How I Built This with Guy Raz - Parachute Home: Ariel Kaye

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

In 2012, Ariel Kaye saw a tantalizing opportunity, but wasn’t sure she was the one to seize it. She’d never started a brand and didn’t think of herself as an entrepreneur, until she noticed how frustrating it was to buy bed linens in a big box store. Taking inspiration from Warby Parker and Everlane, Ariel quit her day job to launch a brand of DTC luxury sheets, made in Europe but exuding a California vibe, with photos of models lounging in semi-rumpled beds. As a solo founder, Ariel had to figure out everything herself, from manufacturing to supply chains to how to get through to investors. Today, Parachute Home offers a wide range of home goods and has expanded beyond its website to 26 physical stores across the U.S. This episode was produced by Chris Maccini with music by Ramtin Arablouei.Edited by Neva Grant, with research from Katherine Sypher.Our engineer was Josephine Nyounai.You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at [e-mail] Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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made it feel less like a visit and more like we were actually living there. Plus, taking a trip is the perfect time to host your space on Airbnb. Your place with all of its personal touches and its amazing location could make someone else's vacation even better. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca.ca slash host. I went with my pitch deck. I went with some pillowcases. I had like a Mary Poppins box of fabrics. I mean, I was, I felt like a traveling saleswoman. And what would you say in the pitch, basically, what you're describing to me now? Yeah, I would say you spend a 30 of your life in bed. There is no brand in this category.

I'm going to start with sheets, but I'm going to build a massive brand. We're going to be a billion dollar business, and there is no one doing this. This is like, this is special. And no one wanted to give me money. Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. I'm Guy Raz and on the show today how RELK realized she could cut out the middlemen and sell European-made luxury bedsheets online and eventually grew her idea into parachute home. Here's a scenario a lot of founders face.

You have this awesome idea. You can't shake it. It's so good. You stay up nights and weekends working on it. And finally, just when you launch, someone else with these same. same exact idea launches their own brand. Now, if this sounds like you, do not despair. There is plenty of space for more than one brand doing the same thing.

If you don't believe me, just look at bottled water. But still, the experience is anxiety-inducing. And this is what happened to Ariel K, just weeks after she launched her bed linen brand parachute in 2014. The same month, a competitor called Bowlin Branch also launched. And then, that same year, Brooklinen came around, all of them trying to build direct-to-consumer bed linen brands. Things would eventually work out okay for all three brands, but it would also mean that each one of them would have to work harder to differentiate from the others. Ariel spent almost a year researching the idea before she was ready to start, and part of that journey was trying to find textile factories in Europe that would be willing to work with her.

At the time, Ariel had some experience in advertising and marketing, but she'd never really sold anything or ever run a business. But with a few very smart marketing strategies, including some strategic podcast ads, Ariel figured out how to build Parachute into a formidable national brand. Today, the company is much more of a home goods brand. It sells towels, bath accessories, and even furniture. And it's no longer just an online brand. Parachute has close to 30 physical stores across the U.S. But as you'll hear, Ariel accomplished much of this while facing some really daunting personal challenges.

Ariel K grew up in Los Angeles, and from a young age, she sang. In fact, for a while, she was on a path to becoming a professional singer. I certainly had a moment where I thought, wow, I would love to be a pop star. Yeah. Give a good name for it, Ariel K. You don't know if it changed. You can change your name. It's like Taylor Swift.

That's your real name. I know. And you better believe that my daughter has a name that I think could be a stage name. But I think I quickly realized that that really wasn't going to be my path. And once I got to college and thought about music as a major, I realized that I was good, but I was not excellent. And so I pivoted away from music as part of academia and just continued my music as a passion. You know, it reminds me a little bit of like being a really great high school athlete and then being good enough to go to a D1 school and play there. But then like to get to the professional leagues is like operating at a different level.

And it's probably there's similar parallels with with singing and music. Yeah, and look, I am having a ton of fun going to karaoke rooms these days and just blowing everybody away. And singing every Disney song with my daughter at the top of our lungs. I mean, music is still a part of my life. It's just in a much less professional capacity. All right, so you end up not studying music in college. And I think you started out at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., but you end up. transferring to NYU. And I know you also spent a year abroad, studying abroad in Italy, which, you know, would sort of have kind of an influence on what you would eventually do because it was sort of the first time you were exposed to Italian linens. But I assume that when you were studying abroad as a, you know, 19 or 20 year old, you weren't thinking, oh, this is this is my future business.

No, no, no. I was not thinking that. However, I just was blown away by art. architecture and art and the people that I would meet who were makers and had been, you know, doing their craft for centuries. It had been passed on from generation to generation. And I found myself just thinking about how cool everything was and how beautiful everything was and how even the most simplest products like a napkin or a bed sheet were made with such attention to detail and pride. And you could feel it.

You could taste it in the wine. You could taste it in the olive oil. You know, it was just this real difference. I mean, it was so cool for me at that age to just be exposed and dive into this different type of lifestyle. So after you graduated from college, I guess you did a lot of different things like people do in their 20s, right? You spent some time at a PR agency and you did some digital marketing. And then I guess you eventually decided to go back to grad school for media studies in New York. But during that time, I think you also started to blog about interior design.

Yeah. Where did that even come from? So I always have loved home and design. I grew up in a house that was always the house that was hosting friends. and that desire to host and create a welcoming environment just really stuck with me. And so when I got my first apartment in New York, which is such an exciting moment, I took a lot of pride in that space. And I was constantly decorating and redecorating and doing DIY projects.

And I started to document them on this blog while I was in grad school because I had some time. and I started helping friends decorate their apartments. I had a sister who was working in the government at the time and was moving to a new city every year. And so I'd go set up her apartment for her. And I was really enjoying this art of creating beautiful spaces. And I just put it together on a blog. I mean, this was 2006-7-ish. So very early days of blogs.

Yeah. And, you know, started getting some comments on the blog. and I got some of my project featured on much more prominent blogs, and it was fun. And clearly you had a talent for it. I mean, when did you start to realize that you were pretty good at this? Like, you were pretty good at helping people figure out what bookshelves to buy and what colors to schemes to use in their rooms. I think it was really when I got this first apartment in New York City. You know, I went out and designed it myself, and friends would always come over and be like,

this looks so great. And, you know, and it wasn't fancy. It was just, I think, the way that I pulled it together and the way that I just had this eye for it. And at that point, I also, it felt too late to go and learn how to be an interior designer. So it was just going to be one of these things that I did on the side for fun as I continued to study media in grad school. You graduated from that program in media studies, and then you went to go work at a marketing agency, Digitos. What did you do there? So at Digitoss, I was really identified as the millennial advocate. It was my job to understand what millennials were interested in, what they were inspired by, how to get them involved in brands, how to speak to them. And it was really fun. I mean, I loved it. It was so intuitive because I am a millennial. And I also got a sense of what was really happening on in this growing startup world, both in New York and across the country. I famously loved to remind myself that I worked on American Express in the membership awards program. And I was in charge of sharing a project about alternative currencies as we were thinking about how to. to talk about membership rewards as a real value proposition. And I presented on a little thing called Bitcoin that at the time was worth five cents.

