Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Davis.
Danielle, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Our story began in 2015 in a small room with a rocking chair and one crib. I had three little kids and next to no free time, but somewhere in the middle of all of that, Hashtag DNA was born. I remember kneeling beside that rocking chair and asking Heavenly Father if starting this business was the right thing to do. Through faith and trust in God, I decided to take the leap.
I started Hashtag DNA as a creative outlet for my inspirations, dreams and personal style, but it quickly became about something much bigger. I discovered how much I loved helping women feel amazing in what they were wearing. That passion became the heart of Hashtag DNA and is still what fuels me today.
One year later, Cynthia Hollis joined the DNA team, and together the yin and the yang took off. Cynthia was good at so many of the things I wasn’t, and I brought strengths that were different from hers. Our passion for unique design, creativity and collaboration brought our vision and products to life.
What started beside that little crib eventually grew beyond anything I could have imagined. At one point, we were doing around $2 million a year in sales through Jane.com alone. It was an incredible season, but more than a decade of entrepreneurship has taught me that success is rarely a straight line.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about being an entrepreneur, it’s that you win some and you lose some. I don’t think you can truly build something without experiencing both. In fact, the longer I do this, the more I believe that almost all success has some kind of failure behind it.
Failure is often what leads you to success. It forces you to change, teaches you things you could never learn when everything is going right, and pushes you toward opportunities you might never have considered otherwise. Most importantly, it makes you appreciate the wins so much more when they come.
I remember finding what I thought was the perfect warehouse and being devastated when someone else got it. A friend told me, “Sometimes the worst things can actually end up being the best things for you.” I ended up in a different building and found one of the very best business managers I could have possibly asked for. I’ve carried that lesson with me ever since.
Years later, Jane.com went under while owing our company a substantial amount of money. We still had customer orders waiting to be fulfilled, and even knowing there was a very real possibility we wouldn’t be paid for them, we shipped those orders anyway. Our customers had trusted us, and we weren’t going to make them pay the price for something they had nothing to do with. Financially, it made an already difficult situation harder, but I’ve never regretted choosing to take care of our customers.
Life and business continued to change. Cynthia’s family grew and eventually she needed to step away from the business. After years of having someone beside me whose strengths complemented mine so perfectly, I had to learn how to pivot again.
I used to think success meant getting everything right. Now I think success is being willing to get things wrong, learn from them, pivot, rebuild and keep going. Some of the things that felt like my biggest failures at the time have ultimately become the experiences that shaped me the most and moved me toward where I needed to be next. After more than ten years, I don’t fear failure the way I once did. I’ve learned to trust that it may simply be part of the road to whatever comes next.
Through every version of Hashtag DNA, one thing has never changed. I genuinely love helping women feel good about themselves. That’s the special sauce behind our brand.
Today, I’m especially passionate about denim. I don’t just want to sell you a pair of jeans. I want you to put them on, look in the mirror and think, these are my jeans. I want you to feel confident, comfortable and completely yourself in them. Hashtag DNA. Style is in your DNA.
My family has grown from three children to six, including one precious baby we lost, and Hashtag DNA has grown and changed right alongside me. My faith in God has carried me through motherhood, loss, success, failure and especially the seasons when I couldn’t see what was coming next. I’ve learned that faith isn’t knowing exactly how everything is going to turn out. Sometimes it’s simply trusting God enough to take the next step anyway.
And as I’m writing this, I can literally hear the little cha ching on my phone telling me someone just placed an order. More than ten years later, I still get excited every single time I hear it. There’s a real woman on the other side of that notification who chose to shop with us, and I’m genuinely grateful for her.
I love what I do. I still believe deeply in Hashtag DNA. I’ve learned to appreciate the wins, learn from the losses and trust that even the hardest chapters can have a purpose. After everything this journey has taught me, I have so much faith in what’s ahead.
“Life is a gift from God. Give freely, love fiercely and watch your dreams come alive.”
Danielle Davis
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not, and I don’t think entrepreneurship is supposed to be a smooth road. After more than a decade of doing this, I’ve learned that you win some and you lose some, and almost every success has some kind of failure behind it.
One of our biggest challenges came when Jane.com went under. At the time, Jane was a huge part of our business model, and the collapse resulted in roughly a $100,000 hit to our company. We also had customer orders that still needed to be fulfilled. Even knowing there was a very real possibility we wouldn’t be paid for those orders, we shipped them anyway. Our customers had trusted us, and we weren’t going to make them pay the price for something they had nothing to do with.
After Jane, I had to completely pivot our business model and essentially learn how to rebuild. That rebuilding process hasn’t always been profitable, and there have absolutely been moments when I’ve questioned what comes next. But those seasons have probably taught me more about entrepreneurship than the years when everything seemed to be going right.
