Pitch Please

00:04.11
mike_flywheel
What's up everybody. It's Mike we're back here on the pitch please podcast and today I've got page from couch house house I'm not sure she's going to correct it and let us know what it is but they're a completely customizable high end designer furniture company for your home and office needs. They're going to explain it a lot more. But before we do Paige if you want to start with a quick introduction about yourself and your role at couch house 5.

00:26.52
Paige
Yeah, totally I Love the house butcher. Um, we just say couch house here. You can call it. Whatever you want though I am the co-founder of couch house along with my partner. My business partner and my fiance and as you said it we create customizable modular furniture for canadians.

00:44.43
mike_flywheel
Cool. Well um, I'm I'm going to want to learn a you bit more about even doing business with your fiance I think that's something I'm sure a lot of people are curious about. But first let's start learning a little bit about you tell us a bit about you know your background. Um, you know some of your other career or life experiences. And sort of your journey to what brought you to couch house now that I've got the pronunciation right.

01:04.80
Paige
Yeah, definitely So I always say um, truly this happened by mistake and I feel like that about a lot of our different ventures that we've kind of fallen into. Um, we definitely love what we do and there's a lot of passion behind it. But it. Feels like a lot of the businesses have started because we were really looking for a product that we couldn't find ourselves and then just decided to make it ourself. Um, maybe I'll backtrack to University if that's a good place to start. Okay, yeah.

01:35.11
mike_flywheel
Yeah, that's a great place to start. It's always fun to start back in university.

01:41.66
Paige
So I'll be dating myself now probably about seven or eight years ago so this was back in 2016? Um I was in a car accident where I was actually on bed rest for two months and really found myself in a depression really and just was really rethinking about everything that I liked and what. Made me happy and at the time I was actually studying my health sciences degree with a business minor at Simon Fraser University so my intent behind that coming from a family of nurses and in the medical space was to work in healthcare likely. And going into project management within the healthcare system. So it's what I felt like I knew and felt very comfortable for me and of course having traditional indian parents. It was really a concept of go to school get a secure job have a good retirement buy a home. So that's kind of what was echoed for me for a really long time and then after this car accident I really realized I felt really stuck with where I was in school and I didn't really see that as something that truly made me happy. So. During the time I actually ended up making friendship necklaces with one of my best friends and really what that led to was me posting on snapchat again. Super organically and I was serving at the time where it was mandatory to wear statement necklaces but I didn't like the big chunky ones. So I just wore a bunch of layered small ones that I had really made myself.

03:10.48
Paige
And my co-workers had asked me hey can you also make me some of those pieces happy to pay you for it and of course I was more than happy to it was something that made me kind of feel like revived again after feeling pretty low and then. With that I had met Harrison like I said he was just my boyfriend at the time and ironically we both got into the car accident together. So we were both kind of going through a low patch. But um, he has always had that like entrepreneurial mindset whereas again I came from that traditional go to school get a job mindset. So he said hey if people want your product. Why don't I help you take photos for it and create a website. Um and you know I was like okay, cool if this person wants to help me do that then let's do that. So I launched what was my first business at the time. Ah back in 2016 and it was a great learning lesson later I scaled it for about 4 years and it did get acquired in 2020 so that was really cool to see that grow over time and thank you and then I guess fast forward a little bit here Harrison and I realized we still really liked working together I think he saw me making the money that I was.

04:12.80
mike_flywheel
Congrats.

04:21.82
Paige
With that knowing that when it was time for graduation I didn't have to apply for a job because my jewelry business was making me the money that I wanted it to and of course my dad laughed in my face and said how do you think you're going to make a living off of selling necklaces for the rest of your life. Um, and I took that and proved him wrong and Harrison and I started I think we had about 6 different e-commerce dropship stores at the time ranging from woman's jewelry dogwear accessories things like that. So. High margin product that we were able to really market with um influencer partnerships and really Instagram branding at that time. Um, yeah, that's a really long with an answer into how I kind of got into the entrepreneurial space without really realizing that that's where I ended up and then. Fast forward a little bit more into couchhouse we were moving into our home that we had just got and again I was looking for a product that just didn't really exist for what exactly I wanted so I created a wants and needs list and most of the things that were things that I really wanted and. Furniture really weren't available at the price point that was working for us. Of course after you know you buy a home in the most expensive market in almost the world and it really comes to a thing of how much more money do I have left in my budget so we ended up.