And, you know, stuff like that, which at the time I, you know, could have put a few bucks behind it. And become a multi-billionaire. I did not. So that's a fun lesson. Yeah. So you're doing this work. And probably it was a good job. You probably paid well and could, you know, afford your apartment and, you know, all those things. I imagine it wasn't like you weren't jumping out of bed every morning to get to work.

You know, I was and then I wasn't. I think, you know, over the years, it became harder. There was a lot of turnover. And I started looking around and realizing that I, at one point, thought that, you know, my goal would be to climb this corporate ladder and to be at the top of this agency. And then one day I said, no, that's not. what I want. And I was watching friends join startups and start their own companies. And I was seeing this passion and this fire and desire to work all night long. So the gears in your head are starting to turn. And do you remember thinking, because this is before you had an idea,

but do you remember thinking, I want to join a startup? Or did you think I want to start a startup? Oh, no, no, no. I wanted to join a startup. I had this idea that I wanted to join a startup that was someone in its infancy stages, like I wanted to be at a company that was figuring it out. I wanted to be part of figuring it out. I never thought I was going to start a company. That wasn't part of my, I didn't think that was part of my DNA. Like, I didn't think that I was that person. You didn't think you were the founder type.

That was somebody else. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, and I mean, I didn't see myself as a visionary. Yeah. So you're surrounded by all these friends of yours who are joining startup. And I mean, did you start to actively look and actively talk to friends and say, hey, have you hear of anything? Let me know. And is that, were you doing that? Yeah. So, I mean, this was, we're now in 2012. In the middle of 2012, I decided that by the end of the year, I wanted to figure out what my next move was.

Right. And I had this idea that if I could merge my interest in home and design and in building brands, there could be this convergence of my interests. And together, I would find I would be me. It would be perfect. Yeah. And so, you know, this again, we're in 2012. And the D to C world was just starting to really become significant. There was, you know, Warby Parker and Everlane and brands that were so inspiring to me. You know, here they were creating this new vocabulary around cutting.

out the middleman and going direct to consumer and quality at an accessible price. And I was just blown away by this concept originally just as a consumer. And Everlane was one of those examples. Of course, we've done them on the show. That was one of the companies that you were like, oh, this is cool. Yeah. I would say Warby Parker and Everlane were two of the companies where I was just like, huh, so smart. And so I started to think more critically about direct consumer because, you know, this was at a time, and this continued for many years where it was like, you could, the Warby Parker for X, the Warby Parker for anything. People were trying to make the D to C model work for truly any product that existed. Right.

And, you know, one day, I was walking through bedbath and beyond. And I looked around and said, what is going on here? There are floor-to-ceiling stacked products under fluorescent lights in plastic packaging. Why am I buying this? Like, this is what I'm buying. This is what I've been buying for years. And so I looked at the home and I thought, you know, hmm, your bed. Yep.

It's so important. You know, you spend a third of your life in bed. Sleep impacts everything. It impacts your health, your productivity, your happy. It's intimate. It's cozy. Yet here we are buying no-name products wrapped in plastic. Many of them have toxic chemicals, synthetic finishes, formaldehyde coatings. Like, I mean, it was unreal to me. And I thought this could be life-changing for the customer. Like, this is not just another thing that I buy because I need to. I mean, you need to, but maybe you even want to. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because a lot of sort of budding entrepreneurs often ask me, and I'm sure ask you, like, how do I come upon an idea? And I will say, walk through the aisles of a store, you know, a consumer brand store or a department store and just look at things and try and figure out, you know, where the opportunities are. And that is essentially what you're doing. I mean, you're walking to the sheets aisles and usually most people will look for thread counts like, oh, it's 800 threads per inch or, oh, this says Ralph Lauren on it. You know, this must be nice. And that is. And that is. is essentially the world that you saw in 2012, 2013. Yeah, so this is really end of 2012.

And so I started talking to friends and asking people what sheets they slept on and what sheets they had on their bed. And no one could name a single brand. Like nobody thought of like bedding and a brand. It was just, yeah, I just get the sheets that have the highest thread count or whatever. Right. And then I realized a thread count was a marketing gimmick. And so it was just like as I dug deeper, I was like, oh my gosh, this is a $30 billion market. with these products that had no name.

There was marketing gimmicks like thread count, which have no indication of quality whatsoever. Just to be clear on that, because my understanding is it's how many threads are woven into a square inch of fabric. So you would think the more threads, the softer it is or the more, right? And it's not true. So let me explain it to you. Please, yes. So anything over 300 is a result of manipulation of the fabric. So 300 is that number.

It is the square inch. That's how many weaves. But about, I don't know, maybe 20 years ago, 15 years ago, Sphara launched high thread count sheets. They created a fiber that was extremely thin that allowed them to create a higher thread count. And the rest of the world saw this and said, oh, my gosh, we need higher thread count. However, they didn't have that fiber. So in order to get that higher thread count, they would double weave, triple weave.

They would fold the threads together to create this extremely high number. Now, mind you, there is no regulation at all. So you could literally say any number. And brands got in trouble with that in the past. But what happens is it's actually not softer. It's coarser to the touch. And it's thicker. And so the way that they compensate for that is by using synthetic.

finishes. All right. So you come across or you come upon sheets and you start to think this is an opportunity. And by the way, a couple of years ago we did, you may know, we did the story of Brooklyn and on the show and interviewed Vicki and Rich Fullup and similarly had an experience around sheets. In their case, it was at a hotel where they were like, wow, these sheets are amazing and went on to found their business. Was it something that just like you couldn't let go of? You were like, like you just got super excited about this and you would talk about this with anybody you could. You know, I started having conversations with a friend of mine who is very much involved in my business today and sits on my board. And he's a serial entrepreneur.

What's his name? Eddie Kim. And he was just a friend that you had met in New York? He was a friend that I had met in New York through the startup world. And he had started many different companies. And he was like, yes, this is a great idea. But I will say at the time, I also was like, this is a great idea, but like, who's going to do it? You know, like I had this idea, but it hadn't really dawned on me that I could be the founder.

