She Didn’t Wait. She Built It. It Went Viral.

What happens when your “random idea” turns into a viral business… before you even graduate?

At 25, Elena DiStefano, the founder of Cozy Clip is running a brand that blew up online—but she started it as a junior in college with zero experience in product design.

She just knew one thing: claw clips were uncomfortable.

So she fixed it.

That one decision turned into a viral product, selling out in minutes and launching her into full-blown entrepreneurship almost overnight.

But here’s the part no one talks about—
 what happens after it takes off.

In this episode, we get into:

•  Building a product from scratch with zero experience 
•  Going viral—and keeping up with the chaos that follows 
•  Handling copycats, pressure, and rapid growth 
•  Staying grounded while running a business solo 

Because she didn’t wait to feel ready.
 She didn’t have a perfect plan.

She just started.

If you’ve been sitting on an idea, overthinking your next move, or waiting for the “right time”—this is it.

Girl, why not you? 💥

Connect with her + check out the product:
🌐 Website: www.thecozyclip.com
📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cozyclip/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm Jenny Blackwood, a small town mom of four who refused to settle for a life that didn't light me up. When everything felt uncertain, I didn't run back to a nine to five. I bet on myself. I took a simple idea and turned it into an almost seven-figure business my first year, all while being a mom first. Now I'm here to help you trust your own power, chase the dream that keeps tapping your shoulder, and build a life that feels like you. This is Girl, Why Not You? Hello, hello, everybody. Welcome back to another exciting and life-changing episode of Girl Why Not You? I am your host, Jenny Blackwood, and today we're talking about something that I think a lot of people think they want. Until it actually happens, right, Elena? What happens when your idea actually works? And by the way, faster than you expected. When the thing you dreamed about suddenly takes off, and you're sitting there like, wait, I don't even know if I'm ready for this yet. Because we talk all the time about starting before you're ready, but no one really talks about what happens when success comes before you actually feel you're there. That's what this episode is about. Today I am joined by the beautiful Elena DeStefano, founder and inventor of Cozy Clip, which you guys is the world's first flexible claw clip for your hair. And what's so wild about her story for me is that she created this as a college student with zero experience. And within months, it went viral. She scaled super quick, landed retail partnerships, and built a real business, all while having to figure it out in real time. And what I love about this conversation is that it's not just her highlight reel, okay? It's what it actually looks like behind the scenes when things take off really fast. Elena, I am so freaking excited to have you here today. Your story is just I everybody here saddle up, it's gonna be a good one. As you probably know for anybody listening, I always really like to kind of take it back to the beginning because I think that's where people can really relate the most. So take us back to you as a college student with this idea. Where did it come from and what was going on for you internally at this time?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Sure. Well, first, thank you so much for having me on, and thank you for hyping me up in the beginning. Hype girl. I'm the ultimate hype girl. You deserve every word. Thank you. That's so nice. So I first had the idea for Cozy Clip, which is a soft, flexible claw clip that you can wear comfortably in the car while laying down whenever you want, um, as a college student, because I was wearing claw clips all the time. And if you have long hair and you put your hair in a claw clip and you try a drive in it, try and be comfortable in it. You literally can't. It feels hard. Yep, uncomfortable. So I one day just got so frustrated with it. So I searched online soft claw clips to sleep in, and nothing popped up. The only thing I saw were those flat jaw clips, but it wasn't a solution for me because I just I wanted my claw clip, but I wanted it to be softer. I I still wanted the same hairstyle and everything. So when I saw there was nothing on the market, I broke the idea down in my notes app and I just didn't want to wait for someone else to do it. I just wanted to do it because I wanted the product for myself to wear it. So that's kind of how it started. And then that's when that was in 2022, by the way. So that's when I started to be like, okay, let me try and see how I can bring this to life.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

