Parachute Home: Ariel Kaye

went with my pitch deck, I went with some pillowcases, I had like a Mary Poppins box of fabrics. I I mean I was I felt like a travelling saleswoman. And what would you say in the pitch, basically w what you're describing to me now? Yeah, I would say you spend a third of your life in bed. There is no brand in this category. I'm gonna start with sheets, but I'm gonna build a massive brand. We're gonna 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 RLK realized she could cut out the middleman and sell European made luxury bed sheets 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 the 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 bedlinen brand, Parachute, in 2014. The same month a competitor called Bull and Branch also launched. And then That same year. Brooklyn and came around.

All of them trying to build direct to consumer bedlinen 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. Yeah. 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 never really sold anything or ever run a business. But with a few very smart marketing strategies, including some strategic podcast ads.

RL 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 thirty physical stores across the US. But as you'll hear, Ariel accomplished much of this while facing some really daunting personal challenges.

RLK 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 I certainly had a moment where I thought, wow, I would love to be a pop star. Yeah. You've a good name for it, R. E. L. K. You don't know. Change your name. It's like Taylor Swift. That's your real name. I I I know, and you better believe that my daughter has a name that I think could be a Steach name. But I um I think I quickly realized that that really g wasn't gonna 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 D one 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 W with singing and music.

Yeah, and look, I am having a ton of fun going to karaoke rooms these days. And and just blowing everybody away. And singing Every Disney song with my daughter at the top of our lugs. 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 uh not studying music in college. And I I think you started out at George Washington University in Washington, D C, um But but you end up transferring to NYU and and I know you also spent

a year abroad, studying abroad in Italy. Which You know, would would sort of have kind of an influence on what you would eventually do,'cause it was 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, nineteen or twenty 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 architecture and art and the people that I would meet who were makers and had been You know, doing their craft for 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's just this Real. difference. I mean it was it was so cool for me at that age to just be exposed

And dive into this different type of lifestyle. Hm. So after you graduated from college, um I guess you did a lot of different things like people do in their twenties, right? spent some time at a PR agency and and you did some digital marketing.

And then I I guess you eventually decided to go back to grad school, uh, for media studies uh in New York. Um but but during that time I think you also started like Mm. Blog about uh interior design. Yeah. Wh where where did that even come from?

So I always have loved home and design. Yeah. I Group. In a house that was always the house that was hosting friends. And that That desire to host and and create a welcoming environment just really stuck with me. And so when I got my first apartment in New York, which is you know 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, you know, go set up her apartment for her and I just I was really enjoying this Art of creating beautiful spaces. And I just put it together on a blog. I mean this was two thousand and six seven ish, so very early days of blogs.

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 and clearly you had a talent for it. Like I mean, d d when when did you start to think realize that You're pretty good at this. Like you're pretty good at at

Helping people figure out what bookshelves to buy and what colours to schemes to use in their in their rooms. I think it was really when I got this first apartment in New York City. You know, I 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 the way that

I just had this eye for it. Yeah and at that point I also it felt too late to go and learn how to be an interior designer. So it was just gonna be one of these things that I did on the side for fun as I continued to um study media in and in grad school. Um, you graduated from

From that program. In media studies and then you went to go work at a at a marketing agency, Digitas. Um, what did you do there? So at Digitas I was really identified as the millennial advocate.

Right. 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 I am a millennial and um I also got a sense of what was really happening on in this

growing startup world, both in New York and um across the country. I famously loved to run my myself that I 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 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 um 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. But I I did not. So um that's a fun lesson. Yeah. So so you're doing this work and and probably was a good job. You were probably paid well and could, you know, afford your apartment and and you know, all those things. But 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. Um I think you know Over the є 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 T to climb this corporate ladder and to be at the top of this agency.