And my friend looked at me and he said, you are a founder. And I said, what? No, I'm not. What do you mean? And he said, I've never said this to anyone else, but you are a founder. and you are going to start this business, and you are going to be the CEO. And, you know, sometimes there are these moments that are so transformative. And this was one of them for me because he saw something in me that I did not see in myself.

And I all of a sudden believed him. I was like, you're right. I'm a founder. And I remember calling my parents saying, I'm going to found a company and I'm going to be the CEO of this company. and my parents, I think, fell off their chair. When we come back in just a moment, the tyranny of the top sheet and what Riel decides to do about it. Stay with us. I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening to How I Built This. Hi, Guy. I'm Jamila from Atlanta, Georgia.

One of my favorite episodes of How I Built This has to be R.J. Scringe of Rivian. What an inspiring and mind-blowing story. He was such a visionary from the get-go. always laser focused on his bold dream. His journey is a powerful testament of what happens when we identify our life's purpose and then we pursue it with every ounce of our soul. It's definitely inspired me to not only dream big, but also chase my dreams with every ounce of my being. If you want to share your favorite episode of How I Built This, record a short voice memo on your phone telling us your name, where you're from, what your favorite episode is, and why? a lot like the voice memo you just heard.

And email it to us at hibt at ID.wondry.com. And we'll share your favorites right here in the ad breaks in future episodes. And thanks so much. We love you guys. You're the best. And now back to the show. Hey, welcome back to how I built this. I'm Guy Raz.

So it's 2013 and Ariel has decided to start a direct-to-consumer betting business but has no idea where to start. And one of the people she reaches out to is her friend Eddie Kim, who knows a lot about launching startups. And one of the people he introduced me to was a friend that lived in Paris, whose family was in textiles. And so I did all this research, and I planned this trip to Portugal and Italy. I decided that basically the next step would have to be to visit factories. Like I was just like, I don't know what's going on. Like, I mean, I can do all this research, but I need to see firsthand how a single fiber becomes a sheet.

And I need to understand what that means. I had already also decided that if I was going to do this, I was going to manufacture in Europe. Because as I was talking to friends and really figuring out that absolutely no one knew a single brand that was on their bed, they could just tell me what store they went to purchase and they hated the experience end to end. The only brands that they could reference were these super premium brands like Frate or Svara, the ones that were made in Italy that were, you know, $1,000 for a sheet set that no one could afford. But, you know, they'd heard of them. They were that pinnacle of luxury.

but not accessible and not really modern, you know? I mean, it wasn't like what my peers were looking to buy even if they could. But you knew that you wanted to focus on European textiles rather than, you know, maybe get a cheaper version from an Asian factory. So I felt like in order to build trust, I had to prove that this was a quality product. And some of that came from my experience in advertising. You know, it's like there's very fundamental things that you need to do to get people excited about a product. And trust is one of them. And, you know, it also was looking at these successful D to C brands. You know, they are creating premium quality products at a more accessible price by going directly to the factories. And so I was like, surely I can go to Italy and find a factory. And if I'm going to sell it online, I can cut out all of these markups and all of the pricing, you know, inflation things that happen. And I can just sell a great product for less. All right, let's talk about some decisions you made, right? Because you sort of end of December 2012, you are starting to get really excited about this. January, February, you are fully in. And you leave your job in February of 2013. This, this, you know, probably a pretty good job? You're probably paid. Do you know how much you were paid like 80, $90,000 a year? Yeah, exactly. Something like that. So you were making pretty good money. Yeah, it was great. I could afford my life.

Yeah. And you were like 28 at the time. So, you know, it's not super risky. You can definitely recover from a failure at 28. You can recover from a failure at 40 or 50. But still, I mean, in that period of time, January, February, when you were like, I'm leaving my job, I'm going to do this. Did you ever hear from anybody who was like, you know, it's tough to do this. This is a category that's dominated by four players and like you're just going to get into it and you're going to be crushed.

Like, did anybody say that? Or was everybody encouraging? So, you know, I think probably more people should have said that. I mean, I felt there was a moment where I started telling people that I was going to do this. Yeah. Not because I had so much confidence. It was more like I wanted to hold myself accountable. You know, I was like, if I put this out in the world and I say I'm going to do this, then people are going to check in with me.

And they're going to say, how's that thing going? Exactly. And I'm going to be like, well. But yeah, so I was fully consumed. And in March, I went on this trip to Europe. You quit your job and you're like, I'm going to go to Europe. And this was to visit factories. Factories.

Okay. And you just emailed them. I emailed them. And then I had this, our friend Arthur and Paris, who was, you know, able to call some of these factories. He had some contacts. How did you know Arthur? Through Eddie. Oh, this is through Eddie.

Yeah. This is Eddie's friend. And they had done some people. business together. And so he was helping me set meetings up and he had offered to drive me through these countries. Wow. And this was, and you were basically saying, hey, I'm going to, I'm starting a company in the U.S. and I'd love to meet with you. That's what you would say to them? Yeah. Hmm. At that point, I was like, there's nothing that's going to stop me. I'm going to figure out 15 factories to visit. I know I'm going to go to Portugal and Italy because these are the places where

there's heritage. There's factories that have been around for 100 plus years. This is where I can tell that quality story, and it's going to be great. I mean, I was just so excited. You know, I think there's like this like. I can hear it now. Yeah, I mean, I was so excited and I maybe was slightly ill-prepared because I just was like, I'm going to figure this out. And I also had this idea that I wanted to create the first betting brand that wasn't just

sold as sets. Because if you went to any big box retailer, you could buy a pillowcase, but beyond that, You're buying a fitted sheet, a top sheet, and two pillowcases. Right. And I personally don't use a top sheet. I know that that's a very triggering statement for people. You just use the bedspread, the duvet, and that's it. And a fitted sheet.

Okay. That's it. Fine. That's my style. No judgment. Thank you. Well, people do judge. I'm secretly judging you, but no judgment.

Okay. So, but one of the things that I learned is that about 40% of people do not use a top sheet. And so I was like, huh? this is just another opportunity for me to do something different and better. And then if you go to Europe, they don't use the top sheet. They just use a duvet. They just use a duvet or a confeder or a quilt. And by the way, I get that because many times in the middle of night, I'm trying to move.

And my wife is sleeping on top of the sheet and under the duvet. And I'm under both. And I can't, yeah, it's annoying. And I have to wake her up and say, can you. I'm sure she loves that. Yeah. You're on top of the sheet. Yeah.