05:41.00
Paige
Building all of the furniture for our home like our bed frames couches and our chairs again just for ourselves and then Harrison's entrepreneurial hat said well what if other people have the same problem. So from there we posted on Facebook marketplace and over the span of 3 days we had. 1500 views on the actual post itself and for people that were willing to purchase a product without us having a website any reviews or validity and even like a payment process are set up so people were willing to pay like $3000 over a Facebook marketplace for a product that didn't yet exist and they had to still wait for for two to three months so ultimately that was our unlock as to how couch has started.

06:24.46
mike_flywheel
That's super cool and there's bits of that that I even want to like break into because that's like the ultimate Mvp so did you go straight from um your your jewelry business which I don't know if you said the name but I was simultaneously looking it up which is Gemino did you go straight from that to couch house was that like.

06:38.40
Paige
Um.

06:41.89
mike_flywheel
After that moment. There's no looking back to a traditional job like the entrepreneurial bug was lit and you were like I found it. This is what I was looking for I'm going to keep going down this path. Um.

06:47.29
Paige
Um, of her.

06:56.62
mike_flywheel
Or was there something else where you in a reflective state like that sounds like it got you kind of back on the back on your feet back into a better spirits. You were making good money. Graduated school. Did you go directly from that to Koos or. Did you have a moment of reflection where you were debating. Do you go down a traditional path again or did you continue down entrepreneurship before kotos.

07:14.57
Paige
Yeah, great question. So I think I touched on it really briefly. But in the time of me starting Gem Harrison and I realized we really liked working together and we had a lot of complementary skill sets. So with that like I said he was really good at web. Um, web design and advertising whereas if I was more marketing and brand and then I had a better grasp on operations as well. Just as we started to scale so we use that and we had five different ecom dropship stores in between that time. So I would say from around. 2016 to about 2021. We really operated those and then at the same time I was sharing and posting all of this on Instagram and I had a lot of conferences and really business owners reach out and say hey like I'd love to know more about your story. So at that time. I was on stage just talking about what I did at different you know, conferences here locally in Vancouver and then from there I had business owners reach out and say hey can you help me? do what you did and really what that was is advertising and marketing your project digitally so we actually then created a media agency in. 2019 which was quite interesting because it was right before the pandemic so it was almost like serendipitous that it was at the time that businesses were forced to go digitally. So I'm glad that we were really able to help our clients at the time with that. But.

08:41.58
Paige
Ultimately in between that two-year timeframe where we had the media agency on our own stores. We really knew that our heart was in e-commerce for the businesses that we ran and I think that's where we made the ultimate shift to just stick with what we really loved and what made us feel excited every day for our work. And then Couch House came as what felt like just like another store at the time. But then we realized that we had a lot going on and we ended up having our ah we sold our other stores they got acquired um and then we just focused in mainly on couch house from that point onwards.

09:15.40
mike_flywheel
Amazing. So The drop shipping was your main thing. There was no question that you were going Back. You were this fire was lit so you were gonna keep going down in that scenario it was it was drop shipping and then now it's kind of emerged to something that's very specific I. I Guess in the world where now you've got ah a very specific product and offering we'll we'll talk about that. Um, but before we do maybe talk a little bit about you know you've had a few successful businesses with your partner Now. Fiance. Talk to us about that. It sounds like you found like a natural groove with each other of complementary skills. Um, maybe that's you know chance? Maybe you've you know, found how to go down your specific paths and and be complementary in a business. But talk to us about the you know pros of doing that and how that came to be and maybe some of the challenges along the way since I'm sure it's not all, um, perfect, especially since you know you can't really ever turn it off or maybe you found ways to.