And then one day I I 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 and um So you're 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 wanna join a startup, or did you think I wanna start a startup? Oh no no no, I I wanted to join a startup. I had this idea that I wanted to join a startup that was somewhat in its infancy stages. Like I 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 gonna start a company. That wasn't part of my I didn't think that was part of my DNA. Like I j I didn't think that I was that person. I didn't think you were the

The founder type. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, and I mean I didn't I didn't see myself as a visionary. Yeah. So you are you're surrounded by all these friends of yours who are joining startups and I mean w w did you start to actively look and actively talk to friends and say, Hey are you d have you hear anything of anything, let me know and uh w is that w were you doing that?

Mm. We're now in two thousand and twelve. In the middle of two thousand and twelve, 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 interests 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 two thousand and twelve and the D to C world was just Starting to really

become significant um There was Yeah, 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. We s of course we've done done them on the show. That was one of the companies that you were like, Oh, this is cool.

Yeah. I I would say Warby Parker and Everlane were two of the companies where I was just like, Huh. So smart. Yeah. And so I started to think more critically about direct to consumer because you know, this was uh at a time and and this continued for many years where it was like you could the Warby Parker for the 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 um

You know, one day was walking through Bed Bath and Beyond, and I looked around and said What is going on here? Um 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.

Yeah. I looked at the home and I thought, you know, hmm. Your bed. Yeah. It's it's so important, you know. You you're spend a third of your life in bed.

Sleep impacts everything. It impacts your health, your productivity, your happiness, 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 it's interesting'cause a lot of sort of budding entrepreneurs often ask me and I'm sure I'm skew like how do I come upon an idea? And I will say Walk through the aisles of a store, you know a 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 and that is essentially what you're doing. I mean you're you're walking to the the sheets aisles and Usually most people will look for thread counts like oh it's eight hundred threads per inch or oh this says Ralph Loren on it, you know, this must be nice. And that is essentially the world that you saw in twenty twelve twenty thirteen. Yeah, so this is

Really end of twenty twelve. And so I started talking to friends and asking people what sheets they slept on and what sheets they had on the on their bed. And no one could name a single brand. Like nobody thought of like betting in a brand. It was just, yeah, I just get the sheets that have the highest thread count or whatever. Right. And and then I realized that 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 thirty billion dollar market. with these products that had no name. There was marketing gimmicks like thread count, which have no indication of quality whatsoever. 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 Let me explain it to you. So anything over three hundred is a result of manipulation of the fabric. So li three hundred is that number. It is the square inch. That's how many weaves, but About I don't know, maybe twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, I Sphera 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 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. Alright, so you you come across or you come upon sheets and you start to think This is an opportunity. And by the way, a couple years ago we did you may know we did the story of Brooklyn and on the show and in interviewed Vicky and Rich Fullop and similarly had an experience around sheets. In their case it was at a hotel.

um 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 It like you just got super excited about this and you would talk about this with anybody you could.

You know, I 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 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 um 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 gonna do it? You know, like I I I had this idea, but it hadn't really dawned on me that I could be the founder. And my friend looked at me. Um And he said, You are a founder.

Hm. And I Said what? No. Um, what do you mean? And he said, I've never said this to anyone else.

But you are a founder. And you are gonna 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 Um, I'm gonna found a company and I'm gonna 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 Ariel decides to do about it.

Stay with us, I'm Guy Roz, and you're listening to How I Built This. I'm Damila from Atlanta, Georgia. One of my favorite episodes of how I built this has to be RJ Scyringe 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.wonder.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 RL 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 um one of the people he introduced me to um 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 o had already also decided that if I was gonna do this, I was gonna manufacture in Europe. Because as I was talking to friends and 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 Frete or Sfera, the ones that were made in Italy that were, you know, thousand dollars 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 and not really modern, you know? I mean that wasn't like what my peers were looking to buy even if they could. But you knew that that you wanted to focus on on European textiles rather than m you know, maybe get a a cheaper version from from an Asian factory. Trevor Burrus, Jr. So I felt like In order to build trust. I had to

Prove. This was a quality product. And 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 gonna sell it online, I can cut out all of these markups and and

all of the pricing, you know, inflation things that happen and I can just Stell a great product for us. Alright, let's talk about some decisions you made, right? Because you you You sort of end of December twenty twelve.

you are starting to get really excited about this. January, February, you are fully in and you leave your job in February of twenty thirteen. Um this This you know. P probably a pretty good job. You're probably paid. And do you know how much you were paid like Eighty, ninety thousand dollars a year. Yeah, exactly. Something like that. So you're making pretty good money. Yeah, I was making it was great. I could afford my life. I was Yeah. Yeah.