And then in the. morning, no matter what, no matter how you sleep, that fitted sheet is curled up in a ball at the bottom of the bed. Yeah, it's always the bottom. Yeah, exactly. And so then you're making your bed. It's an extra step. For me, it was not, it was not the vibe. So, you know, I found myself when I was living in New York, as I bought sheets, I had this, like, stack of top sheets that were in my closet. And I realized I was paying for that material because you're paying for the set. So, you know, I had this idea that I was going to go and create this new way of buying betting. And my point here is that when I went to Europe and visiting these factories and I said, I want to sell a new type of set, they were like, yes, yes, finally.

Because they were used to selling these full sets to American brands. Yeah. And they're like, why are you doing this? What's the top sheet? It's just not a European way of sleeping. So there were certain things, and I was like, and I don't want to talk about thread count because I know that thread count isn't what matters. And so they were in, in intriguing. by my desire to package products differently and to create an option for a top sheet instead of a mandatory shop sheet. So we did have a nice rapport. Yeah. And did you in that on that sort of tour of these factories, I have to imagine that most of them were like, well, the minimum order is, you know, 500,000 or 200,000 or 200,000? Like were any of these factories like, yeah, I can I can start with a small order? Yes. So there were probably. two. But, you know, I had to pay up front with the PO. You know, it wasn't like they were like

going to talk about payment terms or like any sort. You know, it was like, okay, give us money and we will make you some sheets. Yeah, I mean, I'm wondering about that because you were going to these factories, as you mentioned these like, you know, multi-generational factories and probably mostly men. And, you know, I imagine they were nice, but you were, you had no business. You had no money you had you were i mean even the fact that they were kind of showing you around is almost implausible to me like that they would give you the time it reminds me a little bit of sarah blakley trying to start spanks like she you know was around the same age and would go to these textile you know mills in north carolina and you know most of most people

are like i just i'm not you know i don't have time for you oh by the way i work with many of these factories now and let me tell you they love to remind me of how ridiculous i was in that first meeting and how little and how they cannot believe that parachute is actually a real company and that, you know, they most definitely laughed at me and thought that I was ridiculous and never thought that they were going to hear from me again. And it's, it comes up every time we talk. All right. So, so you are going to come back to the U.S. and really start to work on this project in earnest. Let me ask you for a moment about design, right? Because I imagine, you know, sheets are just standard. There's a standard design, right? I mean, so what kind of, you know, imprint could you put on these sheets that you were ordering? I mean, the colors maybe and the fabric they used.

But, I mean, you were trying to create a brand for sheets that really wasn't out there. Like, nobody was like, oh, yeah, I buy, you know, Cheetos sheets or, you know, Coca-Cola sheet. Like, no one does that, right? So how are you going to make that come alive? Yeah, so I mean, there were a few different things. So one was being able to package a set without the top sheet. Right. So that was one differentiator.

The other was my knowledge of thread count. So I was going to just go with good old, like true thread count because that is actually the best quality. I wasn't going to use any toxic chemicals, artificial dyes or synthetic finishes. And then I had this idea that I wanted to create a more polypice. clean, modern pillowcase. So normally pillowcases have the side opening, which leaves this flap of fabric, and the pillow can kind of move within the pillowcase. And that always bothered me.

So I decided to create a back envelope pillowcase. I'm not the inventor of a back envelope pillowcase, but it's something that you saw more use for shams. And so that was, those were some of the differentiators. All right, so you get back to New York. And the idea was to do what at that point? I mean, you had to find the money. You had to – there are lots of things to do.

But tell me what your plan was at that point. This is like, you know, March, April, 2013. So I decided to move back to Los Angeles. Which is where you grew up. Which is where I grew up. And so I came back to L.A. And I was like, okay, now I need to raise money because I don't have any money. And I can't actually buy this inventory.

And companies with good ideas raise money. Like that's what they do. They go talk to an investor. And investors like, yes, this is a great idea. Here's the money. And so I started to get some introductions. And you went with your pitch deck and everything? I went with my pitch deck.

I went with some pillowcases. I had like a Mary Poppins box of fabrics. I mean, I felt like a traveling saleswoman. And what would you say in the pitch, basically, what you're describing to me now? Yeah, I would say you spend a 30 of your life. in bed. There is no brand in this category. I'm going to build a home brand for today's modern shopper. And I'm going to start with sheets, but I'm going to build a massive brand. We're going to be a billion dollar business. And there is no one doing this. And these are the

products that you touch and use every day. This is like, this is, this is special. And no one wanted to give me money. But I mean, this was the summer of 2013, like sort of the beginning of the big boom in direct-to-consumer. And there was a lot of money pouring into that space. So when you talked to investors, was there any excitement about what you were describing? Yeah, there was. I mean, for some more than others, I mean, I got a lot of, oh, let me talk to my wife about this. Oh, I never bought sheets before.

People buy sheets. I'm like, well, do you sleep on sheets? I think you might. So yes, people are buying them. You know, I was a sole founder. So, like, there were a lot of questions about why don't you have anyone doing this with you? Right. I mean, this is a common question, right?

Yeah. And by the way, in their defense, it's a good question to ask. Sure. Why aren't you doing this to somebody else? Because solo founders statistically fail more than co-founders do. Yeah. I mean, the questions I kept getting were, why don't you have someone doing this with you? And I can't invest unless there's a technical co-founder or a technical partner.

Because you were going to be a D to C business. Because I was going to be a digital business. Yeah. And so in those early days, too, you know, I thought I was supposed to play it cool, you know? Yeah. I'm sure that I did not walk into those rooms with the intensity that I felt inside. You know, I walked in being like, I got this great idea. Like, come on, we're going for a ride.

Yeah. So what I kept hearing was like, cool, keep it up. Let's talk in a month. Let's talk in a few months. Why don't you show me a model? Why don't you do this? Can you show me a site? Can you, how can you show that there's interest here?

Like, can you put up a website and drive some early sales? They were saying you're pitching us too early. Yeah. Because at that point, you hadn't had inventory. You hadn't had a website. I mean, you had no money to do these things. Right. Yeah.

It was hard. You know, I mean, there were days, you know, I would have a great meeting and be like, I'm on top of the world. I'm the most successful person ever. This is going to be amazing. And then I'd, you know, have another meeting. And I'd be like, I quit. And it was exhausting. But I finally did raise $30,000.

