"A Long Island widower who'd made a fortune selling his insurance firm a few years earlier, Durnan had put $250,000 into Nolan and Grace's nascent Hamptons-themed swimwear and sunglasses brand, East x East. Nolan, a 33-year-old Irish immigrant, was betting everything on this start-up and had pitched Durnan on a grand vision for the company: East x East would one day be sold on Revolve and in upscale department stores like Saks."
""She's very pretty, and I just know that the people she surrounded herself with are ultrawealthy people that don't give a shit about money," said a club promoter who met Nolan around that time. "The crowd they hang out with is, like, an upper-echelon-y Hamptons crowd. It's like the jet-set-type people." Simon Cascante, the founder of Montaukila, a local tequila brand, saw the same thing: "She was engaging in high society, you know, atmosphere.""
"But East x East was still struggling to break out of the seasonal Montauk tourist economy, and Durnan, who owned a roughly 13 percent stake, seemed to be growing frustrated. Why aren't you guys everywhere already? he would ask Nolan and Grace. Finally, the duo admitted they were stuck: In order to expand, they needed to branch out into Miami and Los Angeles, and that would require investing more in advertising. Durnan, 60, was happy to play the benefactor."
Martha Nolan co-founded East x East, a Hamptons-themed swimwear and sunglasses brand backed by investor Christopher Durnan, who invested $250,000 and held roughly a 13 percent stake. Nolan, a 33-year-old Irish immigrant, aimed for national retail distribution and staged seasonal pop-ups at exclusive Montauk locations. The brand struggled to expand beyond the tourist season and required more advertising to enter Miami and Los Angeles. Durnan pressed the founders for broader distribution and offered additional funds to support that expansion. A Saturday meeting arranged to discuss more financing became linked to Nolan's subsequent death.
Read at Intelligencer
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