And you were like twenty eight at the time. So You know, it's it's not super risky. You can definitely recover from a failure at twenty eight, you can recover from a failure at forty or fifty, but still, I mean, in that period of time, j January, February. when you were like, I'm leaving my job, I'm gonna do this. Did you ever hear from anybody who was like, you know, it's tough to do this is a category like that's dominated by four players and like you're just gonna get into it and you're gonna be crushed. Like did anybody say that or was everybody encouraging?

So You know, I think probably more people should have said that. Um, I mean I felt there was a moment where I started telling people that I was gonna 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 gonna do this, then people are gonna check in with me and they're gonna say, How's that thing going? Exactly. And I'm gonna be like, well, um but yeah, so I I was fulsome and in March I went on this trip to Europe. You quit your job and you're like, I'm gonna go to Europe.

And this was to visit Factories. Factories. Okay. And and you just emailed them. I emailed them and then I had this our friend Arthur in Paris who um was you know able to call some of these factories. He had some contacts. How did you know Arthur? Through Eddie. Th oh this is through Eddie. Yeah, this is Eddie's friend, and they had done the bit some business together and so he was helping me set meetings up and he had offered to drive me through these countries. Wow. That and and this was In and you were basically saying, Hey, I'm gonna st I'm starting a company

uh in the US and I'd love to meet with you. That's what you would say to them? Yeah. I at that point I was like there's nothing that's gonna stop me. I'm gonna figure out 15 factories to visit. I know I'm gonna go to Portugal and Italy because these are the places where there's heritage. There's factories that have been around for a hundred plus years. This is where I can tell that quality story. And it's gonna 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 gonna figure this out. Um 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. Um You just use the bed spread the duvet and that's it. And a fidgety. 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 one of the things that I learned is that about forty percent 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 a top sheet. They just use a duvet. They just use a duvet or a comfort or a quilt. Yeah. And and by the way, I get that because many times in the middle of the night, I'm trying to move and my wife is on 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, I'm sure she loves that. Yeah. Yeah, and 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. Oh yeah. It's always the bottom. It yeah, exactly. And so then you're making your bed. It's an extra step. For me I 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 gonna go and create this new way of buying bedding. 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, Who why are you doing this? What's the top sheet? It's just not it's 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 they were in intrigued 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 we did have a nice report. Yeah. And and did you in in that on 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 five hundred thousand or two hundred thousand, like w w were any of these factories like yeah, I can I can start with a small order.

Yes, so there 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 gonna talk about payment terms or like any sort. You know, it's like, okay, g 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 you mentioned these like you know

multi generational factories and probably mostly men and You know, I imagine they were nice, but you were uh you had no business, you had no money, you had you were I mean 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 Blakely trying to start Spanks. Like she you know is around the same age and

you know, mills in North Carolina and you know, most of be most people were like, I I just I'm not you know, I 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 and never thought that they were gonna hear from me again. And it's

It comes up every time we talk. Alright, so so you are gonna come back to the US and really start to work on this project in earnest. Let me ask you for a moment about design, right? Because I imagine Um you know.

sheets are just standard. There's a standard design, right? I mean so w what 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 use, but 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 gonna use any toxic chemicals, artificial dyes, or synthetic finishes. Um and then I had this idea that I wanted to create a more Polished clean modern pillowcase. So normally pillowcases have the side opening.

