Diana Fryc:
Here’s a quick disclaimer. The views, statements and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers. The statements are not intended to be product claims or medical advice. Everything is home. To Ariel Kaye, founder of Parachute. What began in Los Angeles in 2014 as a digitally native brand, parachute has since expanded beyond its roots of premium quality bedding to include essentials for all homes in the home. In the last eight years, Ariel has evolved parachute into a beloved home lifestyle brand with 26 brick and mortar locations in the US. Under Ariel’s leadership, the brand has expanded internationally into Canada, cultivated a growing trade business serving thousands of interior designers, and collaborated on innovative product partnerships with Creighton, Barrel, Nordstrom’s and celebrity designer Jake Arnold. Within the parachute community, Ariel has created a culture committed to social responsibility, which extends from parachute’s team and partners to its customers on the planet. Parachute is proud to be certified. Great place to work. Yay. Love that. Ariel is deeply invested in sustainable practices, including climate, responsible materials, ethical manufacturing, and the brand’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices. She has participated in prestigious speaking opportunities with Fortune’s most powerful women’s Summit and Fast company’s innovation festival, and has been honored in prestigious awards such as EY’s 2021 entrepreneur of the year awards and 2021 ad age 40 under 40 awards. Hi, Ariel. Nice to have you today. Where are you?
Ariel Kaye:
I’m in Los Angeles.
Diana Fryc:
Are you sunny? You’re wearing long sleeves. Is it sunny?
Ariel Kaye:
No, it’s cold and I am wearing my office sweatshirt.
Diana Fryc:
Oh, my goodness.
Ariel Kaye:
I need an extra layer. Yeah, it’s a gloomy day.
Diana Fryc:
Is it cold? Is it like eighty degrees cold or is it like sixty degrees cold?
Ariel Kaye:
Like fifty eight degrees cold. It feels like winter here, but luckily, I’m surrounded by beautiful blankets and robes and all sorts of things that can keep me cozy in the office.
Diana Fryc:
Excellent.
Ariel Kaye:
It could be worse.
Diana Fryc:
Well, I have to say, as I mentioned in the intro about you, there is a parachute store just literally walking distance from my house. And so to have the opportunity to talk to you and learn a little bit more about what you’re up to is pretty exciting. I love it when all of my guests tell us a little bit about their brand and their company. So I’d love for you to, in your words, just tell us a little bit about parachute and what the brand stands for as well.
Ariel Kaye:
Sure. So, parachute. We like to call parachute a modern home lifestyle brand. Our products are designed really all about they’re designed in Los Angeles, and everything that we do is all about quality and comfort. So that’s been kind of our guiding light and principle since the very beginning. And I would say our mission is really to make you feel at home. So everything that we do is really rooted in this idea of just living your best life at home and living your most comfortable life and just how important that is in really every aspect of our life. When I started the brand, like you mentioned, I started with bedding, and I thought, if I can create a better sleep experience for the customer, as we move into other categories throughout the home, we would build that trust from our customers and they would have the confidence to try products in different categories. And that was really part of the reason why we decided to start in the bedroom, because the power of a good night’s sleep was something that really no one was talking about. Ten years ago, when I started Parachute, there were no brands in this space. No one could tell me what sheets they were sleeping on. And I thought, wow, what a huge opportunity to be able to create the first real brand that focuses on textiles and makes them so much more than just something that’s in a plastic box.
Diana Fryc:
Totally.
Ariel Kaye:
That’s stacked floor to ceiling on the shelf. Something that not only is important to your lifestyle and to your comfort in your home, but also really does have an aesthetic purpose within your spaces too. I mean, a great Duvet cover can completely transform your bedroom. So absolutely, yeah, that’s where a lot of the inspiration came. But it was just this idea that there was something better out there or there should be something better out there.
Diana Fryc:
Yeah. So tell us a little bit more, because I think there are a number of people who are entrepreneurs and they are in our audience. There’s also a lot who would be hoping to be entrepreneurs one day in our audience. And so talk a little bit more, if you wouldn’t mind, about the idea. Was it something that grew? Were you sitting in your room? Did you have an AHA? Talk a little bit about the ideation and how it came about.