I’ve also had to pivot personally. Cynthia Hollis and I built Hashtag DNA together for years, but as her family grew, she eventually needed to step away. After having someone beside me whose strengths complemented mine so perfectly, I had to learn how to lead and reinvent parts of the business differently.
The longer I do this, the more I believe failure isn’t the opposite of success. Most of the time, failure is actually part of how you get there. It forces you to change, learn, rebuild and find opportunities you never would have looked for otherwise. And when the wins come again, you appreciate them so much more because you know what it took to get there.
My faith in God has been a huge part of navigating those seasons. I don’t always know exactly where the road is leading, but I’ve learned that I don’t have to. Sometimes you just have to trust God, keep moving forward and believe that what feels like a setback today may be preparing you for what comes next.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Hashtag DNA is a women’s boutique built around one simple idea: we want women to feel amazing in what they wear. We love finding pieces that feel current and unique but are still wearable in real life, and today we are especially passionate about denim.
Jeans can completely change how you feel in an outfit, and we are incredibly selective about the denim we carry. We look for flattering fits, great washes, comfort and those little details that make you reach for the same pair over and over again. I want our customers to find the jeans that make them look in the mirror and think, “These are my jeans.”
At the heart of Hashtag DNA are a few values that have guided us from the beginning: confidence, integrity, quality, individuality, service and faith. We believe clothing should help a woman feel more like herself, not like she has to become someone else to fit a trend.
One of the biggest things that sets us apart happens before a piece ever reaches our website. I personally try on every single style before we purchase it. Something can be beautiful on a hanger or in a vendor photo and fit completely differently in real life. Fit matters enormously to me, so we pay attention to how a piece feels, moves and works on different body types before deciding whether it belongs at Hashtag DNA.
Integrity is also incredibly important to us. We’ve had opportunities over the years to choose what was easiest or most profitable, but we’ve tried to come back to what is right for our customer. When Jane.com went under and we knew there was a possibility we wouldn’t be paid for outstanding orders, we shipped them anyway. Those women had trusted us, and that trust mattered more to us than the transaction.
We also believe personal style should actually be personal. Every woman has a different body, coloring, lifestyle and personality. This year, we’re developing a new system designed to help women shop according to their individual body type and color season. Our goal is to take some of the frustration and guesswork out of shopping and help women discover the silhouettes, colors and pieces that truly work for them.
Faith has also been woven into Hashtag DNA from the very beginning. I believe we have a responsibility to use what we’ve been given to do some good in the world, to treat people well and to give back. Success means more to me than how much we sell. I want to build a company our customers can trust and one that leaves people feeling a little better than when they found us.
After more than a decade, trends have changed countless times, but those values haven’t. There is a real woman behind every order, and I never want Hashtag DNA to lose sight of her.
We aren’t here just to sell women more clothes. We want to help women discover what makes them feel confident, comfortable and completely themselves.
Because style isn’t about becoming someone else. Style is already in your DNA.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is that failure is not the opposite of success. Most of the time, it’s part of the path that gets you there.
When I first started Hashtag DNA, I thought success meant making the right decisions, growing, hitting goals and having everything work out the way I planned. More than ten years later, I see it completely differently. Some of the greatest lessons, opportunities and redirections in my life have come from things that didn’t work out.
Entrepreneurship teaches you pretty quickly that you win some and you lose some. You can celebrate an incredible year and then find yourself rebuilding the next. The failures force you to become more creative, more resilient and more willing to change. They also make you appreciate the wins so much more when they come.
I’ve also learned not to hold so tightly to my own idea of what success is supposed to look like. My faith in God has taught me that a closed door isn’t always a rejection. Sometimes it’s a redirection. There have been things I desperately wanted to work out that didn’t, and later I could see why another path was better for me.
So today, I try to approach both business and life differently. Learn from the loss. Be grateful for the win. Treat people right. Pivot when you need to. Keep showing up. And have enough faith to take the next step even when you can’t see the entire road ahead.
Maybe that’s the biggest lesson of all: success isn’t never failing. It’s what you do with the failure when it comes.
Pricing:
- * Hashtag DNA offers women’s fashion at a range of approachable price points, with new arrivals added regularly. * Our denim collection includes premium, carefully selected styles with an emphasis on fit, comfort and quality. * We frequently offer promotions and special pricing to our customers throughout the year. * Customers can shop our latest arrivals, best sellers and denim collection online at Hashtag DNA.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hashtagdna.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hashtagdna
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hashtagdna/photos
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-davis-30a261173
