She is one of the very few entrepreneurs who went solo
until her company had achieved success in finally getting some
investment in her idea. In fact, Ariel Kaye recruited the first employee
of the ecommerce start-up that has already created a stir in the
bedding essentials sector and expanding with each passing day. She went
Education
Daughter
of a school-teacher, Ariel Kaye completed a masters in media studies
(focus on social media marketing, digital media, and video production)
in 2010 from The New School.Before that she completed her bachelors of
arts (focus on media, power, and persuasion) in 2006 from the Gallatin
School, New York University, where she was Dean Scholar and graduated
with honors (Magna Cum Laude).
The decade-long professional career in New York
She
delved into the field of advertising – branding – to be specific, and
work in that field for around 10 years before the bug of
entrepreneurship bit her. It was a serendipitous occurring that changed
what seemed like a content enough career in the field of marketing with
random indulgence into design and home décor. She started her career
with a communications company called ‘i33 Communications LLC’ as
executive assistant to the President/CEO.
Much as it may seem like
baptism by fire, as being the CEO’s executive is no easy job, but her 7
months in that role gave her enough perspective very early in life
about corporate culture, business handling, and the nitty-gritty of
entrepreneurship.
Then she followed it up with a job stint of 5
months with a company called Goldin Solutions as a Senior Digital
Analyst. Her next job allowed her to ease into a managerial position and
see the functioning of business from up close. She served as manager
(Account Planning) for the company called ‘Digitas’ in which role she
lasted for a close to 3 years.
By the time she was into her
promoted position (with Digitas) as Associate Director (Account
Planning), she had pretty much deliberated upon what’s to be made of her
life after that particular stint. It was getting into entrepreneurship
but doing something different – something that would make a difference
to people lives; what it was she would not know or have an inkling of
until she went to Italy for six months for studies after moving from
Digitas in February 2013.
The spark
There
were several sparks that lead Ariel Kaye to jump into the
entrepreneurial world. First and foremost was her 6-month stay in Italy
which she had visited during her sophomore year; second was her interest
in the home décor and interior designing (she had a design blog); and
finally her extensive (almost 10 years) experience in the field of
advertising and branding where she got to understand the public’s
new-found propensity to look for quality, craftsmanship, and social
responsibility in products they bought.
With that as the
background, she started research on what clicks with customers when they
buy bedding products and was surprised to find that not many know the
brand that made them happy in terms of quality bed linen. Having been a
brander, she knew the value brand loyalty can have for a business and
thus made up her mind to create a brand that focused on the bedroom
aspect of the home which would not only put to use her knowledge,
education, and experience but also serve a hereto un-catered to segment
in the home furnishing industry.
Initial struggle with funding & the launch
By
end-2013 she drawn the road-map with a detailed plan of actions and a
sound business plan. But that wasn’t as is as it sounds – she had to put
in an immense amount of hard-work and thought to get there. First up
she visited the local vendors providing bedding to vindicate her stance
of them neglecting the quality aspect of it. Then she visited Europe
where she went to about 15 factories, mostly in Italy, where she was
introduced to an altogether different approach to bedding essentials
from manufacturers. Based on that approach plus the fact that she had
made their acquaintance, she developed a business plan built around a
direct-approach revenue model.
She met many potential investors
who politely tell her that it’s a good plan but you haven’t started and
done enough to justify our investment – perhaps they were correct in
their assessment. Here was someone who was pitching to sell an idea
venture capitalists – however novel and promising it may been – without
even having a single inventory on the ecommerce platform. They wouldn’t
say not directly, so that added to the distress even more as it made her
as anxious as one can grow under such circumstances.
Being a
marketing person – she put her PR to great use and joined a Santa-Monica
based accelerator called, Launchpad LA. This gave her the opportunity
to interact with many rising entrepreneurs as also the chance to work
with them and understand how they did it all when it came to sourcing
funding et al.
Some of them pitched in with some money that
wouldn’t be enough, so she borrowed a loan from her parents to
kick-start Parachute in January 2014 with an assortment of bedding
essentials. Viola! It was sold out of inventory in just a couple weeks –
all because Kaye and team had connected with people as well as provided
an experience they’d never known or experienced.
The strategy& guiding principles
Next
came the question of how well she would devise her business and
operational strategies. As before, her brief experience with Launchpad
and her branding experience helped her come up with people-centric
strategies. She made sure that Parachute’s product and planning teams
worked directly with manufacturers so that it is able to maintain
control, offer the often-so-missing transparency and, above all,be able
to provide the best products at the best of prices. This has been the
back-bone from a differentiation point of view.
Not only that,
Kaye has set in place some guiding principles that drive every product
offerings through Parachute.The most crucial of them is attaching utmost
importance to ‘Quality.’
Not only that, Kaye and her team have
been able to deliver premium products at accessible pricing by smartly
cutting out the middleman and going direct to consumer, while also
working directly with its manufacturers in order to create and develop
superior quality products, which the customer can enjoy quickly through
the last-mile delivery that Parachute offers.
Investor confidence…trickling in
Such
is the state of affairs that almost always so far, Parachute has run
out of inventory increasing the GMV to unexpected levels. In fact, it
has been struggling to keep pace with the demands from customers. They
beat their monthly projections in two weeks flat. Thus exuding much
confidence for the investors to put in their money after seeing the
results. With the much-needed capital infused into the business, Kaye
expanded the team in order to better coordinate with manufacturers and
acquired the additional inventory to meet the ever-increasing demand.
Parachute recently finished a round of VC funding reported to the tune of $10M.
Growth
As
can be expected, Parachute was so successful in getting established as a
brand that it has seen a 4x year-to-year growth rate and 40% repeat
customer rate – which is amazing given the general market trend where
such rate as well as loyalty are hard to come by. The company plans to
continue to grow next year through expanded collections in home
essentials and bathroom, and eventually for other rooms of the house.
Not bad for a solo beginner.
Her advice to founders…
“Sit
up straighter. Look into people’s eyes longer. And bring the intensity
you feel inside, out. Let them know that you’re a fighter. A person with
persistence, confidence, and a vision. If they want to be here and go
with you, do it. If not, move on and find the person who is.”
Quotes
| |
 | '“Building a brand is a process, and I think some people try to do it too fast and grow too big.” |
| I wanted to establish a brand that enabled people to start and end their day, feeling their very best. It was important to me not only to offer premium quality and accessible pricing but also comfort and sound sleep.” |
| “We want to be where all of our customers are. We’re dreaming big.” |
| “Always be persistent, but also be patient.” |
| "My aesthetic is equally inspired by the landscape of the desert and the vibe of my Venice surroundings.This means earth tones and neutrals. From a style standpoint, I’ve always been drawn to basics. " |
| “It’s hard to make transformative changes. Working on little things adds up to the big things.” |
| “We started by rethinking the basics of bedding...now we’re revolutionizing home textiles.” |
| “I couldn’t find a single brand that was high quality, beautiful, affordable and convenient to purchase. They say if you can’t find it, create it. And so I did.” |
| “Building culture and making sure my employees are happy is what keeps me up at night. It’s what this whole thing is all about; creating a place where people love to work.” |
| “You’re only as productive at work as you are happy.” |
| “You spend so much time at work that if you’re not having fun and enjoying it what’s the point?” |
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