10:19.85
Paige
Totally yeah, no, that's I think one of my most commonly asked questions and I think it is a very interesting situation. So I think when anyone asks about founders in general like whether it be your partner or like your best friend I think that it really comes down to. Complementary skill sets so making sure that like each person is able to run the business in a way that it's supposed to so that it's beneficial for the business if you were to look at that as like a third party or like it's its own person. How can you give the most to that individually so that that can also grow. Um, and then I think. Biggest thing about working with your partner is really putting your ego aside and understanding that like both people might not always have the answers or 1 person might actually have a better answer at that. Um, and. Acknowledging when each person has been working really hard or also being able to call it out and say hey like we messed up on this one or we need to pivot what we're doing here. So I think communication also goes a really long way. I know when we had first started working together. It was really great and that was really what our passion was and we loved doing that and we didn't really have I would say a life outside of that and then you know about 3 or 4 years into it and we've been together for almost eight years now in January. Um.

11:44.73
Paige
Then? yeah, 3 or 4 years into it I really thought like oh I want more of a divide like I want to be able to go on a date night and not talk about work and then I really fought for that for a really long time or I want to go on a vacation and not be on our computer for some reason and then I really realized like. This is what my partner loves like he truly lives and breathes his work. He just loves it. It's his absolute passion. So I'm like okay why would I take that away from someone and then I think now we're in an interesting place. Also just as we've grown as people and like. Being in our late 20 s like thinking about like how our life and family could change in the future. Also I think we're also developing our own like hobbies and interests per se and I think that's something that's an active thing that we have to do like I know you and I were talking earlier about like hobbies like skiing and cycling and stuff like that. So. I think it's really important to make that also an active thing that we do outside of each other and then things that we also enjoy together too.

12:38.57
mike_flywheel
Yeah, like your own independent hobbies that you can feel good talking about the business and maybe you talk about those hobbies or maybe don't but those can equally be like your thing and sometimes having your thing is important too. It's cool. It's great advice. Um, let's maybe talk a little bit then about.

12:48.41
Paige
Totally.

12:57.58
mike_flywheel
Couch house I'm excited to learn more about this and what makes it different and how it works maybe eventually I'm going to need a couch myself. Maybe you do more than couches. But you're on a show called pitch. Please so inevitably we have to first page here your best pitch please.

13:06.69
Paige
Um, her.

13:13.30
Paige
Totally and so like I said we are coaches a customizable modular furniture company with a focus on sustainability. We build furniture for canadians here and ship across Canada a couple initiatives that we really focus on with the. With the concept of sustainability is for every coach we build. We plant a hundred trees. Additionally, we electrify all of our deliveries where we can and where we can't we offset with carbon emissions. So we fund through ecocart and then the third thing that we really also like to focus on is our partnership on. With furniture bank where for couches that are leaving our clients homes. We donate them to families in need. Yeah.

13:52.11
mike_flywheel
And Wow that's a lot of pieces and I love how you've thought about everything from not just the purchase to everything about the lifecycl after including helping people with the couches on their way out. Um, and and I'd love to talk about that. Maybe let's just start with this industry and space furniture.

14:02.00
Paige
Um, with her.

14:08.58
mike_flywheel
Um, maybe talk about furniture broadly and then I'm sure you've got obviously great insights that you can tell us about the online for furniture or direct to consumerer furniture type business. Um, tell you just a little bit about that space.

14:19.50
Paige
Totally so I'm not sure if anyone's gone shoppping for a couch and but it feels like a daunting process at least for us. That's what we felt. When we were in our early 20 s and had first moved out. It was like you're finding your affordable furniture for your first place which is super understandable. But after 2 to 3 years you also realize it breaks down the fabric doesn't really hold up the cushion starts sinking and it's unfortunate because you spend money on something and it just doesn't hold its value. So then when we went furniture shopping you know now in a different life stage after like having a home. We're like okay like let's make an investment in in our pieces with that when we walked into furniture stores. You realize that it's really like a dinosaur industry. It's like you walk into a furniture store that has 30 catalogs and. Have a really nice. For example, 6 year old named Cindy who's going to walk you through your process and will really just be reading off the tag and that was what happened for some of it and the other part of it is some people didn't even look at us because they maybe thought we weren't qualified buyers so that I found really interesting in just the furniture. Your industry alone and then the flip of that is you have an entire ecommerce space where you have for example, your wayfa your article a lot of um, really big businesses that don't actually have any space to see the product so it felt like a really big toss-up um with us when we started couchos.