My good friend Eddie brought three friends to the table, and I got $30,000 from them collectively. It's a start. You know, it's a decent start. Yeah. I started working on a website. And by the way, I mean, I imagine when you were going in, because you were like 29, you know, maybe 30. And I mean, I remember being that age and, you know, just naturally, you're not as confident as you are when you're the, 40 or, you know, and so probably that kind of chill laid back approach you took was an attempt to show that you weren't like this giddy young person, right, like that you were actually confident in that. But it sounds like they wanted to see this like hustle, intense kind of like, we're going to, you know, crush it and just a very kind of almost overconfident pitch. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, there was a day where I was running really.

late and I was going for meeting and I came in and I like had this like crazy energy because I was like oh my god I was like I was like trying to do this and I was that but um the feedback I got was phenomenal. It was like from that day. It was like this is the person you need to be. Yeah. And I was like so I need to be running late. I need to be like sweating profusely. I need to have bruises on my arms because I like dropped a box of product on me. I was like, oh, got it.

Yeah. I mean, I think this is it's an interesting idea because there's been so much. much talk in the last 10 years about authenticity, authenticity. And I actually think that word is a little problematic because what does that actually mean? I mean, in some ways, we're all performing, to a certain extent, like all the time. It doesn't mean we're inauthentic, but there are different ways of presenting yourself and interacting with people in different ways. And sometimes you need to turn it up. Totally. And I did need to turn it up. And it was the best feedback I got was turn it up because people aren't mind readers and you learn that, you know, if you

want something you need to ask. And if you want people to know how you feel, it's important to tell them. Yeah. All right. So you raise this initial $30,000 from your friend Eddie Kim and a few others. And then I guess toward the end of 2013, you also joined a startup accelerator program in LA, right? And it was run by a friend of yours? Yeah. So my friend Sam Teller, who ran this accelerator program called Launchpad. And some really great companies came out of launchpad. I was actually in the final class. And basically they would give you some- They gave $25,000 an office and resources, which by the way, when people ask me about raising capital, that was invaluable to me. Yeah. That $25,000, so I had raised $30,000, which allowed me to

like start building this website. And then that $25,000 came in at the 11th hour and allowed me to buy inventory. And that is what allowed me to start this business. And I actually think that one of the biggest things that I learned in that experience was how to ask for help, which, by the way, is a superpower. You know, like it is. It's hard. It's hard. And I think a lot of founders go through building companies thinking that asking for help is a sign of weakness. But I was forced to ask for help and I needed help.

I mean, I didn't. There was, I knew so little about what I was trying to do when I was figuring everything. out on the go. And also being around other founders, I finally felt like I was like not crazy because I wasn't just like in a bedroom by myself. I like had people to talk to. And I think at that point, that was when I knew the amount of sacrifice that I was going to be making. Which meant what? Work always came first. You know, like that this company was going to be my life. And that meant missing weddings, missing dinners, missing social events, missing parties. It means. It meant this was going to be it for me for many years.

Like this was going to be my number one priority. But with that initial, I mean, the 30,000 plus the 25,000 you got from Launchpad, I mean, that's still not that much money. Oh, no. I mean, it's nothing. And with that money, you had to build a website, order some inventory. And do you remember how many you ordered? I mean, with, you know, you couldn't, it wasn't going to be all that 55,000 because you had to. I think I probably ordered about 300.

Okay, 300 sets. And in the meantime, as a solo founder, you know, you talk about, you sort of alluded to this idea that it was overwhelming. What was overwhelming? What was your to-do list? My to-do list was endless. My to-do list was everything. I mean, I actually remember one day, like catching up with a friend and my friend being like, so what do you even do every day? And I burst into tears.

I was like, what do you mean? What do I do every day? And, you know, I think it's so interesting because that the phase of pre-build, especially when, like, no one around you understands what you're doing, is really dark. It's really lonely. I mean, being a founder in general can be really lonely and really isolating and feel like you're an island of one. But before you have a physical product to show someone, I mean, to be fair, it was a fair question, you know, like, what do you do every day? I mean, I was figuring out how to import. I was figuring out how to get bought. I was figuring out how to get a website.

I was figuring out how to take pictures of products. I mean, I did not know how to do anything. Yeah. While you're sort of building the website, first of all, the name, Parachute Home, was that easy to get? Was that a domain that was available? No, so credit goes to our design agency for coming up with the name Parachute. I walked into a meeting.

We were eating a bunch of sandwiches, and we had been working on a number of of other names, none of which were right, but at some point we had had to incorporate, so we had like picked a name that, you know, to just use as a placeholder. What was the name? Oh, it's so embarrassing. You got to tell me. It was saffron oak. Okay, that's fine.

Well, so my rules were that it couldn't have an ampersand and it couldn't have any missing vowels because that was a very popular thing at the time. And I, you know, saffron's like the most expensive spice. It was like luxury and oak is how you build a home. That's where it came from. Anyway. But I walked into the design meeting and the owner of the design company said, you know, I had this idea. What about parachute?

Immediately when I heard the name, I said, yes. Actually, Eddie was in that meeting with me. We looked at each other and we were like, oh, my God. And it was inspired by, you know, the movement of the fabric when you make your bed and the sheet billows down like a parachute. And one of the other insights that I had going into starting this brand was that, you know, This was a predominantly female-centric category. Like, women were buying sheets. And I felt like there's this huge opportunity to create a brand that appealed to both men and women.

But, yeah, it was parachute. It was from that moment on. It was, like, go time. It was, I mean, it was a home run. Okay. So you've got inventory. And you launched this website. I think you launched it in early in 2014, right, in like January of 2014?

Yeah, January 16th. And how did you get the word out? I mean, you have a website, but there are lots of websites out there. So you need people to find your website and order your stuff. So presumably you started by telling your friends, right? Like you sent a blast email out to everybody you knew? Yeah, so I sent lots of emails. I did a few, like, holiday trunk shows.

and gifting markets. And at that point, the website was finished so I could place orders and just fulfill there. Were you doing this on like, I mean, you were going to be D to C, and so did you like do Shopify or square space? No.

So I worked with the design firm. And so the thing about these days was that Shopify and it was like Shopify and Magento and neither of them had very sophisticated CMS platform. at the time. I mean, they did, but what I was told by the designers that I worked with was that we needed to build a custom platform. And so we did. That's expensive. Sure is. It must have eaten a lot of that 55 grand. It was the majority of it. And it took a long time. And it was complicated. And we built this custom CMS program. And that's what we used to launch. And about three weeks after I, well, almost immediately after I launched, I realized when I was like, oh, I see this like error. We got to fix this.

We got to fix this. They're like, oh, that'll be two weeks. That'll be three weeks. It'll take. And I was like, no, no, no, no. And we actually quickly had to move on to Shopify. And it was about a almost $40,000 mistake. And how did you, what was the thing that you were telling people?