That is the freaking coolest thing ever. And everybody, this girl's 25. Like, I mean, this is wild. And she was doing this in college. So the thing is where I am just like, yes, girl, is that you are a college kid. All you're worried about at this point is like passing your classes, showing up, having some fun, right? But here you are at a very young age, because back in 2022, you were doing I was a senior in college. Wow. No, I was a junior. That is wild. Okay. I was not thinking these things when I was young. And I looked back at myself and I'm like, come on, what were you doing with your life? Wasting time. But for you to see, okay, hmm, there's something I really love, but it's not quite working. There's something that is like leaving something to be desired. And I think it would be better if it was this. Then you naturally go and hunt for it. You find, oh, said product does not exist. Most of us, and I'm sorry everybody, but most of us would probably have been like, well, I guess I'm just gonna stay stuck with this same old uncomfortable clip. But no, you were like, hmm, I see a gap here and I'm gonna shoot it. And that, my friend, is what entrepreneurship is freaking made of. You're like, why can't I change this? Why can't I make a difference here? If I need this, think of all the other women who we've been plagued by this hard plastic clip for our entire lives, right? So that is so cool. So here you are, you're like, I'm gonna do this. What were those first steps like? Like, how did you go from idea to like, let's freaking go?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Right. So the first thing I did was I just Googled it. I was like, how do I start to make a product? Um, and you know, I didn't even know how I was going to make a more comfortable claw clip. Like I had ideas for it. I wanted it to be soft and I I knew I wanted it to kind of bend when I leaned my head back, but I didn't know what that entailed. So I just like started Googling and then I reached out to like my community at college to see like what resources I had available to me and my university. What's that? That was really smart to look at your university as a resource. Yeah, so I saw that my university, which was Hofstra, has something called the Idea Hub and they have 3D printers on campus, and they actually have pitch competitions. So I entered one, I worked really hard on just showing my idea. I didn't think much of it. I got third place and I was like, wow, like my idea like is worth something. Um, and then they had a bigger competition the next year. So at this point, I was like, okay, I'm really determined. Like I need to have a physical prototype, like I need to show like how I'm gonna manufacture this, what my business plan is. So I worked day and night on my business plan, and then I won first place and then I won. I love that. Thank you. Yeah, I received funding for that. So I used that all the way up until like the prototyping phase, which was like April 2023 to like 2025. I used the money to prototype it at home in my bedroom on my 3D printer, um, to buy an injection mold for my product. Lots of stuff. So I was able to extend that funding pretty far, and I just kept building and working on it. And I probably made like 20 to 30 different prototypes myself. And then eventually I hired an engineer with experience in motor vehicle safety design to bring the product to life. Because there's only so much I can do. Totally.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Yeah. That is like the fact that you even thought, hmm, where do I start? I'm gonna look on Google. Okay, now what can I do? And you found a way for your university to work for you. You win this competition. That is so cool. So here you are, you're going through all these steps. This is obviously something you've never done. This is not something that you have a lot of confidence in. You're like, I don't know, I guess I'm just gonna wing it till I figure it out, right? So, what what were some things that might have caught you off guard kind of in the early days?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Um, you know, I I love the you know, female founder like network. I think everyone I have met has been literally so amazing and so helpful. There have been like there's been like one bad apple that took me off guard, like when I first started, that I was like, wow, like this industry can be a little bit cutthroat. And I was like, you know, I'm just here trying to bring my product to life because I want it. I don't really care that much about like being the most profitable or like whatever, like obviously that's important when you're building a business, but like I just wanted this product to work for myself and for others. And there's some people who just, you know, who might take your idea and try and copy you. Oh, yuck, I bet there are that. Yeah, so that kind of took me off guard, but everyone that's like genuine who's actually like an entrepreneur has literally been amazing. Like I love the community. Good.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah. You need that, you know, especially when you're an aspiring entrepreneur. You really need people who are like in your corner, because you're right. It's very easy to be taken advantage of. It's very easy for people to talk you out of a great idea just because they don't have the gumption to do something like that themselves. So I'm glad that you totally listened to your gut. Did you ever have any like moments going through this because of the lack of experience and and just really what the heck am I doing? Do you ever have any moments where you were like having imposter syndrome while trying to put this together?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Kind of. Like I am a very optimistic person where I'm just like, I'm gonna go after what I want and I might fail, but that's okay. Um, but there has been times where like I am going into this blind. I don't have prior product development experience where I had to learn a lot of things just about like um the manufacturing process or like figuring out how to create a softer clockwork was really challenging because it's not as easy as you would think. So I actually had to work for years with the engineer to like figure out how we can make it soft and hold your hair at the same time. Yeah. Um, so that was really challenging, but we pushed through and there's still things today that I'm like, okay, I need to keep iterating and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