Ariel Kaye:
Yeah, so I’ve always been obsessed with home and interior design. When I was in grad school, I started an interior design blog and I started helping friends decorate their homes for fun. It was something I was very passionate about, something I was pretty good at, and I really just enjoyed the experience of creating beautiful spaces. As a result, I became a bit of a super consumer in the space, and I really got a great sense of what was out there and really what wasn’t. Separately and professionally, I was working in marketing and advertising. I was working at big agencies, working with big brands, and I was on the strategic side of creative so, really focusing on consumer behavior research and thinking about how to connect with customers and how to motivate and inspire and build relationships. And I was super passionate about that. But in 2012, I had reached this point of my career in advertising where I wanted to have a bigger impact. I wasn’t sure that the big agency lifestyle was for me long term and I had a bunch of friends joining early stage startups and I just was so inspired by the passion and the desire to build and really wanted to be a part of that. And I did have an AHA moment where I thought, what if I could continue my love for brand and building brands and connect with customers and really create value added experiences through brands and customers’ lives? But what if I could do that in the home space and do that in a way that would connect my love for design and for home and merge those interests? And that was my AHA moment. This was 2012 really at the beginning of direct to consumer and I saw the success that some of the early D to C businesses were having. But really I was most inspired by this new shopping model for customers, like this idea that you could get better quality products at a more affordable price just by cutting out the middleman and going directly to factories. And I as a consumer was like yes, this is what I want too. And as I dug into the home category and looked at the landscape, I realized that there was just this massive opportunity here and thought if not now, when?
Diana Fryc:
Curious. So when you started talking to your friends about the idea, where did you get your most support?
Ariel Kaye:
I had one particular friend who’s still very involved as a mentor and he’s actually on our board who looked at me when I told him this idea. We were sitting at dinner in the East Village of New York City and he said this is a great idea, but I think it’s a great idea because you could be the CEO. And I was like what? Me the CEO? No way. I had never really considered myself to be a founder CEO. I had this idea and I thought maybe there’s other people I could partner with or maybe this is already happening or maybe this is an idea I could present to a bigger company. And I didn’t really ever think that it would be me that would start it. But having that vote of confidence and encouragement was so powerful it gave me permission. I mean it totally reframed my thinking and my confidence in myself and that was really amazing. I mean, I also talked to friends who thought that it was crazy and to be honest, it kind of was taking a big risk leaving a stable job like trying to figure something out. I mean, I have no experience in retail, I have no experience in consumer goods, I had no experience in manufacturing, I had no experience in building consumer brands. Nothing about this made sense on paper. But I think as I spoke more about it, as people saw my passion and excitement, I was in the zone where there was no stopping me. I was going to move mountains, walls whatever it took to get this done. And I was so consumed with this excitement around this idea that as I started to communicate that to friends and family, people were like, I guess you’re doing this. This is happening.
Diana Fryc:
That’s awesome. Well, talk about those early days if you can. I’m going to say those early days just before the company was actually formed, and then those first couple of years where you’re like, oh, I didn’t know about that. Whether it would be in business or manufacturing any part.
Ariel Kaye:
The early days when I decided to quit my job, when I decided to move from New York to Los Angeles. I decided to do this full time. I was so naive. I had such an idealized version of what building a business would look like. I was like, okay, I have this great idea. So I’ll talk to investors, and I’ll raise capital and be able to pay myself, and I’ll be able to see that the timeline for everything in my mind was significantly shorter than the reality. Everything was harder, longer. There were no yeses. It was all no’s from investors. I mean, everything was just so much more difficult. And I think part of my naivety and just all of my blind spots end up being some of my biggest. That’s where I found my strength, because if I had known how hard it was going to be, I never would have done it if I knew what was going to happen.
Diana Fryc:
Really?