Like, these sheets are better than anything else because they're made in Europe and they're really high quality. Like, what was the thing that, what was the message? Yeah, our first tagline was like a designed in L.A., made in Europe. up delivered directly to you. Right. And in those conversations, I was educating people about thread count. And that was like a big, I mean, people love that story. You know, people love learning that thread count as a marketing gimmick. Yeah. And so that became a real hook for people. But, you know, and in December

as well, I did a big photo shoot. So I, you know, I rented an Airbnb and I shot all these products. And I hired a PR agency with my last $3,000. You hired them to do like a blast. To do the launch. Yeah. So having worked in PR, I actually really did believe in the power of PR. I knew, and I knew the power of a launch moment. You know, it's like you only launch once. And especially in that moment, a new direct-to-consumer brand in a category with very little, you know, innovation or certainly never an online brand.

I mean, that was unheard of. I mean, we were really first to market. And so I hired an agency. and, you know, they took a chance. And, you know, I promised that I would pay them more later, you know, once we had money. But we launched in January of 2014 with incredible press. They got you guys attention where? El Decor, Harper's Bazaar, apartment therapy.

I mean, we had, and then we got more press because of the press, you know. And so the first few weeks, all of a sudden it went from, you know, two orders a day to three orders a day to 10 hours. orders a day to all of a sudden I'm looking at my order list and I'm like, I don't know any of these people. These are, I've never even heard of these towns. Like what is happening here? When we come back in just a moment, Ariel makes some bold marketing moves like running photo ads that show beds with actual people in them. Stay with us. I'm Guy Raz and you're listening to How I Built This. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This. So it's early 2014. Parachute is live and Orders for luxury linens are starting to roll in.

As for Ariel, she's working out of the startup accelerator launchpad, but managing the entire business on her own, and she can barely take a breath. And so every morning I would get the orders from the day. I would print out my packing slips. I would print out the shipping label. I would fold the boxes together. I would take home these packing slips.

I'd go directly to the storage unit. I pack my car full of the products. I'd come to the office. I pack the boxes. Call UPS. And then in the middle of the day, I'm like doing customer service emails. I'm trying to pitch investors. I'm doing all these mentorship calls.

I'm like, I am out of my mind. Like I am, it's like, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I can't help but smile ear to ear. Like, this, it was incredible. And also, by the way, I'd been in this accelerator program for like three months at this point. And people were like, what's going on in that corner? Everyone else is building software companies.

Like, I am the only person that has a consumer product. And so everyone's, you know, making their websites and, and apps and things. And all of a sudden I launched this business and I'm like, everyone out of the way. I've got boxes coming in. It was happening, you know? It was like I did not, there was not one minute of it that I was not loving. Yeah. Do you remember how much you made in sales at first month? Oh, I don't remember. I mean, maybe 30,000 or something. I mean, it was pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty good. What was your price point? Because I imagine it had to be significant. significantly higher than Marshalls or T.J. Max. Yeah, I think all in, if you bought the whole set, it was about 249. So I'd imagine you weren't making that much money off that. No, our margin wasn't great. I mean, it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great. We weren't losing money when all said and done. I mean, I wasn't buying anything at scale. So, like, there was no economies of scale. There was, yeah, it was, you know, I wasn't losing money. Yeah. And now you had something to go back and show to investors, but were you able to, I mean, you know, you tried in 2013. You couldn't really raise any institutional capital. Now it's 2014. Now are you having more luck? Yeah. So one of the benefits of being and one of the reasons why I wanted to join Launchpad, I mean, there were so many benefits. But one was that this was a time where investors reached out to accelerators and said, what's going on here?

Like, how do we need to deploy capital. You guys have access to these companies. Who should we be investing in? Yeah. And so as a result, I was getting meetings with the top investors in L.A., San Francisco, New York. And I was able to run a process quite quickly because at Launchpad, they were able to say, you know, this brand just launched. It's a consumer brand. They got product market fit.

You know, the press has been amazing. Sales are through the roof. You know, there's something really happening here. And they were a trusted resource for deal flow. Yeah. You know, I remember being at South by Southwest that year and I had brought about 2,000 eye masks that said dream big parachute home.com. I was wearing them like headbands, passing them out, running around to every party,

throwing them at DJ booths, like meeting investors there. I was able to close some additional investors there. And all of a sudden, I had raised almost a million dollars. Wow. So this is 2014. And now you are, you've got some significant cash. and you have this sort of PR machine, and it's growing, right? Because people are starting to learn about what you're selling.

But it's still D-to-C. I mean, you could only buy it from a website. Correct. Yeah. And then we sold out. I mean, we sold out really quickly. We had this blurb in the Wall Street Journal that really put us on the map. I mean, it was maybe three sentences in a larger story.

And we sold out of everything. And then we put our products on pre-order and sold through the pre-orders. I mean, it just became a bit of a disaster. Yeah. So we had all these orders on pre-order, and some of that inventory was going to be, you know, it was two or three weeks late. But then we had accidentally sold through the pre-orders. So I had to go and email, you know, 75 people and say,

hey, you're not going to get your betting for four months. I mean, it's a good problem to have, but a bad problem to have because then people might sort of write you off. It was a good problem to have, and it was a devastating problem for me at the time. You know, I thought that it was over. It was a good lesson in communication and just how to be transparent with customers and say this is what's happening and we're a growing business and we sold through our inventory. It's getting made in Italy. We're going to give you a play by play and part of this journey and we're so grateful.

And, you know, I'd say about 90% of the people were like, congratulations. We're proud of you. And yes, we can wait four months for our sheets. You know, a few people were like, you don't know how to run a business. And we're out and refund us. And, you know, of course, you know, you can expect some of that too. But there was a moment where, you know, we're out of stock and everything. And I felt like, you know, people are going to forget about us or they're just going to move on or no one's going to trust us. And, you know, it was, it was really upsetting. But we made it through. So I wonder like as you were, especially in that year, you know, you raise a million dollars. It's encouraging. But, um, You know, some of these other brands, competitors, for example, Brooklyn and and, you know, maybe Bowling Branch and some of these other brands were just really growing. And doing things like advertising on podcasts, which created a lot of awareness.

You know, I didn't, and forgive me because I, you know, I follow brands and I try and buy stuff all the time just to be aware of what's out there. But I didn't know about Parachute at the time. Was that frustrating for you to see some of these competitors just like growing, growing, growing, growing? Yes. It definitely caused some anxiety in the sense that I felt a little blindsided. You know, like here I was with my head down building this brand and thinking I had this great, unique idea. That nobody else had. That nobody else had, obviously, because it was my idea. and then three months later, other brands are popping up.