And you always will. You always will, especially, you know, new competition comes out, you're like, how am I gonna make it better? I loved that for you. Something that you said that really just stuck with me when I asked you if you had imposter syndrome, you're like, kind of. But really, what I actually heard is you going, I I really didn't go, I didn't lead with the fear of rejection. I didn't lead with that. I decided that I was gonna be optimistic, that I was gonna figure it out. That is such a massive trait to have as somebody who wants to start a business. We all have to get over ourselves. We all have to get out of our own way, and we have to stop fearing rejection that may not even exist. And guess what? A lot of times, even in really good ideas, it does exist and you have to work through it. I mean, think about it. I I get hit with this Jeff Bezos stuff all the time. It's like he tried for what, five years before Amazon actually became a thing. How many times do you think he wanted to give up? But he didn't, but he led with confidence like you did. And I think that that's something that everybody listening here should really, really embrace and harness and see that a very young, amazing woman was like, Well, what do I have to lose? Like, this is a good idea, and I'm gonna try to see it through. That's what you lead with. You don't lead with fear. So good for you. So let's talk about how you accidentally went viral. How did it happen?

SPEAKER_00 11:13

What did it look like? Yeah. So I have been, you know, in contact with my mentor from the pitch competition from all the way back in college to now, and he like helped me guide, like helped me navigate this whole entire process of building a product and starting a business. So I had the version that I was like, okay, this works and I like it. And he was like, you need to have other people test it. And I was like, okay, well, how can I do that? Like go to like a farmer's market. I don't know. It eventually just took too long where I was like, if it, I'm just gonna like it online and like like I know this is gonna like resonate with so many people, but I wasn't expecting it to go viral. Yeah, and I just had like 60 3D printed clips, and I was like, I just want people to test it and share their feedback with me so that way I can make changes to it before I invest in an injection mold because that's like an investment, you know? Yeah, so I posted a video being like, okay, reminder, like tomorrow, like I'm dropping like the 3D printed cozy clips, like so you know. And then that video got like two million views, and then it was like, oh my gosh, this is like a lot. So then the next day I there was like so many people on the website, it sold out in like seven minutes or something. Oh my gosh. And then I was like, okay, so I need to like move really fast with this. That's what I started to do. I found a manufacturer within a month and then made some changes to it based off the feedback I had, and then I still wasn't able to launch pre-orders until June of 2025. Um, and then that took a while too, because everything just takes longer than you expect. But yes, and you're like, come on!

SPEAKER_01 13:07

This isn't working for my type A personality. That is so crazy. So you go viral, you sell out in seven minutes, you start like, holy moly, I actually have something here. Is that when that really hit you? Like, oh my gosh, this idea is legit.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Yeah, it was like I always knew that, but I feel like, you know, talking with my mentor, he's like, you know, very like risk averse. But I kind of feel like in my situation, like I could be a little bit more risky. Um, but you know, just trying to like figure out how we can do this like in a smart way. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

I I think actually it's very smart of you to be willing to take a risk. I mean, I always tell people when it comes to risk, most risks are worth taking. Unless if your risk is gonna like put you out of house and home, you can't feed your children, you can't do that. Maybe, maybe we should find a different route. But if you can like literally sit with yourself and say, okay, what is the worst thing that could happen here? What's the worst thing? And if the worst thing is livable, it's palatable, and you're like, it would suck, but I can do it, right? I don't know. Maybe this is a terrible mentality I have, but I'm always like, hey, there's always more money to be made. There always is. There is. And so I I really applaud you for that. So what do you feel like a lot of people get wrong when it comes to being an overnight success? You know, people probably have a perception, but what do you think people are misconceiving about it?

SPEAKER_00 14:36

I think people think that I'm a really big brand and company. And I'm like, no, it's actually just me. Wow. So people, you know, like I don't know, like they think, oh, it's viral, like it should be perfect. No, it's not perfect. I'm not perfect. I'm just starting this. I'm a college student who just wanted to create a better claw clip, and things take time. Like when I was doing the pre-orders, people waited for like three months um to get their order. But like people just don't understand. Like, there's so many things that can happen in manufacturing, like just the pin in the spring for my product, like it needed fine-tuning. Like there's things like I care about my product, I want it to work good. I'm not I don't want to sell something that like doesn't isn't how I want it to be. So things just take longer. I don't have a magic wand, unfortunately. Yeah, I get it. You don't have a magic wand.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

I wish we all did. So, how did you feel you were able to be super resourceful without experience or a team behind you? I mean, that's really freaking hard. You have a product, you've done all this legwork on your own with some help of a mentor, but really it's like fallen on your lap. So, what was that and how does it still continue today to be like for you being like a solo woman operation? Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

