Before launching High Strung, Laura Nolen spent her career in the demanding worlds of AI and retail, building teams, products, and scalable businesses. It was fast-paced, high-pressure work that required constant reinvention — skills that would later become the foundation for entrepreneurship.
But it was an unexpected career pause that ultimately changed the course of her life.
After being laid off from her corporate role, Laura was gifted something she never anticipated: time. During that reset, she began playing more tennis than ever before, subbing for teams and clinics all over town. What started as a release from stress quickly became an obsession.
And then she noticed something.
Court-sport fashion was evolving. Women were showing up in beautiful outfits with carefully styled bags and accessories — yet every racquet looked the same. The grips were worn, dirty, and completely disconnected from the polished aesthetic players had curated everywhere else. “I realized any design in grips had nothing to do with actual fashion trends,” Laura explains. “So I set out to bring them together.”
The idea hit instantly.
Laura printed what became her first — and still bestselling — pattern, wrapped it around a racquet, and declared to her husband, “I’m doing this, and it’s going to be something.” Then she cried. Part fear, part excitement, but mostly because she knew she had found something that could truly change her life.
From day one, Laura approached the business seriously. She researched the market, identified a clear gap in fashion-forward racquet accessories, sourced factories overseas, and built her supply chain piece by piece. There were setbacks, including choosing the wrong factory initially, but she kept pushing forward through persistence, product sampling, and endless hours spent meeting players directly on the courts.
The name High Strung turned out to be the perfect fit. Laura jokes that she may have been called “high strung” a few times herself, and the playful double meaning captured both her personality and the brand’s mission: attention to detail and elevated style. “We want to make sure your racquet is dressed as well as you are,” she says.
Today, High Strung is growing quickly through collaborations, club partnerships, gifting programs, and a passionate tennis community. But for Laura, the business represents something even bigger.
“It’s rebuilt me,” she says. “It’s made me more confident, more creative, and more grounded in who I am.”
Her guiding question along the way? “What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?” Every time she answered honestly, the business moved forward.
PS Laura was a finalist (runner up) in the 2026 UPS Store/INC magazine small business challenge last month. Yay!!
VentureMom Tip
Ask the question “What would you do if you were not afraid?”