And so, you know, presumably we're all working on these products at the same time. But, you know, I think the reality was is that, you know, I looked and I was like, look, this is a $30 billion market. And when you looked at all of our websites, they all had a very different look and feel. They all had a very different value proposition. And while, of course, people are going to compare shop, we were all slightly different price points. I just decided that I was going to keep my head down. I mean, obviously be aware of what's happening because that is your job. But the thing when I think about this time is that venture capital, especially at this time, thinks you can build brands quick.

Yeah. That was the whole thesis. Brands can be built quickly. And I just didn't believe that. And it's not true. It's very rare that a brand can be built quickly. Yes, exactly. And so I think for me, there were moments like, yeah, yeah.

Yes, moments of deep anxiety and fear and we're not doing this quick enough and I don't have enough money and I can't do this. You know, I can't spend $200 million on marketing to become a household name overnight. But when I could come out of that spiral, I could put myself back into a place where I could say with confidence both to myself and my team and frankly my investors that building a brand does not happen overnight. Yeah. And I think also because I had started this business after an early crop of companies had raised too much money and kind of crashed and burn, there was this cautionary tale. And I think I just like I believed I wanted to grow with the customer. I wanted to build trust. I wanted to move into different categories. I knew that would cost money. I wanted to build the right team. I just, I don't know. I, you know, and I, you know, and I, I, I had venture investors, but I think I only took their advice like 50% of the time. Yeah. And today, one of my biggest issues with the startup venture private equity world is that no one gives credit for financial discipline. Right, right. Nobody, I mean, now, of course, everyone's like, well, we need you to be profitable. But then, then, you know, 2015, 2016, even up until recently, people are just like, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow.

And then we'll worry about profitability later. Exactly. And I just was like committed to building a healthy business. Were we profitable every year from day one? No. Like that we were trying to grow. And we had venture investors telling us to spend millions of dollars on marketing. And once we started to do marketing and we did do some podcasts, we were actually the first podcast advertiser on Pod Save America. And that changed our business.

That was one of the most successful advertising things that we ever did. did. I mean, it was crazy what it did. Those guys were talking about how they loved to sleep on your your linens. Yeah, they were wearing our robes to their live tapings. I mean, they were, we were one of their first, I think two, maybe three advertisers. We were before they even launched. And we, we just had a hunch that because it was a political year, you know, in an election year, that that would be a popular podcast. Yeah. And how did you, I mean, you really had had no experience managing people in your previous job, which isn't necessary, but now it's like on the job training. Like you are literally managing a team of people. How did you find that to, did it come naturally to you or was it hard? You know, it came naturally. I mean, I think that the team of two to team of 20 is a really special time. You know, everyone is somewhat sitting around the table together. There's a lot of communication and collaboration. And of course there's like, you know,

various issues that come up. But there was just so much energy and excitement. I think what helped me the most, to be honest, is that my first few jobs at a college, I had pretty challenging managers, and I worked at companies with pretty poor culture. And so while I did necessarily have a model of what to do, I had a very clear model of what not to do. And that went a long way. Um, Ariel, one of the things that you guys really leaned in on, I mean, and you mentioned this early, early on, which is you never liked to have a fitted sheet, right? And so the idea of like, you know, every time you'd go, like, even today, if you go to a department store and you go to the bedding section, like the beds are crisp, like military crisp. And you guys were the opposite. You had this sort of like laid back, I guess like a lived in look, you know, it was like the beds were not, I mean, the, it wasn't like. It wasn't like. like crisp sheets and a crisp duvet cover. It was like, you know, somebody just got out of bed and just kind of threw the duvet back over the bed. Yeah.

One of the things that I believed was an opportunity was to humanize this category because, you know, it was a brandless category. And I looked around and realized that there were no models ever in a bed. No models, human models in a bed. Humans, humans. Yeah. There were no, like imagery of bed. to sell bedding never had a human in them. There was never a family curled up.

There was never a person snuggling with their blanket. Never thought about that, yeah. And so I felt like, you know, while we weren't going to put the word parachute all over our sheets, we weren't going to brand them, we weren't going to make, we weren't going to move into parachute t-shirts, you know, as branding opportunities. But we did need to create a look and feel and an aesthetic that was recognizable. And so for us, that meant this art of the undone bed, this effortless luxury, this very specific vibe. Which is kind of Southern California, too.

It's California cool. Yeah. Which is where we're from. So it was very authentic to us, you know? I mean, and it was just like, this is how we lived. You know, it wasn't like we had to hire an outside branding agency to tell us how to do this. We were just like, but this is what our bed actually looks. looks like. Why don't we take a picture of that? And then why don't we put a model in there or a person? In the early days, we just had friends and people that were real people because we wanted it to be really real, you know? And it worked.

Yeah. All right. So you guys were obviously primarily only direct to consumer, but with some of the success that you were having. And do you remember, do you have a sense, by the way, what you're your total sales were in year one, roughly? About a million. Okay, so pretty good, a pretty good year, a million dollars in sales. And obviously, as you mentioned, not yet profitable, but that's okay because you could see a path to growth and eventual profitability. You decided in, or I guess in 2015, you start to experiment with pop-up stores, which you had kind of done a version of early on when you were going to these like Christmas markets and stuff. but this would be, I mean, was the idea that it would be like a dipping your toe in potentially opening a brick and mortar store? So I knew that retail was going to be part of our strategy from the beginning.

I mean, it's in my first pitch deck. This is a category where historically 90% of purchases were made offline when I started this brand. So we were already doing something very different. And I knew that there was just going to be this consumer that it was. was going to be a much harder shift in their behavior to buy online. And so we rented a window of a store, like a little window area in Venice, and we put some signage up. And we just saw the way that people responded when they touched and felt our products that it was a real selling point. Like, our products felt good.

And, you know, I think because we knew that everyone was buying offline, it just felt like, you know. It made sense. This had to happen. It had to happen soon. So, okay, you open up your first store in Venice. I think this is in 2016. And that year, you raised serious money. So Series A.

I think you raised about $10 million in that Series A round. So you had some, you know, real heft behind you. and you're launching in different categories now. And you start and you knew that it was going to be a home goods brand from the beginning. But you start with sheets and betting. So how did you, I mean, for example, what did you go to after betting? What did you, did you go to towels after? We went to towels.

So we were focused on betting for the first two years. But then we also had an incredible customer base that were asking for more. I mean, and we were building that trust with them so that they would say, You know, I want this and I want that. And can you, I'm having a baby. And I want products that are also clean and don't have chemicals and look just like yours, but in a miniature size. And so we were leveraging the customer feedback. And over time, we started moving to their categories like rugs and window treatments and kitchen and pillow, like decorative pillows and then eventually into some furniture.

