Amanda Halpin-Kruse founded her startup two years ago with the idea of buying outfits in bulk with her friends so they could get better pricing on clothes.

Amanda Halpin-Kruse, founder of Discount Divas in Huntsville. (Courtesy)

The full-time nurse's concept quickly evolved from a hobby into a serious business called Discount Divas, which she started with only $1,000 from her savings account.

She maintained her day job for more than a year as the small company started to gain traction and grow. As her customers, also known as Divas, began ordering items on a weekly and sometimes daily basis, she knew she had something promising.

But things weren't always easy for the Huntsville entrepreneur.

"It definitely appears to be a fast-rise, but in reality there was over a year of little to no growth," she told AL.com. "Those were the times that were most difficult. Continuing to grow the group while also working full-time as a nurse in the ER was hard."

Discount Divas now specializes in clothing, jewelry, shoes, handbags and more at lower prices and in a wide variety of sizes. The startup operates at HuntsvilleWest, a 1-year-old incubator and co-working space on 3001 Ninth Ave. S.W., founded by Brandon Kruse, Halpin-Kruse's husband.

Unlike traditional boutique shops, Discount Divas doesn't have a brick-and-mortar storefront. Instead, customers join the Discount Divas Facebook group. When they find something they love, they simply leave a comment with size, color and email address and pay their invoice.

The group has taken off and now has more than 68,000 members. We caught up with Halpin-Kruse this month to discuss her unique business model and what the future holds for Discount Divas.

Q. Discount Divas went from $43,000 per month in revenue in January to more than $350,000 last month. How have you been able to experience so much growth in such a short time?

A. We did about $43,000 in revenue in January and just did close to $400,000 for September alone! I think the concept really resonated with people. We had the same clothes that boutiques offered but at a much lower price. This growth has not come without its fair share of growing pains.

We've had to shut down our local showroom just to keep up with demand. We are now processing and shipping out just shy of 1,000 orders per day and are continuing to grow revenue six-figures month over month.

Q. How have you all scaled up operations and employees to grow your company?

Discount Divas is a rapidly-growing startup at HuntsvilleWest. (Courtesy)

A. My husband, Brandon, told me that every time a business doubles in size, everything changes. That has been absolutely true. I never thought it would grow this fast, but we've fully adopted it and have been running with it! We've grown from just me in the second bedroom of my apartment to 12 employees, with the majority of that happening in the last few months. I would have never believed you if you would have told me that Discount Divas would have over 10 employees and a handbook. It is quite an operation now.

At the beginning of the year, we'd post something to Facebook in the morning, then watch people comment, look up the person's Facebook name in a spreadsheet, and manually send them an invoice through Paypal and then just hope they'd pay. We'd then watch our Paypal email to see when people paid and would manually weigh the item, print a shipping label, print a return address, write a thank-you card and manually mark it as paid in the spreadsheet. All of that has changed! We could have never scaled that way, but we were able to prove that we really had something.

In March, HuntsvilleWest built a fully automated system that includes inventory management, barcode fulfillment, shipping integration and user management. It used to have two full-time people just reading Facebook comments and sending orders and could fulfill around 30 packages a day. Now, those same two people can each fulfill around 600 packages a day.

Q. What makes your business model so unique in the fashion world?

A. I'd say the No. 1 unique advantage we have is allowing our customers to see what their friends are buying in real-time. This is validation for them. We post six new items every day. We never quite know how the Divas will react. When it's hot, it's very hot (1,500 orders in less than 10 minutes) and when it's not - it's not (we just had some shoes that flopped - only one order in the first hour).

We do our best, and what we feel like is our duty, to always bring the best quality clothing at the best price for our users.

Q. Do you see yourself always being an entrepreneur, or could you do something else eventually?

A. I never thought I would be an entrepreneur. I am not a "natural entrepreneur." It has been a big learning curve for me - now I have people relying on me, people with mortgages and kids!

Q. How has being at HuntsvilleWest helped you grow as a company?

A. HuntsvilleWest saw that we were experiencing what Brandon calls "the best kind of pains - growing pains." We were stressed and working crazy hours doing something that could be completely automated. Now we get to focus on what we do best - finding the best clothes and accessories for our Divas.

In addition, we were able to use the co-working space for our customer service employees as we outgrew our 450-square-foot showroom that we leased from HuntsvilleWest. The cost of the space there is extremely cheap and the community of entrepreneurs that you get to work with is invaluable.

For example, when we needed to hire three employees quickly for fulfillment I asked the other people working in the co-working space to reach out to their network. I was quickly flooded with emails and calls from qualified individuals. It's nice to work around other people who get it and want to help you succeed.

Q. Where do you see the startup in five years?

A. We continue to see this insane pace, and actually had to stop approving new customers while we were behind. I have no idea where we will be in five years. I just try to take it one day at a time - providing the best shopping experience and constantly trying to be as innovative as possible.

Discount Divas is a good example of a mediocre idea that has been executed well. There are tons of online and brick-and-mortar clothing stores, yet we've experienced explosive growth. Anyone can do it if they really want to put in the time.