15:50.34
Paige
Like I said it was a little bit of a mistake but when we really conceptualized what our shopping experience was I wanted to change that for people so when we were on Facebook marketplace and just messaging people who had wanted our product. It was actually really interesting because I would hop on a video call. And just send videos of our fabrics and ask them what they were looking for. So we really created that personalized experience just through Facebook marketplace which has now translated into booking in by appointment. It's usually a 30 to 40 minute consultation I'd love to look at people's interiors I want to know what their dimensions are will these spatial planning for hallways chairs dining rooms things like that. Um, and then also just piecing your fabrics and colors together seeing what's realistic for different lifestyles so that was something that was really important to me when we conceptualized. What we do and why we do it and then the other thing that we also thought about in the furniture space with regards to like a lot of the waste that you see in furniture is we really wanted to consider how our product itself could be modular in the sense that you can add pieces as your space grows. So. Hypothetically, you're in a six hundred Square foot apartment um one year and then three years later you're ready for your town home. That's fifteen hundred Square feet so you could start with a 2 wo-seater and then add a module to make it 3 seats

17:07.90
Paige
And then maybe 5 years down the road. You're able to get your detached home and now you need a 5 seater plus an ottoman. So then you can add on your other two modules plus your ottoman and so that's how we conceptualize that component and then the other thing that we really thought about with the quality of materials which was really important to me. Is. Of course you think of 3 things when you're building furniture. So one the structural frame of the piece. So for us. We use solid chili and pine. Um, so no particle board in there and then also the cushions themselves you're thinking about the quality of foam because you don't want your cushions to be sinking over time. Ah, so we use the lux density foam which is really the highest quality foam you can use in furniture whereas if other places might use low and medium densities that sink in about 2 to 5 years and then the last thing is your fabrics and that's typically where people notice the most amount of wear so we use industrial grade rub counts which have to be at a 30000 double rub or more. Ah, which should hypothetically last you around 10 years of course will vary based on your lifestyle but we wanted to break down those components so that you could also have um furniture that lasts in your home for longer to reduce the waste in the world too.

18:14.20
mike_flywheel
Yeah, so the interesting piece here I Definitely want to circle back on things you said which were down the path of like what makes you different and what it's about but before I do like your.

18:15.49
Paige
Yeah.

18:25.76
Paige
Um, her.

18:31.22
mike_flywheel
Super deep on couches. Obviously some of this might have come about when you were building or making your first one for your house but like how did you ramp on this knowledge of all these elements to a category that I mean maybe it's something I missed when you were talking about your background in Harrison's background but

18:33.17
Paige
Um, yeah.

18:51.28
mike_flywheel
Neither of you really had this deep rich background in furniture building where you're getting dry chilean wood and industrial high thread count fabrics and specific density foams like where and how did you have to kind of embark on this first journey of really understanding the pieces. I'm sure you could maybe conceptualize the modular elements for sure. But this quality element that seems like deeply integrated into what couchhouse is where and how did you kind of go through that process talk to me about that and.

19:14.92
Paige
Um, a.

19:19.99
Paige
Yeah I didn't realize I was this nerdy about couches or furniture until you said it to me but I'm really just wanting a better product I don't know how it's to explain it than the fact that I just wasn't happy with was what was out there. Wasn't happy with what I was already spending my money on and I can imagine that you know everyone else's hard earned money should go a little bit farther too. So just breaking down every part of it because of course when you're still building the furniture when we're working with our Factories. We still need to tell them exactly what we want and I just think that the status quo wasn't that So we. Broke it down piece by piece to build a backup.

19:56.63
mike_flywheel
That's really cool so it was just about tackling it bit by bit as you're going through it for yourself and then making that scalable. Um, so talk to us about what's different about couch house and even before you go into that. Are you. Um, just direct to consumer online. Only do you have physical brick and mortar stores or something in between just I think we glossed over it and I just want to make sure we kind of covered that before you talk about some of your cool differentiators versus the competition. So.