When you introduced furniture, what was the initial idea that, you know, you could, by sofas and other furniture from parachute? That was the idea. Yeah, I mean, we wanted to be in every room of the home. So as we looked at the home and we looked at the revenue opportunities, you know, furniture is a huge lion's share of, you know, this home category. Yeah. And so we started with bed frames, which again made sense.

But we decided that we wanted to do furniture in other rooms, so in the living room. Yeah. And it was successful in many ways, and it was unsuccessful in others. I mean, the logistics were just so complicated. And I think we were unprepared for how difficult getting the products from our manufacturer to the customer would be. And in an effort to focus on profitability, we've slowed that part of our growth down for now. I mean, we've got some incredible furniture in our office that we have designed and are designing. And, you know, it's the category we'll come back.

We just are going to relaunch it with more information. and a better supply chain. Yeah. Ariel, you'd mentioned when you started out as an entrepreneur, you knew there were going to be a lot of personal sacrifices. You know, hang out, family, friends, like, it was heads down. But I guess eventually you did, you did, were able to have some time to focus on your personal life. And you started a family, I think around 2018.

Is that right? Yeah, in 2018, I got made. Married on my way to my rehearsal dinner, I signed a term sheet. And two weeks later, I opened a store in New York City. And a week later, I found out I was pregnant. Wow. May 2018 was a busy month. So you were, I mean, and that's like in the thick of it.

I mean, you were growing and you were raising money. And but still, I mean, it was, I mean, at that point, I think you'd raised about $46,7 million total, which is a lot. lot, but with that money comes expectations and you were going to become a mom. You know, how did you manage, you know, all of these different huge changes in your life? It was tough. I mean, it was a big change. You know, I think up until that moment of becoming a mom, my career and this role as leader and CEO and founder was my entire identity.

and it was also important for my team. I mean, you know, at that point, I had some really strong leadership, and it was great to be able to watch people step into these bigger roles in my absence. And I love being a mom. I mean, being a mom is one of my greatest joys. And being a mom that can share my company and my success with my daughter and now son, you know, is. Yeah. Amazing. I mean, I love bringing my kids to parachute stores and the whole thing. Yeah. We don't always talk about, you know, people's personal lives on the show unless it's relevant to the story. But sometimes we do because I think it's important to illustrate the sacrifices people take to start a business. And sometimes, you know, we don't always know what's happening in people's lives. You know, we show up in a meeting and we may not know there's a crisis going on. There's a sick.

parent or there's a marriage collapsing. I know in your case, your marriage split up, it broke up while you were trying to scale this business and, you know, you had two small kids. How did you deal with that, you know, the challenges in your personal life and also still, you know, come to work every day and just have the energy to do it? It was the hardest time of my life, honestly. You know, I think a lot about when things started to fall apart in my personal life. And the gratitude I had for my professional life because while things were somewhat in chaos and crisis behind closed doors, I had this other door that I could walk through where things were seemingly perfect and where things were

positive and there was growth. And even during some of our more challenging times at Parachute, I was very private about what was going on. So, you know, most of my executive team members didn't really know what was even happening. And I felt very guarded and I felt very alone and, in many ways, ashamed of what was happening. And also this real desire to show up as this like super professional human that could function and in reality I couldn't and I'm very pleased to say that in the past you know year and a half two years I've really prioritized a lot of my own personal development and growth and have done a lot of what we like to call in LA the work and in retrospect again I wish I had asked for more help I wish I would have said you know I'm going through this and I think what I would have found out is that I was not alone

I probably would have been connected to a number of people who had experienced similar things. And, you know, I think people often tell me how strong I am, especially now knowing what I've gone through. And I hate that word. Yeah. Because it just implies this ability to ignore pain and not feel and not fall apart. And I think that there needs to be more space for people to fall apart in a way that is support. where people can say I've got your back. Yeah.

What got you to the point where you felt like you could give yourself time to focus on you? I made a choice in 2021 that I was going to make time. Yeah. I was going to make time at whatever cost. I had to. But then also at the beginning of this year, I actually stepped down as CEO. And I passed the baton to our former COO. And it's also allowed me to get back to the parts of the business that I love, which is the creative side of everything.

And so I'm spending all of my time now focused on the brand evolution and who we are and who we're going to be for the next 10 years and the creative. And that's been really fun too. What does that mean for RELK? I know that you're no longer the CEO, but you're obviously involved with the company. but at the same time, you know, you're still young and you can do other things or you can step down and, you know, probably get a nice check and live a nice life with that check. I mean, you've been grinding away at this for 10 years. What do you think? I love what I do.

I truly do. And I love the people that I get to work with. And I'm in for the long haul. I mean, there's going to be exciting moments for consumer. brands that have strong customer bases in the next few years. Yeah. And for me, as long as I'm continuing to learn and grow and feel challenged, like I am engaged and that has never slowed down.

Yeah. You've kind of alluded to this a little bit in your answer, but I'm going to ask you it anyway because it wouldn't be a high-builtus interview unless I did ask you this question, which is when you reflect on your career and where you got to and the ups and downs and and also the pain and the joy and everything in between. How much of where you are today do you attribute to how hard you worked and how much you put into it and how much do you think had to do with luck? Luck is certainly a part of it. I mean, I think from a timing perspective, you know, being first to market, launching in 2014, you know, the market was not nearly as saturated it was today.

I mean, you could get to decent scale spending relatively little marketing dollars. I mean, it's just a different world. And in some ways, it's so much easier to launch a company today. I've worked pretty hard. I mean, I've hustled, man. I've hustled, you know? But I've also been so lucky to have such strong people around the table. But yeah, I mean, this was it.

This was the vision. And it's... Yeah. It feels like it's been a million years and five minutes at the same time. That's RELK, founder of Parachute Home. By the way, what's your favorite karaoke song? I actually just went karaoke recently, and I started with Whitney Houston dance with somebody, which is not an easy song.

That's hard. How do you hit those notes? It's a very hard song, but you know what? It really just turns it up. You know, the room gets excited. You need some good fun, upbeat music to kick everything off. and to get people in the mood. You can hit that Whitney Houston.

I know. Wow. Amazing. I mean, I'm not comparing myself to Whitney. Let's be clear. Hey, thanks so much for listening to the show this week. Please make sure to click the follow button on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode of the show. And as always, it's free.

This episode was produced by Chris Messini with music composed by Ramtin Arablui. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Catherine Seifer. Our audio engineer was Joseph. Neonai. Our production staff also includes Alex Chung, Casey Herman, Carla Estevez, J.C. Howard, John Isabella, Carrie Thompson, Malia Agudelo, and Sam Paulson. I'm Guy Raz, and you've been listening to How I Build This.