Which leaves this flap. the fabric. And the pillow can kinda 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 used for s like shams. Um, and so that was Those were some of the differentiators. Alright, so you get back to New York. And The idea was to

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 w tell me what your plan was at that point. This is like, you know, March, April Two thousand thirteen. So I decided to move back to Los Angeles. Which is where you grew up.

Which is where I grew up. And so I I came back to LA 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 investor's like, Yes, this is a great idea. Here's the money. And so I 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 I mean I was I felt like a travelling saleswoman. And what would you say in the pitch, basically what you're describing to me now? Yeah, I would say you spend a third of your life in bed. Yeah. There is no brand in this category. I'm gonna build a home brand for today's modern shopper. And

I'm gonna start with sheets, but I'm gonna build a massive brand. We're gonna 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. Mm. But I mean

This was the summer of twenty thirteen. Like sort of the beginning of the the big boom in direct to consumer And there was a lot of money pouring into that space. So So when you talk to investors, was there 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 I never bought sheets before. People buy sheets. I'm like, Well, do you sleep on sheets? I think you I think you might. Um so yes, people are buying them. Um you know, I was a soul founder, so like there was

There are a lot of questions about why don't you have anyone doing this with you. And by the way, in their defense, um, it's a good question to ask. What 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 and I can't invest unless there's a technical co founder or a technical partner. Because you were gonna be a D to C business. Yeah. And so in those early days too, you know, I I thought I was supposed to play it cool, you know. I I'm sure that I did not walk into those rooms with the intensity that I felt inside. You know, I 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 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 to do these things. You need them. 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 gonna be amazing. And then I'd you know have another meeting and I'd be like I quit. Um and it was it was exhausting. But I finally did raise thirty thousand dollars. My good friend Eddie brought three friends to the table and I got thirty thousand dollars from them collectively. It's a start, it's a you know, it's a decent start. Yeah. I started working on a website.

And and by the way, I mean, I imagine when you were going in,'cause you were like twenty nine, you know, maybe thirty. And I mean I remember Being that age and you know, just naturally you're not as confident as you are when you're forty or you know, and No. And or and so probably that kinda 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 but it sounds like they wanted to see this like hustle, intense kinda like we're gonna, you know, crush it and 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 a meeting and I came in and I like had this like crazy energy because I was like, Oh my god, I 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. This is the person you need to. Yeah, and I was like, w so I need to be running late, I need to be like sweating profusely, I need to have bruises on my arms'cause I like dropped a box of product on me. I it was like, Oh, got it. Yeah, I mean I think this is it's it's an i interesting idea because there's been so much talk in the last ten 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. It's to a certain extent, like all the time. It doesn't mean we're inauthentic, but there are different ways of presenting yourself and and interacting with people in different ways. And sometimes you need to turn it up.

Totally. And I need I did need to turn it up. And and it was the best feedback I got was 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. Alright, so you

You raise this initial thirty thousand dollars. And then I guess toward the end of twenty thirteen you also joined uh a startup accelerator program in in LA, right? And and it was run by a friend of yours. Yeah, so I I uh m my friend Sam Teller, who who ran this accelerator program called Launchpad

And Some really great companies came out of um Launchpad. I was actually in the final class. And basically they would give you They gave twenty five thousand dollars an office and resources, which by the way, when people ask me about raising capital. That was invaluable to me. Yeah. That that$25,000. So I'd I had raised thirty thousand dollars, which allowed me to like start building this website. And then that twenty-five thousand dollars 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 one of my superpowers. 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 I didn't there was I knew so little about what I was trying to do and 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 uh 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 meant This was going to be it for me for a for many years. Like this was gonna be my number one priority.

But with that initial I mean, the thirty thousand plus the twenty five thousand you got from Launchpad. Um I mean that's still not that much money. Um 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. gonna be all that fifty five thousand because you had to I think I probably ordered about three hundred. Okay, three hundred sets. And Um and

In the meantime, as a solo founder, you know, you talk about Um you 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, uh like catching up with a friend and my friend being like, So what do you even do every day?