20:23.58
Paige
Yeah, definitely. So we're mainly direct tos consumer and we've stuck with that model so that we're able to offer ah an affordable mid-price point furniture piece. Of course when you go the wholesale route you have to consider Keystone pricing. Um, so that was something that we wanted to say a little bit away from so that our furniture still felt accessible to a lot of our clientele and with that we do have a website like I said that ships across Canada and I still actually have my home as our showroom and so the same way that we used to do a lot of videos with people from Facebook. It was really interesting when we first launched it was like well why don't we just invite people here so they can actually sit on the product. Um, from that point we also understand that it's not really a scalable business and it's very very founder dependent and um, there are so many other things that I know I need to work on and grow on within couch house. So. We did do a pop-up store in Vancouver for three months last year which went really well and I was really happy with it. Ultimately it came down to do we want to do it again and I think that's really where the caveat of not doing it all yourself is also managing a team and growing and scaling that which comes with its own hurdles and stuff. So. We do know that going into I can't believe it's 2024 but going into next year we do want to open up a more permanent store that's not from my home and then we do plan also to do a pop up in Toronto we have a lot of clients on the East Coast that

21:52.72
Paige
Want to see our product or have purchased but 1 of I noticed that one of their pain points was not being able to touch and feel and it is an investment. It's about you know a 3 to $5000 piece at starting price points so it is our intention to also bring ourselves over there as well.

22:07.68
mike_flywheel
That's cool. Yeah I was going to say I imagine if you've bought the product once then scaling it up in the modular fashion would be easy. Some people I'm sure just buy directly online like we've seen it at wayfair and others. So you know there's mattresses of that regard. But in some decisions.

22:19.23
Paige
Is a.

22:23.83
mike_flywheel
Sitting on. It is an important piece right? like I sort of imagine people walking around your typical couch store and like the first thing they do is sort of like just like drop back into the chair and so for a wider variety of of people I guess that makes sense and the pop-up sounds like a really cool.

22:30.96
Paige
Exactly.

22:39.20
mike_flywheel
In between and also sort of matches your sustainability goals which is like do you need that footprint all the time and and that and that type of thing. So we've been talking about couches. You've said furniture a couple times. Um is it. Did it start.

22:45.54
Paige
Um, okay.

22:56.39
mike_flywheel
Obviously with couches and you're still couches or you're expanding Beyond couches. Um, yeah, what's what's your your what are your eyes on in that regard.

23:05.41
Paige
Yeah, totally so when we first started like I said um out of just the need of wanting furniture for our own home. We did our own bed frames. We did all of our own chairs in the space and we did the couch when we first launched as a business we actually offered everything that we had also made and more. Um. Excluding tables though but really just anything you can sit on or sleep on with that as we continue to grow. We noticed that 90% of our revenue is driven by just the custom couches. So we've honed into that over the past year and not really offering our custom components. We still have access to that with our factory and we can. But. You know it's just really comes down to how much energy can you put into something and what's the ultimate output of that so we scaled back from that. But I think we want to do it a little bit more intentionally so going forward. We definitely have products that we have in mind um, most of them are things that my clients already tell me that they're looking for and wanting so one of the most popular ones is. Ah, the wooden tables that go over top of ottomans or armrests the ones that fit perfectly for the piece so we figured if they already have our ottoman in their home or our couch. They probably want a complimentary coffee table to match that too and it's in the furniture space. It's also inevitable. It's when you start with 1 product and we've seen it across so many other furnitures. that they have 1 product and then 1 hey grow into how can you furnish an entire home so it makes sense. It's also just the concept of right now. Our defining factor is customizable so where clients will give us their exact dimensions and we'll do a made to measure model with them.

24:38.68
Paige
So it's also scaling that with other pieces and figuring out what that in between looks like for us.

24:44.66
mike_flywheel
Yeah, can we talk about that customization bit. So I mean most people um, custom couches Generally I'm sure you can get completely custom but the custom people are probably used to is oh what fabric would you like and maybe what density foam.

24:49.50
Paige
Um, is a.

24:57.60
Paige
Totally.

25:02.90
mike_flywheel
You talked about made to measure and you've talked about Modular. So Can you talk to us a little bit about how that works around like what spectrum of customization is available here and how you're bringing that to market because customization on that scale um is. Is hard work and it's expensive generally and it sounds like you're bringing it at a pretty affordable, mid-range Price. So talk to us.

