Meet Angela Melfi, the Co-founder of Threads Worldwide

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for reading our fifth blog post. We are honored to have Angela Melfi, the co-founder of Threads Worldwide, featured on our blog!

Angela is co-founder and CEO of Threads Worldwide, a social enterprise that puts income and resources into the hands of impact-driven women in 9 countries including the United States. She oversees operations, marketing, and the sales field at Threads Worldwide. Angela has 10 years of experience in the digital marketing and technology sales space and holds a B.S. in Biology & Psychology from Tufts University in Boston. Angela is the proud mama of two amazing kids and is proud to have visited 54 countries!

Before developing Threads Worldwide, Angela entered the business world as a member of the sales team of Ethology, which was formerly Engine Works. Angela spent her time at Ethology honing her skills in hard sales, mainly cold calling. She got used to reaching out to CEOs and gained confidence in the unpredictability of every call. Now looking back, Angela’s thankful for the uncomfortable cold calling she had to do as she gained an immense amount of experience from it. At Ethology, she also dabbled in digital marketing but quickly realized that it wasn’t her forte and couldn’t imagine herself doing this for the rest of her life.

Although Angela was trying to find her passion in different job roles, weirdly enough, Angela’s eventual journey in entrepreneurship started on a plane, traveling around the world. Her hunger for adventure is really what accidentally introduced her to a hidden passion. Angela took a sabbatical from her job working in sales at Ethology and ventured to India for 3 months to find the peace she wanted. Angela’s urge to visit Nepal and Bhutan is what lead her to witness the beautiful pieces being developed in these areas. She noticed how all of the individuals in the area had immense artistic and creative talent, however, they were not receiving equal amounts of economic success. While noticing the community-based culture that the workers were used to, she felt a sudden feeling of belonging, like the whole purpose of her travels had led her to this point. Angela realized that this is what she wanted to do full-time, channel her creative passion and quit her job to pursue it. However, when returning home and telling her close friends and family about her ambition, she faced a lot of skepticism because of how risky the entrepreneurial world can be. So instead, Angela decided to work on her business passion as a side job to see if she could commit to such a risky job investment. Only 6 months later Angela had grown her side project to a full-fledged start-up, and she realized that the only thing holding her back was the fear of failing. She decided right then and there that she was going to quit her job in sales and build her project full-time, which is what she’s been doing till today.

When developing her business, Angela originally went to trade and buyer shows, showing off her handmade and fair trade section. Early on, Threads Worldwide thought that amplifying their impact at these shows and via sales were best done by trying to have artisans from every country, eventually getting goods from 27 different countries, however, Angela quickly learned that they were spreading themselves too thin. Not only was Threads Worldwide not making enough sales, but the women and artisans who they were trying to benefit from were not getting enough stable income. Learning from these problems, Threadsworld Wide narrowed down the number of artisan partners and focused on giving them more consistent orders, as that was the best way to help them economically. Angela also had to work on choosing artisans who could make the most diverse and popular items, to also ensure that Threads Worldwide has enough funding to sustain itself. To choose the best artisans, Angela started to develop individual relationships with the artisans, including communication via email, zoom, and WhatsApp. Although some of the artisans don’t have electricity, these forms of communication are still accessible as many of them have access to the internet, which empowers female artisans to take control of their economic condition.

One of the biggest goals of Threads Worldwide is expansion, as it allows for their impact to reach a wider audience. Currently, in countries like Bolivia, women are trying to grasp onto any opportunity possible to escape the cycle of prostitution that many of them are trapped in. Companies like Threads Worldwide help provide another option of financial stability for these women and company expansion would increase the need for more employees. One of the best ways that Threads Worldwide can do this is via their direct sales model, called the Elevation Ecosystem. This system has allowed women to get involved in the US, bringing their unique gifts and talents, to help expand Threads’ mission. The Elevation Ecosystem has allowed individuals to buy Threads Worldwide products and sell them to people in their community.

Angela has always wanted Threads Worldwide to place a strong emphasis on improving the situation of economic instability that women in developing nations live in. Women in developing nations on average invest 90% of their earned income back into family development. This means, that the majority of the artisans were living in dire situations of economic hardships. Angela wanted to positively impact this in some way, she wanted to provide these artisans with jobs that gave them pride and confidence in their work.

While developing the Elevation Ecosystem, Angela realized how much joy she was experiencing communicating with women and building the inclusive community of strong women Threads Worldwide was made of. In her prior sales job, Angela’s job was primarily commission based, so she was never given the chance to develop a strong bond with the people she worked with. However, when developing Threads Worldwide, which is a majority female-dominated space, she felt a strong connection to those around her.

Although she had a strong group of women supporting her, Angela still faced a variety of obstacles when developing her business. Angela had little experience working with imports and exports and faced lots of issues dealing with international development. Additionally, she faced struggles working with technology and finding out how to pick designs online.

Then came the dreaded disease that halted the development of every sector in the world, COVID-19. Covid added a whole slew of new issues and affected those most economically vulnerable in society, the artisans who depended on the import-export chain for stable income. Many tourism-centered countries were faced with unprecedented circumstances and faced a large loss in income. For example, Indonesia and Bali were 2 countries whose economies were severely harmed due to the lack of travel that was being conducted. Many of the artisans had to move home from the city, and the government gave them no financial support. They started asking for 100% of the payment when the order was placed, rather than the traditional 50% before and 50% after the product is shipped, as they could not afford to create products without the additional financial support. Angela worked to shift her business model to adapt to the unforeseen circumstances that COVID brought and downsized to a small crew to truly maximize profit. After cutting the extra expenses that the company was making, Threads Worldwide was in a stronger financial position to support the artisans and create company-wide profit. This strong economic foundation is what helped create Threads Worldwide into the international free trade business it is today.

When looking back at the development of her career, Angela wished she would have explored her passions earlier. If she could do it all over again, Angela expresses that she would have started her business immediately instead of letting her fears and doubts cloud her vision. Angela’s advice for young entrepreneurs is straightforward, JUST START. Hone your skills and passion, and just go for it. Indulge in fruitful conversations with individuals who are passionate about the same things you are and try to learn as much as possible about the venture you’re wanting to start.

You can support Angela by posting about Threads Worldwide, buying its amazing products, and spreading its message to people who like to buy sustainably and are interested in hand-made items. We urge you to check out Thread Worldwide’s work on threadsworldwide.com and encourage your family and friends to buy their sustainably made handmade goods.

Thank you for reading our post!