How I launched a profitable business out of my living room [Video]

Jenny Lei looked at the towering stack of cardboard boxes in her Hoboken, New Jersey, apartment. She’d spent $30,000 on handbags and needed a new strategy to sell them.

An unemployed UX designer, Lei had taken it upon herself to create the perfect work bag. She spent months designing a prototype before ordering a production run. Four weeks later, she’d only sold 20 totes.

“My plan failed spectacularly,” says Lei. “I couldn’t afford to not make it work. [A lot] of my savings were sitting in boxes in my living room.”

Today, Lei is the 28-year-old CEO and founder of Freja, a New York-based company that sells work totes, shoulder purses and travel accessories. The 4-year-old startup brought in more than $9 million in revenue over the last 12 months, including $2 million in profit, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

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Lei is Freja’s only full-time employee, alongside five …