[STEP BY STEP] Building an Empire Through Cultural Connection: From Inspiration to Reach with Temu

Dec 29, 2025

Toyiah Marquis, founder of Patch Party Club, turned a layoff into a thriving business by creating culturally representative embroidered patches. She shares her journey from launching a single product on Temu to discovering unexpected audience growth. Toyiah highlights how emotional connections drive commerce and how testing products on marketplaces can validate ideas in real-time. Zach Stamber, a retail analyst, provides insights on marketplace trends, emphasizing the importance of staying true to your brand while adapting to new opportunities.

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ADVICE

Learn The Platform’s Rules

Understand the platform: its algorithm, audience, and what content resonates before scaling there.
Use product quality, strong content, and platform-specific levers like delivery and ads to differentiate.

ADVICE

Use Marketplaces To Test Quickly

Use marketplaces as low-cost test labs: iterate colorways, bundles, and small runs to see what sells.
Build on marketplace results before committing to broader expansion or inventory commitments.

ANECDOTE

Patches Chose The Founder

Toya Marquis started Patch Party Club after being laid off in 2014 and found patches everywhere while in China, which inspired her product choice.
She created culturally representative patches because existing designs didn’t reflect African-American culture and customers responded strongly.

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After being laid off in 2014, Toyiah Marquis turned her passion for patches into a thriving business built on cultural representation and authentic connection. Patch Party Club started as an in-store experience and single-product experiment on Temu. But it quickly evolved into a scalable business model that now reaches audiences Toyiah never expected to serve.

How do you transform personal passion into global reach? And what happens when a marketplace's algorithm becomes your best marketing tool?

We sit down with Toyiah to explore how she leveraged Temu's platform to test, learn, and scale strategically, while sticking with her mission and vision as a founder. From creating a special patch for customers battling cancer to discovering unexpected demographic opportunities, Toyiah's journey shows how marketplace success comes from staying true to your brand ethos while remaining flexible enough to evolve.

Connection Wins Every Time

Key takeaways:

Starting small works: Toyiah launched with one product on Temu, using marketplace dynamics to test viability before scaling strategically.
Temu's marketplace exposure brought her patches to a diverse audience beyond her traditional target market, revealing unexpected growth opportunities.
Emotional connection drives commerce: Products created with genuine care and cultural representation resonated deeply, building loyal customer relationships at scale.
Marketplace testing provides real-time validation: Marketplaces like Temu can serve as laboratories to gather data insights before committing to broader expansion.

In-Show Mentions:

Learn more about Patch Party Club’s journey on Temu
Explore Temu's seller services and marketplace solutions

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