Laid Off by Meta at 4 A.M. Via Email, She Got the Last Laugh

I have been doing some work recently with Alibaba.com as one of its brand ambassadors. As part of that, I’ve had the chance to meet several fantastic entrepreneurs, one of whom I want to tell you about tonight.

She has a classic Notes story, and I think you’ll love it.

At 4 a.m. one morning last May, Elizabeth Field DiGiovanni woke up, checked her email, and discovered that she had been laid off from Meta.

After 12 years working in big tech as an AI leader, it was suddenly over. No meeting. No office goodbye. Just an email waiting for her before the sun came up.

Her husband suggested that she take a shower and get dressed. They would drop their two young children off at daycare, get some coffee, and figure out what came next.

On the drive home, he reminded Elizabeth about an idea she once had: “What about that travel thing you were thinking about?” “Oh my God,” she said. “I haven’t thought about that in months.”

Within four hours of being laid off, Elizabeth filed the paperwork for a new LLC.

19 days later, she launched Parcel Air.

The Idea That Was Already Working

Here’s how it was born: Elizabeth and her husband love traveling with their children, which is fun in theory and, as any parent knows, not always quite as much fun at 30,000 feet.

So Elizabeth created a ritual. Before every flight, she bought small activities and surprises her children had never seen before. Legos. A coloring book. A snack. A new toy.

She wrapped each one like a Christmas present and put the packages in their backpacks. There was only one rule: Nobody could open the first present until the plane was in the air.

Then, whenever the children became bored or restless, another present appeared.

Other parents and grandparents would watch the ritual unfold and say some version of the same thing:

“I would pay for that!”

And that, my entrepreneurial friends, is about as good a piece of market research as you can get.

But even so, Elizabeth had a demanding career, two toddlers, and no idea how she would find the time to start a product company.

Until Meta gave her the time.

Permission Meets Possibility

Parcel Air sells curated boxes containing four wrapped, screen-free travel activities selected for children of different ages.

Cool, right?

But turning the idea into an actual product presented a new problem: packaging. Elizabeth was buying boxes and supplies piecemeal from Amazon, Uline, Moo, and wherever else she could find them. It was expensive, inefficient, and not exactly scalable.

Worse, she was launching immediately after a layoff. She did not have extra capital to waste on packaging mistakes.

That is when she turned to Accio, Alibaba.com’s AI-powered business and sourcing platform.

Elizabeth knew what she wanted her packaging to look like. Accio helped her:

• Develop that idea

• Create the files she needed

• Research suppliers

• Compare options, and

• Source boxes, paper goods, and custom tissue from vendors around the world.

“I’m keeping the ‘taste’ with myself,” she told me, “but outsourcing everything that doesn’t necessarily need me.”

Exactly.

The entrepreneur supplies the idea, judgment, courage, and taste. Technology supplies leverage that once required a larger team, deeper expertise, and far more capital.

The Last Laugh

Within a few months, and with a big assist from Accio, Parcel Air generated approximately $20,000 in sales from 250 orders, almost entirely through organic marketing and word of mouth.

Now here’s the fun part: Elizabeth also began posting candidly on LinkedIn about building the company. Alibaba.com noticed, reached out, and invited her to share her experience.

So, three months after waking up to that awful 4 a.m. email, Elizabeth found herself keynoting Alibaba.com’s CoCreate conference, talking about the company she had launched only 19 days after losing her job, and chatting with me about her unexpected journey.

Meta did not give Elizabeth the idea, her future customers had been giving it to her for years. But the layoff gave her permission, and Accio gave her the ability to act on it.

And Elizabeth? She supplied everything else.

The Takeaway

Elizabeth might not have been ready to become an entrepreneur, but ready or not, she embraced it, and without over-thinking or over-complicating it.

Good lesson, that.

Steal This Strategy

✈️ Business: Parcel Air. Curated, screen-free travel activities designed to keep young children occupied after wheels up.

🛠️ Tool: Accio Work. Alibaba.com’s powerful AI-powered business and sourcing platform helps entrepreneurs develop products, find suppliers, compare options, and easily move from idea to execution.

💡 Strategy: When potential customers repeatedly tell you, “I would pay for that,” listen. They may be telling you that your idea is already a business. You just haven’t launched it yet.

TODAY’S POLL

About Steve

Steve Strauss is the best-selling author of The Small Business Bible (and 17 other books), Inc.’s small business columnist, a lawyer (non-practicing), and an entrepreneur. He sold his last venture, TheSelfEmployed.com to Mark Cuban & Zen Business. Need a ghostwriter or a newsletter for your business? Contact Steve!