25:25.39
Paige
um um I was like I'm surprised I didn't say this earlier. But yeah, that's really like how we are fairly different just in the sense that when we were first looking for a coach 1 of our main things is that we wanted was the depth so we understood our space was. On the smaller side but we didn't want to compromise having a deep comfy coach so that was something we really wanted but we were finding that most of the time that those coaches that had a lot of depth were actually too big for our home itself. We then realized a lot of people had a similar problem so when we do made to measure. It's. We do have our standard measurements our petique classic and our luxe but we also do have made to measure where if someone says hey I need something. That's exactly one hundred and twenty inches in length and exactly forty two inches deep um with a shaze that comes up to sixty inches we can do that? Um, so that's. Really I would say why we are mainly different than a lot of out of box furniture stores and then also on the flip of that when we had explored custom options in the greater Vancouver area. We noticed that a lot of it came at a really pretty penny and you're correct in saying that most of the time it's just choose the fabric color. It's not exactly a made- to measure model and when you do a made- to measureas model most of time you're getting charged at least $500 per module to make any change.

26:44.41
Paige
Um, so if you have 4 modules included in that then you're bumping yourself up $2000 so that's where we don't charge for extra um or we don't charge for giving or taking up to twelve inches so if it's twelve inches shorter than our standard measurement or twelve inches longer we keep it at that and if it does change it just basically bumps up in price to the next standard module I hope that makes sense. It's a little bit easier to explain with a visual um on our website but we try to keep it as straightforward as possible.

27:08.32
mike_flywheel
Yeah, yeah.

27:14.50
mike_flywheel
And so if I'm kind of to play it back to you. You've got standard modules. So if if you don't need a very specific size and you can do a hey do I need a one 2 or 3 or 4 section long and the sections are standard size.

27:21.70
Paige
Um, it is.

27:28.50
Paige
Yeah, yeah.

27:29.86
mike_flywheel
You can just go and the main customization is your fabric I don't think you're changing your foam right? It's mostly your fabric color style and then you're saying if I want more made to measure I can take any of those modules and change a dimension a little bit.

27:34.27
Paige
Um, it exactly.

27:45.27
mike_flywheel
And entity that goes up to the next one or just reduces so you basically just like trimming so you might have like 2 big chunks and 1 medium chunk that allows you to. They're just slightly different proportions I guess and.

27:49.38
Paige
Um, exactly.

27:54.32
Paige
Exactly that as like you got it. You explained it better than me.

27:59.65
mike_flywheel
No No I just wanted to make sure I played it back because I'm like I was envisioning it and focusing on it as you were kind of going through it. Um, how does that work like where are these built and how are you able to accommodate. That level flexibility if there's like top secret stuff that you can't Share. Don't share it but it's just like I'm curious how that works like you're obviously that's a game Changer I think.

28:16.29
Paige
Yeah, totally I think it really comes down to having a great relationship with our factory. So when we had first ordered furniture for our home I think we had actually narred into probably 10 factories and then we ended up. You know, shortlisting to 5 and we ended up working with 3 of them so we worked with 3 of them and again this was just for our own personal use and we weren't thinking about scaling at that point into anything. Um, but they were really open on working with us just you know as doing one off pieces so they were okay if we didn't have to do. And Moq of a hundred modules and a certain size and fabric. Um with that the way that it works on our end with couchhouse is every week we basically put an order 3 with our factory and we'll send them all of the custom dimensions of every component we send that into them. When it finishes production. They send us photos of it back. We do quality control so we get photos of everything with measurements and then I'll do a video call with the team to see if there's any discrepancies that I need clarification on before it ships of course and then our factories also in Shanghai I know you ask that so it ships from our factory to the Vancouver Port um arrives here and then we dispatch across Canada from Vancouver.

29:32.14
mike_flywheel
That's super cool. Um, let's talk about the dispatch piece because you talked about like the electrification of your delivery offsetting carbon impact. Um couches aren't small. So I'm just picturing like the mechanics of shipping these very large items.

29:45.16
Paige
Ah.

29:49.26
mike_flywheel
Which I think is part of the reason like historically you go physically somewhere to pick up a couch then the delivery is a jump off from somewhere in closer proximity. But the direct Tocons consumer and couch I imagine is a little bit more complex or complicated. How are you doing that and.

