Nicola Augusti is founder of online sportswear and athleisurewear brand NickyBe. Since its founding in 2019, the Dubai-based brand has amassed more than 65,000 followers on social media. NickyBe keeps its customer base top of mind and designs items, such as innovative sports bras and leggings, that cater to their needs.
The brand’s TikTok followers regularly give Augusti feedback on the intricacies of items’ designs and products they would like to see. Interacting closely with her customers has allowed for variations of designs, such as modest alternatives. Augusti shares her greatest achievement since founding NickyBe.
What is the best way to start your day?
With a coffee and an hour-long walk around Dubai Marina. I like to walk in silence and really notice what’s around me. It’s the only hour I can be genuinely present in the moment.
If you could be any character from a movie, who would you be?
Sarah Connor from Terminator 2. She is the ultimate fearless heroine with a good heart and love for family.
What is your greatest achievement?
It has to be surviving the Covid-19 lockdown as a small business. When I quit my corporate job to focus on my business, I took a huge risk anyway, and then I was hit by the lockdown three months later. Overnight, my product and my business were wiped out, but I pivoted on my mission to help women and created a more relevant and useful product than ever before. Now, we’re doing five times better than we were pre-lockdown and it’s something I’m super proud of.
What advice would you give your 13-year-old self?
Stop placing limits on what you think you can achieve, and buy Bitcoin.
If you had 24 hours left on Earth, what would you do?
Fly to Japan with my close family and friends, visit temples and sit beneath the cherry blossom eating noodles and chatting.
Who or what is your biggest inspiration?
This will sound strange but my biggest inspiration is the finality and strangeness of existence and the universe. The idea that we only get one chance to live is what drives me during harder times, and has helped me take essential risks and decisions in business and life without regret. Contemplating this motivates me to pursue my craziest and best ideas.
What would you like to achieve in the next 10 years?
I would like to scale and completely digitalise my e-commerce business to a point where I can release myself from needing to be in one physical location. I have a nomadic spirit that craves to travel, and as much as I love business and work, my ultimate passion is to roam and see as many places as I can over the next 10 years.