Ariel Kaye:
Yeah. Why would you? I mean, if you knew that you were going to talk to one hundred people to try to raise capital and everyone would say no, that would be enough to deter you. I think for me, I didn’t know what I didn’t know because of that. I had to figure everything out. And I think that one of the things I always tell people is that you don’t need experience to do something great. You just need to be resourceful. You need to love solving problems and look at challenges as opportunities. It’s so much of it as a framework that you can put yourself in. But those early days were chaotic. I mean, it was me, a team of one, trying to figure everything out. I went to Europe. I visited fifteen factories. I came back to Los Angeles. I tried to find a web designer. I was googling. How do you ship products? How do you set up a website? How do you figure out sales tax? There’s so much I mean, I didn’t know anything. I realized I think also one of my superpowers in the early days was just, like, being very confident in what I didn’t know and being comfortable with that. I wasn’t trying to pretend like I knew everything. And so as a result, I really tried to find a community of people that could be helpful. And I found very quickly that people were very generous with their time. I also joined an accelerator program, which was how I was able to raise some capital in order to buy my first batch of inventory and pay for that website and really get to go. But that first year, from leaving my job to launching the business, which was about exactly one year, it was eleven months almost to the date, were some of the highest highs and the lowest lows. There were moments where I felt like this was going to be the biggest success. And then moments where I was like, I made the biggest mistake of my life. I think being comfortable with the uncomfort and discomfort and knowing that it was just about putting one foot in front of the other and showing up every day, and that there also might be days where I just needed to take a break and reassess. But those early days were totally chaotic and fun. And then I launched and immediately we started getting press and saw sales come through. And it went from people that were kind of like two, three, four degrees of separation to being total strangers in cities and states that I never had fun. And there was momentum. I was able to make my first hire, I raised my first round of capital. And so there was a lot of energy. But also, I think some of that excitement also just created more fear in many ways. All of a sudden there were bigger stakes and all of a sudden we had customers who were demanding and we’re upset if we were sold out of something or back ordered or we gave the wrong deliveries. There was so much to manage and so much learning, so many growing pains. But I think as I was able to start bringing on more employees and learning how to delegate and having more resources available towards me, it started to really feel like a business. And I would say that it was really exciting. And then we started hearing from customers that they loved the product, been looking for a brand like that and it was so incredible to get that kind of feedback and really was the motivation that I needed to keep going. And by the way, that feedback is still the best. When I hear from customers or meet people that love the product, it never gets sold. Yeah, it’s wild, wild days.
Diana Fryc:
Well, tell us a little bit about parachutes sustainability efforts. You go to your website, you guys are really doing a lot. You’re committed to a lot. Why is this important for you personally? And then why is it important for the brand?
Ariel Kaye:
So I come from a family growing up where giving back was like part of our DNA. It’s what my mom does professionally. She teaches teachers how to incorporate service into. It’s always been part of what I do, it’s always been important to me. So when I decided to start a business, I felt like you have to build a socially responsible business before we even launch. Table stakes. To be a brand that is part of consumerism, you have to give back. There’s been a few key things like building, making beautiful products that are in beautiful spaces, creating a better world than to make sure that we’re giving back and protecting our planet and our people. Those have been huge parts of the business since the beginning. And so from day one, we’ve really prioritized sustainability in a number of different ways. In the early days, we partnered with an organization called Nothing but Nets. It was part of the United Nations.
Diana Fryc:
Wow.
Ariel Kaye:
They provide safe sleep. So I loved that. We were providing great sleep to our customers through our products and they provide safe sleep through giving life saving mosquito nets. And so that was kind of where we started also thinking about recyclable packaging and other kinds of important things. Just, again, table stakes as a business. But today we’re very much more mission focused in terms of where we’re prioritizing our time. And like you said, a lot of this is detailed on our website, but we are now climate neutral, which is really exciting. So we are offsetting our carbon footprint and that is something that we as a company are able to reduce our carbon emissions is a full team effort. We now have a big assortment of organic products, which is very exciting, as well as recycled products. So we’ve got this recycled down program with our pillows, and that’s our first kind of take on circularity, which I think will be a big part of the future and how we’re looking at consumable goods. And yeah, we also have a full time sustainability team member who is our guiding force on the team and making sure that we are thinking about the ways that we can protect the planet, our people, products, all sorts of things. So yes, a huge part of what we do and have always been.
Diana Fryc:
Part of our DNA and clearly it must be because I was doing a little poking around and saw that you wrote a book called How to Make a House a Home creating a Purposeful Personal Space, which ironically was published in 2020. Like, who could have predicted the timing of that to come out?
Ariel Kaye:
Week four of a Global pandemic.
Diana Fryc:
I know how crazy. I’m curious about that book, has there been any new learning since you published it because of the pandemic or is it really more like, no, I believe in everything and it was all validated during COVID What was that?
Ariel Kaye:
You know what, it was really all validated in COVID. I will say launching a book at the beginning of COVID when people are way more focused on COVID was I mean, I have almost forgotten that I launched a book because it was such a crazy time.
Diana Fryc:
My goodness.