29:52.17
Paige
Um, totally.

30:05.16
mike_flywheel
Where and how are you managing the supply chain right to the end around this electrification sustainability bit.

30:07.60
Paige
Yeah, it's funny because when we first started we thought Harrison my partner would be the 1 delivering everything. So it's it's comical to think back and understand that we didn't end up buying or renting a yeah u-haul for a day and delivering everything ourself. But. Again I think it comes down to a really good partnership so we partnered with goldbolt we're very fond of them because of how they do deliveries differently so they handle the actual fleet electric fleet that they work with and then of course when there are so and I'll backtrack and also saying.

30:29.59
mike_flywheel
Okay.

30:43.78
Paige
We're also very like a homegrown bc based business. So we've grown as a hometown hero here and then understand that that's when we branch out so goldbolt also has um, weare housing in toronto on the East Coast and also various places across the country. So basically what you do at that point is you ship a container with your goods over to their warehouse and then they electrify there and then of course with the transportation that happens across country. That's when we partner with eco cart where we cannot use our electric deliveries as well.

31:14.89
mike_flywheel
That's cool and I mean obviously sustainability is important but it sounds how do I frame this I mean most startups have a million things to deal with and a million costs and they're trying to find their sweet spot. And I'm sure they all care about sustainability. But it's very hard to build that in right from the early days because there's inherently cost complexity. Um, why did you choose to kind of lead with that from such an early start in the business and what were some of the pros to it and.

31:37.32
Paige
Ah, hey.

31:51.41
mike_flywheel
Challenges for anyone else that maybe is starting out a business and trying to think about how they include that from day zero. So.

31:54.56
Paige
Um, well, it's funny that you say that because I think we're about two and a half years young and it really wasn't top of mind when we first started but as we learned more about the industry where we're also learning that there weren't a lot of companies with this focus and I think if you're really thinking about. A lot of the common issues that we have as a generation is our world and how we're going to hopefully keep it a better place and you know be happy with that in the future for our generations to come so I think it just came from a lot of conversations that I was already having with my friends with my family. And then thinking about the impact that you have as an entrepreneur as well. So I think it's really easy and I and I learned this myself is it's really easy to have a store and drop ship a product and make money and I think that's. Great to start. But I think as you learn and grow. You also have a responsibility so that's ultimately why it felt like how could you just ignore this obvious concept that everyone's already talking about.

33:01.50
mike_flywheel
And just maybe it's a dumb question but like is it more expensive to do it in a sustainable way. Um, and is that if it is like how did you determine the right time.

33:07.86
Paige
Um, hey.

33:14.60
Paige
Yes.

33:16.30
mike_flywheel
You know you said you're two and a half years young. It didn't start out that way people were talking about it. But that doesn't mean it's like the time to make that change. It's a big change. So is it generally more expensive and how did you come to terms with when was the right time for you guys and.

33:23.58
Paige
Um, ah her.

33:29.59
Paige
Yeah, definitely so. The answer is yes, it's of course more expensive like I touched on it briefly at the beginning but for every coach we build. We plant a hunted trees so that's like a direct revenue from our product that we ah partnered with various organizations to really like. Help grow our environment back and in a sustainable manner. So that's one's where like direct money comes out of your pocket also same thing if you're thinking about delivery companies. There were obviously more cost-effective companies but we wanted to partner with one that was growing in what we thought was the right direction and then also with um. Furniture donation. We do ask for one hundred and fifty dollars just to help with the logistical components of donating a couch but in my eyes that's better than in going to the dump where again, you're also paying to dispose of a product um in terms of it being the right time. I think that's where it's kind of like when is it ever the right time to make a change and try to do a little bit better. So I mean if you can incorporate it and it makes sense for margins as like a startup or an entrepreneur then that's a really great way to do it and I think that there's so many ways to incorporate. I don't want to say sustainability because it feels like a very buzzword but sure let's go with sustainability in your business and whether it's basically having your business being a social impact business which I understand ours is not but also funding social impact or incorporating it like in a fifty fifty split so I think that there's a lot of ways that.

35:01.64
Paige
Businesses can start and at least take a step in that right direction and we're still learning So I'm always open to understanding how we can also do better in that.

