Brilliant Earth

Jewelry e-commerceUSA

New to Unitard

📉 Public < $1B

Peak $1.03 BillionRecorded estimate

~-88%

from peak

🦄
Became a unicorn
2021
📈
Peak valuation
$1.03 Billion ’21
💔
Became a Unitard
2022
💸
Last valuation estimate
~$124M

Current status

Listed on Nasdaq (BRLT)

The rise & fall

5 moments · 2005–2025

The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.

2005

Founded in San Francisco

Beth Gerstein and Eric Grossberg set out to sell engagement rings online, built on ethically sourced diamonds and lab-grown stones.

Wikipedia

Sep 2021

The peak: a $1.03B Nasdaq debut$1.03B

The Mainsail-backed retailer IPOs in September 2021, just clearing the unicorn line.

Nasdaq

2022

Slips out of the club

Big-ticket jewelry spending cools and the stock starts sliding within a year of the debut.

Macrotrends

2022–25

The engagement-ring economy cools

Slowing demand, margin pressure and intensifying competition grind the stock down about 88%, to a market cap near $130M.

Macrotrends

2022–25

From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2022–25

Glassdoor reviews across the post-IPO slide described a company straining under breakneck showroom expansion — chronic understaffing, high turnover and constant reorganizations — with employees citing trimmed perks, a tightening focus on the bottom line and grueling sales targets as morale cooled with the stock.

💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.

How it happened

Brilliant Earth is a digital-first jewelry retailer built on ethically sourced diamonds and lab-grown stones, selling engagement rings online and through a fast-growing set of showrooms. Backed by Mainsail Partners, it went public on the Nasdaq in September 2021 at roughly a $1.03B market value, just clearing the unicorn line.

As spending on big-ticket jewelry cooled and competition intensified, growth stalled and the stock slid almost 88%, leaving it a small-cap worth around $130M by 2026.

Source: stockanalysis / Macrotrends / Nasdaq (digital-first ethical-jewelry retailer backed by growth investor Mainsail Partners; Sept 2021 Nasdaq IPO at a ~$1.03B market cap; slowing demand and margin pressure cut the stock ~88%; market cap ~$0.13B in 2026)

Founders

Beth Gerstein
Co-Founder & CEO
Still there — Co-Founder, CEOLinkedIn ↗
Eric Grossberg
co-founder & executive chairman
Still there — Co-Founder, Executive Chairman of the BoardLinkedIn ↗

Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-08-19. See our methodology.

Disclosed investors (1)

Historical funding participation; lists may be incomplete and do not establish current ownership or investor losses.

* Lead in a funding round · Sources: sec.gov ↗ · 2026-10-23 · Methodology · Leaderboard