I think I'm just super motivated and passionate about my product and my business that it pushes me through. Um, and I love working on Cozy Clip. Like I just am on my laptop working from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep because I just want to push the business forward so much. And I genuinely love to work on it, which can be a problem at times too, because my work life balance is like pretty bad. But I just it I'm passionate about it and I just love to do it.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

I think that for you, like, know that because you feel so passionate about it and because you're able to work around the clock and still actually love it, it really just shows me that you're in alignment with where you're supposed to be. I think that even if you're working around the clock, because I do the same thing, like I just feel like, God, why do I never put this down? But I still have a passion for it. You know, I still love it. It's like, do you ever feel like your business gives you like dopamine hits? Like when you're like constantly searching for that, right? And then something will happen to be like, oh, hit. It's like maybe that's our addiction, which I guess is good because it helps us make money and it's something we love. But I totally understand what you're saying. You know, it is hard to have work-life balance, and it's one of those things where, you know, I'm always like, do your own thing, everybody. But I'm not trying to tell you that like you're gonna work less. You're probably gonna work more, but you're gonna like it and you're gonna have more flexibility more often than not. What would you say is like something that's been the most emotionally challenging piece of this for you?

SPEAKER_00 17:29

I'm I'm just gonna have to say dealing with copycats, but I feel like I manage it really well because sometimes people will come up to me and be like, I'm so scared about my product being copied, blah, blah, blah. And I just don't look at it. I just I just am so focused on my own business and what I'm doing, and I'm not gonna let like what other people are doing make what I'm doing with my business like any different. Like I have my own vision for Cozy Clip, and I'm gonna keep going after that. And yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

And you stick with that girl. That has to be really hard because it you are, you're in a very dog eat dog industry, and I think that um that would be very hard to to navigate. But you are doing it. You obviously have the grit for this girl. Um, so if someone listening has an idea but feels like they have no experience, just like you had no experience, what would you say the first step would be for them?

SPEAKER_00 18:24

The first step I would say is honestly ask ChatGBT. Yes. You know, be like, I have an idea for this. How can I create this product? And it'll tell you like the different like types of like manufacturing methods. I think it was important for me to figure out how I was gonna manufacture my product so I can figure out how I could create my product because it's very different if you have like a plastic product or if you're doing something that's like made out of fabric, like you have more leeway with that. Um I would say like just honestly Google it and ask Chat GPT.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

That's such a smart idea. We are living in an age of AI, like we should all be using it because it's gonna save us so much time and headache. It's gonna head us straight to the point. I, Elena, this has been such a good conversation. If anybody's watching this on YouTube, I've had a stupid smile on my face the whole time because I'm just so proud of this girl. And I think that what people are going to take away from this is that you don't need to have it all figured out in the beginning. You don't need that experience. You even don't need a perfect plan. I know perfectionists out there that's gonna like, you know, give you a little shockwave, but you don't need to be perfect all the time. You really just need to start and figure it out as you go. I think one of the key phrases I use is that when I started my business, it was like flying the plane while building it. And when I I literally visualize myself doing that, like, oh shit, you know, like on the plane. But you do it, you stick to it, you listen to your intuition, and you let your why fuel your passion. So for anyone listening who wants to support what you're building, and trust me, I'm gonna be at the front of the line for that. Where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Thank you. You can find me at CozyClip on Instagram, at the CozyClip on TikTok, and thecozyclip.com.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

I hope every single freaking woman listening to this who has enough hair to put in a clip is gonna be out grabbing one of those today, my friend. I have thoroughly enjoyed your story. You are so inspiring. Girl, keep it up. If you've done this much by 25, I can't wait to be on the sidelines seeing where you're at 5, 10, 15 years from now. You're gonna do big things. That's so nice. You're gonna make me cry. I want to cry just thinking about how proud of you I am. Oh, thanks. Thank you for being a part of this today. Thank you for being willing to share your story and for showing all the other people who are listening to this that all it has to start with is an idea. That's it. And then you take it from there. Thank you, Elena. You have the most beautiful rest of your day, everybody. And please listen to her story and ask yourself, girl, why not you? Yep. See you next week. If something in this episode made you sit up a little straighter or dream a little bigger, don't ignore it. That's your future nudging you. I'm living proof that you can start messy, start scared, start in the worst timing, and still create something beautiful. Thank you for listening to Girl, Why Not You. Now go take one small step towards the life you've been craving. Hit subscribe, leave a review if you feel called, and share this with someone who's ready for more.