hardest lessons I had to learn was letting go of the need for perfection in design and shifting my focus to sales and business growth. As a designer with a trained eye, it was tough for me to leave things «good enough» instead of perfect, just so I could dedicate time to other critical areas of the business. It was a challenge to evolve into a «Swiss army knife» of skills, but that experience helped me grow beyond just design and taught me how to prioritize what truly matters for a business.