Ariel Kaye:
This book was a labor of love and to be honest, there was no more perfect time for it to come out, right? So much of it was about how you don’t need a bigger space, you don’t need a new space, you don’t need more. But it was really thinking about how you can make the most out of your space and live intentionally and look at your space and say, okay, how do I use this space? How can I use it to the best of its ability so that it can give back to me? And how can I repurpose things and just create so much more functionality within your living space? And there were so many tips that I was able to then share. Throughout COVID, people were looking to refresh with very limited resources because there was only so much and you couldn’t buy a lot of new things because everything was back, like all the stuff. So there’s all this stuff about shopping your own home and how rearranging things can be so powerful to create just a fresh environment and things about lighting and plants and just things that are so practical and so easy and accessible, but really have a huge impact. And as sad as I was that I couldn’t go on a book tour and talk to people in person, I was so glad that I still had an opportunity to share. And I think the book is still just like a great resource for people, whether you are moving or thinking about just refreshing what you already have, which was part of the inspiration. I find that every six to nine months I want to move things around and refresh and redecorate a bit just because you spent so much time in your home. And especially during COVID we all spent so much time at home that our homes became so much more than just homes. They were our office, they were our entertainment center, they were our gym, they were our children. There was so much happening within our walls. They were really working on overdrive. And so how you can think about using what you have right, is such a great thing to think about.
Diana Fryc:
I agree. To me it’s just a little bit more of what is the purpose of the brand, what is your personal purpose, and then extending it to your home and loving what you have is pretty great. I will say that I probably saw in my immediate circle more home renovations like literally demolishments and rebuilds than I ever would have expected. Which is not necessarily what you’re suggesting, but I remember.
Ariel Kaye:
If you can not.
Diana Fryc:
Always a great environmental footprint, but this concept of what kind of simple elements can you do? Like moving things around and maybe just buying an element here or there rather than overhauling everything, is not a bad way to go either. So I like that you’re thinking and what you’re espousing is this idea of love what you got. And if it’s not working for you. You don’t have to overhaul it. Just look at it differently. Right?
Ariel Kaye:
Yeah. It’s so incredible what moving a piece of art from one room to the next can do. Or like moving pillows around or just adjusting kind of how you’re thinking about lighting within a space. These are tiny little things that pack a huge punch and they can completely give a new life to a piece that you may feel like you’re sick of or just want to refresh. But if you just move it, it all of a sudden looks totally different.
Diana Fryc:
Yeah. Love that. Well, so I have this question that I would like to ask. Kind of going back to the business and moving away from the book. This is coming up from the COVID That’s what I’m going to do. I was going to start calling it the COVID I’m curious, during these last few years, if there’s been any something that has gone sideways that ended up turning into something beautiful within the business. Do you have a story where like, I wanted something to go this way or I was expecting something to go this way and it didn’t and I was upset in the moment and yet here’s how it impacted either my employees or myself or my business. Do you have something like that you can share?
Ariel Kaye:
Yeah, I think when you’re building a business, there’s a lot of things that you do that you’ve never done before. And some of those go well and some of those you learn from and you try it again a different way. I think it’s a tough question. There’s a number of different things. We’ve taken risks on marketing channels that have totally flopped. Those are expensive and they feel discouraging. But in reality, you learn from what worked and what didn’t work anymore and then you try something different that can be hugely successful. So I think we’ve had experiences with introducing a color or a product that maybe we thought or wasn’t exactly right, but we launched anyway and then it ended up being a huge hit. There’s been so many examples. Even being a remote company, which has been challenging in some ways, has become hugely successful for us in other ways. And people are really excited about the flexibility and are able to work hours that make more sense for them. I don’t know. I think it’s a tough question. Probably there’s so much. But I guess my high level answer to that is that there’s really no such thing as a mistake. Certainly things or maybe it’s just that a mistake is only a mistake if you let it be a mistake.
Diana Fryc:
Okay. I like that.
Ariel Kaye:
It’s funny when things are hard, it’s not easy. But I find if I can remind myself that that’s why I’m doing this, because I like the hard points and because I learned from them and I’m growing from them, that’s when you find these huge wins and opportunities, and I don’t know. I think it’s just what I said earlier, but I think it’s so much about how you approach whatever you’re going through. It could be a total drain or something that’s so frustrating, or it could be an opportunity to just make it better.
Diana Fryc:
I love that. Well, let’s talk a little bit about what you’re proud of right now. Is there something that’s happened recently or maybe just in general of your business?