And I burst into tears. And it w you know, I think it's it's it's so interesting because that the The phase of pre-build, especially when like no one around you understands what you're doing, is 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 boxes. I was figuring out how to get a website. I was figuring out how to take pictures of products. I was I mean I 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 uh a domain that was available? No, so um credit goes to our design agency um 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 other names, none of which were right, but at some point we had had to incorporate, so we had like picked a a name that You know, to just use as a placeholder. Oh, it's so embarrassing. Go tell me. It was saffron oak.

Um Okay, that's fine. Well, so my 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. Um 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 um but I walked into the design meeting and and the owner of the design company said, You know, I had this idea, what about parachute? Hm. 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. Um 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 launch this. this website, I think you launched it in early in twenty fourteen, right? In like

January of twenty fourteen? Yeah, January sixteenth. And How did you 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. Um I did a few

Like holiday trunk shows and And at that point the website was finished so I could like place orders and just fulfill there and um were you doing this on like I mean you were gonna be D to C and so did you like do Shopify or or Squarespace or no? So I um I worked at the design firm um And so the thing about these days was that Shopify and

It was like Shopify and Magento and and Neither of them had very sophisticated CMS platforms 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. Um it was That must have eaten eaten a lot of that fifty five grand. It was the majority of it.

And and it took a long time and it was complicated and we built this custom CMS program. Um and that's what we use 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 gotta fix this, or we gotta fix that. They're like, Oh, that'll be two weeks, that'll be three weeks, it'll take and I was like, uh and we actually quickly had to move on to Shopify and it was It was about a almost forty thousand dollar mistake.

And how did you what was the thing that you were telling people like These sheets are better than anything else because uh 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 LA, made in Europe, delivered directly to you. You know, and 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 is a marketing gimmick. Yeah. And so that became a real hook for people. Um but, you know, and in December as well, I I did a big photo shoot. So I, you know, I rented a Airbnb and I shot all these products and I hired a PR agency with my last three thousand dollars. You hired them to to do like a blast. To do the launch. Yeah. So I 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. Um, but we launched on in January of twenty fourteen with Incredible press. They got you guys attention where?

El decor Harper's Bazaar apartment therapy амі гад а не вис о You know, and so the that first few weeks, all of a sudden it went from, you know, two orders a day to three orders a day. to 10 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 don't I've never even heard of these towns. Like what is happening? 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 RL? 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 go directly to the storage unit, I pack my car full of the products, I come to the office, I pack the boxes, call UPS, and it was like that was 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'm I am out of my mind. Like I am it's like but I'm I when I look back at this time I can't help but smile ear to ear. Like this it was incredible. And also by the way, I've 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 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 that first month? Oh, I don't rem I mean maybe thirty thousand or something? I mean, Which was pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty good. Yeah, I think All in if you bought the whole set, it was about two forty nine. So I have to 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, um when all said and done. I mean, I wasn't buying anything at scale. So like there was no economies at scale. There was It 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 Uh I mean, you know, you tried in twenty thirteen, you couldn't really raise any institutional capital. Now it's twenty fourteen. Now are you having more luck? Yeah, so one of the benefits of being and one of the reasons why I wanted to join

launch pad. 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 I 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 LA, 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, I there's something really happening here. And and they were a trusted resource for deal flow. Yeah.

You know, I remember being at South by South West that year and I had brought about two thousand 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 um, 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 twenty fourteen 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 about what you're selling. But it it's um

Uh it's still D to C. I mean it's still you could only buy it from a website. Correct. Yeah. And we and then we sold out. I mean, we sold out really quickly. Um 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 We sold out of everything and then we we put our s our products on pre order and sold through the pre orders. I mean it just it became A bit of a disaster. Yeah.

