The Courage to Start Over
By Silvia Curioni
A few years ago, if someone had told me I would be running a handbag company, I probably would have laughed.
For most of my adult life, my identity was tied to technology. I studied Computer Science, became a software engineer, and spent years building startups. My career took me from Brazil to Italy, then Spain, and eventually Silicon Valley. Along the way, I helped build products used by millions of people and co-founded companies that were later acquired.
It was exciting, challenging, and often exhausting.
From the outside, it looked like I had built exactly the career I had dreamed of.
The truth is, by the time I turned 40, I was asking myself questions I had never expected. I had spent years chasing goals, launching products, raising money, growing teams, and solving problems. I was also raising two children and trying to balance the many roles women often find themselves carrying at the same time.
I was proud of what I had accomplished, but I felt disconnected from a part of myself that had quietly been there all along.
I grew up in Brazil in a family with strong Italian roots. Fashion was never something distant or superficial in our home. It was connected to culture, craftsmanship, and self-expression. Years later, when I lived in Milan, I loved spending weekends wandering through small boutiques, admiring beautiful leather goods, and paying attention to the tiny details that made certain products feel special.
At the time, I never imagined I would one day build a fashion brand myself.
Life has a funny way of bringing you back to things you once loved.
After years in the startup world, I realized I missed creating things that people could hold in their hands. I missed beauty. I missed design. I missed building products where every material, texture, color, and detail mattered.
One day, I found myself asking a simple question:
"If I could build anything next, what would it be?"
The answer surprised me.
Not another app.
Not another technology company.
A handbag brand.
The idea felt exciting, but it also felt terrifying. I had spent years building credibility in technology. Starting a fashion company meant becoming a beginner again. It meant learning an entirely new industry, building a new network, and accepting that many people would not understand the decision.
A few people thought I was making a mistake. Most simply couldn't understand why someone would leave a successful career in technology to start over in fashion.
But the more I explored the idea, the more it felt right.
Today, I am the founder of ZIPPERLY, a handbag brand based in the San Francisco Bay Area. We work with artisans in Italy to create thoughtfully designed leather bags that combine beauty and practicality.
What surprised me most was how familiar the work felt.
Whether you're designing software or a handbag, you're still listening to customers, obsessing over details, solving problems, and trying to create something people genuinely love. The tools are different, but the process of building is remarkably similar.
Looking back, I don't see my journey as leaving technology behind.
I see it as giving myself permission to evolve.
Many of us spend years becoming successful at something and then feel trapped by that success. We worry that changing directions will look irresponsible or confusing to other people.
What I've learned is that growth rarely happens by staying exactly where we are.
At 40, starting over felt terrifying.
It also turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Sometimes the next chapter of your life is waiting inside an interest you've been carrying with you all along.
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