Ariel Kaye:
I’m proud of our team. I think there’s been so many external factors that are impacting businesses right now, whether it’s the market or pandemics or war supply chain. There have been so many curveballs over the last three plus years and things that no one would have ever expected when we looked at all of our risk and what was potential at some point, no one put Global Pandemic on their bingo deck. I’m really proud of how we’ve been able to zig and zag and approach really challenging times. And I think the most successful companies will emerge through the most difficult moments and so there’s been some tough days and I’m just proud of our team for showing up every day with a positive attitude and being willing to grow and to change course. And it’s hard when you’ve got one goal and then immediately without anything coming, it’s like, oh, we gotta go this way, you know? Yeah, just that that can be really exhausting. And so yeah, I’m super proud of our team.
Diana Fryc:
Yeah, well, it says a lot that you’ve been able to guide the team through this. Right? That’s also something they don’t teach you at MBA school. What happens when there’s a war and a pandemic at the same time? Go.
Ariel Kaye:
Yeah, exactly.
Diana Fryc:
Nobody teaches. Tell me, what sort of advice, Ariel, what sort of advice do you find yourself giving to others that are wanting to follow in similar footsteps as yours?
Ariel Kaye:
I think I’ve sort of mentioned a few of these, but the only way out is through has been a real guiding principle. Reminding myself not to sweat the small stuff, reminding myself to breathe. I think one of the most powerful things you can do, especially, I mean, I keep talking about challenging times is just to take a deep breath. There’s so much power in that in terms of just finding clarity and also having fun. I mean, people ask me all the time, do you still love what you do? And I do, and I feel so grateful for that. But that’s a choice. It’s a choice to feel gratitude and to have fun and to not take yourself too seriously and not sweat the small stuff and do all these things. It’s a real choice every day. So remember to have fun.
Diana Fryc:
Remember to have fun and celebrate the wins. Yes.
Ariel Kaye:
You got to.
Diana Fryc:
Agreed?
Ariel Kaye:
Yeah.
Diana Fryc:
Ariel, I am loving this conversation. We’re kind of getting close to the end here and there’s a question I like to have absolutely everyone answer, and that is, are there any other women leaders or rising stars out there? It could be in the industry or not that you would like to elevate for the work that they’re doing right now.
Ariel Kaye:
Sure. Well, I’m really grateful to have a group of extremely close girlfriends who are all founders. I’m actually having dinner with all of them tonight, so they’re all very top of mind, but they’re some of my biggest cheerleaders and also the people that inspire me the most. And I just am obsessed with their companies and customers and all of that. And having friends who are founders has been one of the most important parts of being a founder myself, I would say. My friend meg, who’s the founder of dorsey, which is an incredible jewelry brand, which everyone should be shopping from. James Leone, who has her hat brand that has her same name, the founders of parallel, the vitamin company.
Diana Fryc:
Yes.
Ariel Kaye:
There’s just so many great gals in my life that are truly, like, the best and keep me sane. And it’s really fun to be able to be on these entrepreneurial journeys together. So everyone check out all of those brands.
Diana Fryc:
Yes. I love that. Wow. We’ve been talking with Ariel Kaye founder of parachute. Ariel, where can people learn a little bit more about you and your company and what you’re up to?
Ariel Kaye:
Well, you can follow parachute at parachute home on all of the social channels.
Diana Fryc:
All of them?
Ariel Kaye:
All of them. We’re all there. And you can follow me at re l k my name on all the social channels. I give a little bit of a peek of what’s happening behind the scenes, as well as motherhood and family life and all that stuff. So if you want to check it out, give me a follow and say hi. I also love connecting with people and getting feedback and all of that.
Diana Fryc:
Excellent. Okay. And for those of you that are listening, it’s A-R-I-E-L-K-A-Y-E. Find her. That’s how you’ll find her on the socials.
Ariel Kaye:
Yeah.
Diana Fryc:
Okay. Ariel, thank you so much for your time today. I’m really happy to have spent time with you, and I really look forward to seeing what’s next with you and the work you’re doing. And we’ll probably be down at university village this weekend.
Ariel Kaye:
Go shop.
Diana Fryc:
Go shop. And I know it’s a little bit just for those that are still hanging on. Here the thing that is awesome about parachute, because before I had booked this time with her, I was thinking that parachute was still mostly linens, and they really expanded into different parts of the home in all the cozy ways that you’d want them to. So, check them out online, go check them out in the store. I think you’re going to be really surprised at how much coziness and joy they’re going to bring into a home. Yes. And. Thank you to the listeners for your time today. If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. Otherwise, have a great rest of your day and we’ll catch you next time on the gooder podcast
Produced by Heartcast Media