So we had all these orders on pre order and some of that inventory was gonna be, you know, it's two or three weeks late. Um, but then we had accidentally sold through the pre order, so I had to go and email, you know, seventy five people and say, Hey, you're not gonna 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. Hm. 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 gonna give you a play by play and you're part of this journey and we're so grateful and

Yeah, I'd say about ninety percent of the people were like, Congratulations, we're proud of you, and yes, we can wait four months for our sheets. You know, we got few people were like, You don't know how to run a business and we're out and you refund us and you know, of of course, you know, you can expect some of that too, but um There was a moment where, you know, we're we're out of stock and everything, and I felt like, you know, people are gonna forget about us or they're just gonna move on, or No one's gonna trust us and you know it was it was really upsetting. Um But we we made it through. So I 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 Bolin Branch and some of these other brands were just really growing and um 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 and all 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. I you know, I looked and I was like, look, this is a thirty billion dollar market. And when you looked at all of our websites, they all had a very different look and feel, they all had a a very different value proposition. And while of course people are gonna compare shop, we are all slightly different price points. I just decided that I was gonna keep my head down. I mean obviously be aware of what's happening because that is your job, but

Um 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

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 two hundred million dollars 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. Бот чи моїсел та май тем. And frankly, my investors, that building a brand does not happen overnight. Yeah.

I think also because I had started this business. After An early crop of companies had raised too much money and kinda crashed and burned. I 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 No, I I you know, and I I had venture investors, but I think I only took their advice like fifty percent 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 every now, of course, everyone's like, Well, we need you to be profitable, but then then, you know, twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, even up un you know, till recently

People are just like, 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.

Um that was one of the most successful advertising things that we ever did. I mean it it was Crazy what it did. Those guys were talking about um how they love to sleep on your your m your linens. Yeah, they were wearing our robes to their live tapings. I mean they they were we were one of their first I think two ad maybe three advertisers. We were d before they even launched and and we we just had a hunch that because it was a political year, you know, and 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 W 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 twenty 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 per like, you know, various issues that come up. Um 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 out of college I I had pretty challenging managers and I worked at companies with pretty poor culture. And so while I didn't 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

Arielle, w one of the things that you guys really leaned in on, I mean, and you you mentioned this early, early on, which is you you never like 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 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, um I guess like a lived in look, you know, it was like the beds were not I mean the It wasn't like crisp sheets and a crisp duvet cover. It was like You know, somebody just got out of bed and just kinda 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 beds to cell bedding never had a human in them. Yeah. There was never a family curled up. There was never a person snuggling with their blanket.

And so I felt like, you know, while we We weren't gonna put the word parachute all over our sheets. We weren't gonna brand them. We weren't gonna make we weren't gonna 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 these art of the undone bed. This effortless luxury This very specific vibe. Which is kinda like 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 was all 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 how this is what our bed actually 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? Um And s and it it It worked. Yeah.

Alright, so you 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 a sense, by the way, what 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'cause you could see a path uh uh to growth and eventual profitability. You decided in or I guess in twenty fifteen you start to experiment with pop up stores, um, which you had kinda done a version of early on when when you were going to these like Christmas markets and stuff, but

This would be Uh a ch was it I mean, was the idea that it would be like a dipping your toe and potentially opening a brick and mortar store? So I knew that retail was gonna be part of our strategy from the beginning. I mean it's in my first pitch deck. I 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 um I knew that there was just gonna be this consumer that it was gonna be a much harder shift in their behavior to buy online. And so We rented a

window of a store. um like a little window area in Venice. Um 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 w had to happen. It had to happen soon. So

Okay, you open up your first Store. In Venice. I think this is in twenty sixteen. And that year you you raised ser serious money, so series A. I think you raised uh about ten million dollars in that series A round. Um

So you had Some you know. Real heft behind you. And um it you're launching in different categories now. You start and you knew that you were gonna it was gonna be a home goods brand from the beginning, but you uh you start with sheets and bedding. So how did you I mean, for example, what what did you go to after after betting? What did you did you go to towels after? We went to towels. So we 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 other categories like rugs and window treatments and kitchen and pillow like decorative pillows and and then eventually into some furniture. When you introduced furniture. What was the initial idea that you know

You can buy sofas and and other furniture from Parachute. That was the idea. Yeah. I mean we 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 share of. You know, this home category. Yeah. And so we started with bed frames, which again made sense. Um, but we decided that we wanted to do furniture uh 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 um 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 it's the category will come back. We just are going to relaunch it with more information and a better supply chain. Yeah.

