Heather Gillette: Finding Inspiration and the Early Stages of a Startup
By Justin Reyes For years, Heather Gillette worked at YouTube where she founded and headed up several operational departments. A couple of years ago, …
By Justin Reyes
For years, Heather Gillette worked at YouTube where she founded and headed up several operational departments. A couple of years ago, she left YouTube to build her own startup, nousDecor. nousDecor is the first ever comprehensive online destination for community-curated home décor ideas, resources and expert interior design guidance.
Heather grew frustrated after bouncing around from website to website looking for a similar chandelier to match the one hanging in her home. She noticed that there was not one central place that had this information organized. Heather began to search for a place online where furnishings from anywhere were easily searchable by specifics such as size, color, price, and category, and had a community that could help her and others.
[quote author=”Heather Gillette”]The current online decor journey is fragmented and frustrating. There’s an endless amount of inspiration out there, but beyond that, you’re on your own.[/quote]
The challenges she faced inspired her to start nousDecor!
She initially raised money from friends and family to build out nousDecor, and form a small team. Her small team has grown close, and complements each other well.
[quote author=”Heather Gillette”]In a startup you have the opportunity to really make your mark on the success of the company and that success can be clearly attributed to you.[/quote]
In an early stage team it’s important to have camaraderie, and people who are deeply passionate about the product. For nousDecor, design is also a huge differentiator. Heather has hired talented designers. For UX and front-end design, she hired Yiqian Peng, who has had her designs featured in international showcases and has won numerous awards and Kate Radu who had been part of an art focused startup previously and whose education from Stanford has been in design. Heather also partnered with acclaimed celebrity designer, Mark Cutler whose work appeared in publications such as Architectural Digest and House Beautiful. All are passionate about nousDecor and their contributions.
The team is excited to be working in an industry where the projected market for home decor will reach $700 billion by 2017, and being at the forefront of a growing trend: online furniture retail.
Currently, the team is focused on optimizing the site experience for their users and growing their community. They also plan to launch a mobile app.
nousDecor will be hosting our upcoming Femgineer Forum on April 2, 2014. The topic will be: Why You Should Consider Being an Early Stage Startup Employee. We will be talking about the advantages of getting in on the ground floor, and the nousDecor team will share more of their experiences working together along with the pro’s and con’s that come with it.