Arielle, you'd mentioned when you started out as an entrepreneur, you knew there were gonna be a lot of personal sacrifices. You you know, hanging out, family, friends, like you it was heads down. Um, but I guess eventually you did you did were able to have some time to focus on your personal life and you you you started a family, um, I think around twenty eighteen, is is that right? Yeah, in twenty eighteen I Got 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 twenty eighteen was a busy month. So you were I mean and that's like in the thick of it. I mean you were success you were growing and you were raising money and but still, I mean, it was

I mean at that point I think you raised about Forty six, seven million dollars total, which is a lot. But but With that money comes expectations and You were gonna become a mom? I mean, 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, and I think up until that moment. of becoming a mom, my

career and this role as leader and CEO and founder w 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 um

I love being a mom. I mean being a mom is one of my greatest joys and being a a mom that can share my company and my success with my daughter and now son Yeah, is Yeah. Amazing. I mean I love bringing my kids to parachute stores and the whole thing. Yeah.

Um 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 the you know We don't always know what's happening. in people's lives. You know, we we show up at 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, split up, it broke up, um, while you were trying to scale this business and

You know you had two small kids. How did you How did you deal with that? You know. The the

the challenges in your personal life and also Still. You know, come to work every day. have the energy to do it.

Um it was The hardest Type of my life. Honestly, um You know, I I think a lot about when things started to fall apart in my personal life. Um and

The gratitude I had for my professional life because Well 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 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 um 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. Um And in retrospect, again, I 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 and I probably would have been connected to a number of people who had experienced similar things and um Yeah, I think People often tell me how strong I am, especially now knowing what I've gone through, and I I hate that word, um because It just implies this ability to

Ignore pain and not feel and not fall apart and I think the There needs to be more space. For people to fall apart in a way that is supportive, where people can say I've got your back. Yeah.

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 twenty

twenty one. That I was going to make time. Yeah. I was gonna make time at whatever cost. I 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, um, 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 gonna be for the next ten years and the creative and um And that's been really fun too. What does that mean for for R E L K? 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 and live a g a a nice life with that check. I mean, you've been grinding away at this for Ten years. What do what do you think?

I love what I do. I truly do. And I love the people that I get to work with and um I'm in it for the long haul. I mean, I there's gonna 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 is never slowed down. Yeah.

Yeah. Um you've you've kind of alluded to this a little bit in in your answer, but I'm gonna ask you it anyway, because it wouldn't be a high built this 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 also the pain and the joy and you know, and everything in between.

How much of of where you are today do you attribute to how hard you worked and And how much you put into it and how much do you think ha had to do with Luck. Luck is certainly a part of it. I mean, I I think from a timing perspective, you know, being first to market, launching in twenty fourteen.

You know the market. was n not nearly as saturated as it was today. I mean, you could get to decent scale spending m relatively little marketing dollars. I mean, it's just a different world. Um and in some ways it's so much easier to launch a company today. Um I've worked pretty hard. I mean I've hustled, man. I ha I've hustled, you know, but I've also been so

Lucky to have such strong people around the table. Um 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 and five minutes at the same time. That's Ariel K, founder of Parachute Home. By the way, what's your favorite karaoke song?

Um I actually just went karaoke recently and I started with Whitney Houston dance with somebody, which is not an easy song. That's hard. It's a very hard song, but you know what? It really just turns it up. You know, the room gets excited. You need 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 Massini with music composed by Ramtin Arablui. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Catherine Cypher.

Our audio engineer was Josephine Noni. Our production staff also includes Alex Chung. Casey Herman, Carla Esteves, JC Howard, John Isabella, Carrie Thompson, Leah Agudello, and Sam Paulson. I'm Guy Raz and you've been listening to how I built this.

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