35:04.37
mike_flywheel
For sure. So.

35:11.84
mike_flywheel
Now. Ah obviously it's like start whenever you're able to. It's always hard to make that change was there something that you used to to decide that now is the time or just like hey we've been talking about this for so long we were profitable.

35:25.53
Paige
Yeah.

35:29.48
mike_flywheel
Like it was that a moment actually was it like we're profitable. We've been talking about it for so long now is the moment. Um, like you would you suggest? hey we're not profitable but let's do that as well. Like what? what was your.

35:33.61
Paige
Um, it is.

35:39.80
Paige
Yeah, no great point. Well, it's interesting that you say that too and like as a startup I think Harrison and I have always had our businesses as hey like we need to pay the bills like I don't think it was anything other than that and the startup world is very interesting because it can be completely opposite of that. Um, where you know you have a high burn rate and or a low burn rate and you know you've raised x amount and we have not gone that route with dilut of orand non dilut of funding. So I think it was a thing at least for us in our minds is like hey if we're already profitable like we should be thinking about these next steps for us because it made sense. I also think that like as I mentioned we had other stores before and that was never top of mind for us and I really wanted to do this differently I think I also understood that like being a hometown hero growing a business locally here is very different and I think that it's really important to uphold like a reputation for yourself and also your company too. So yeah, it kind of was one of those things that we've been thinking about it. We should probably just do it now.

36:38.18
mike_flywheel
That's cool. That's cool. Well good good on you for for taking the leap and thanks for the advice for anyone else. That's listening I'm sure it's valuable. Um, what has been. You know your favorite part or most memorable part of. Of building this I know recently you know you were just awarded a top 30 young entrepreneur award I think is top 30 under 30 years old entrepreneur from league of innovators. Um, that's obviously an amazing feat. You've been from not being an entrepreneur.

37:04.23
Paige
Ah, her 4 4

37:15.30
mike_flywheel
Before 30 having multiple acquisitions under your belt and an award like this I'm sure that journey has brought lots of amazing exciting memorable moments. But what stands out for you.

37:27.62
Paige
Yeah, it's always funny when people ask me this and I don't think I ever really have an honest or not an honest answer I don't think I ever really know what the answer is but um I will say. It's always crazy to see and it sounds so simple, but just our products in people's homes and how happy that makes them when you're able to provide that comfort for them. So from like a customer-centric perspective. There's that and then also. Like I said our focus on sustainability. That's not something that we've ever focused on before. So I think that's also pushing me to think about the world in a different way and then of course there's your you know your social accolades like we got the bc business 30 under 30 and then the loi um youth entrepreneurs of the year awards too. So. It's like you're working in the trenches for like 7 years and you're always behind a screen and no one really like knows what you do every day and it's been really nice in the past year to have a little bit of recognition for that. Um, that goes a long way for sure in terms of just like hey a little pat on the back. So. Yeah there's I mean there's a couple things. But I think I think those would be my top 3 even.

38:37.50
mike_flywheel
I feel like those are a good top 3 have you ever walked into like a random house for like ah a house party that you were invited to by extension and seeing like 1 of your couches in there. So.

38:44.89
Paige
Um, okay I haven't but I've had a lot of really cool like so founders and ceos of companies that I really admire purchase from us. So um, that's been a really cool experience to be like oh wow this person who's like built a really cool company over like 15 years and is really respected like. Trust me with that or when people go to airb yeah, or with people go to airbnb's actually that's also really cool. They be like oh I saw your product in this b and b like I want to buy one now. Yeah.

39:05.53
mike_flywheel
That's cool. So.

39:13.68
mike_flywheel
That's super cool too. Um, well I I think that's a good start I think it's gonna be cool one day when you just walk in like by extension and you walk in like whoa like that's my gouge. What do you mean? That's your couch. No I already bought that couch. no no I mean like.

39:22.22
Paige
Um, that's my coach. Yeah.

39:28.90
Paige
Yeah, yeah, no for sure for sure that would be cool I'll wait for the day on that one too.

39:28.65
mike_flywheel
We designed it. You bought that from us I Actually that'll be cool.

39:36.78
mike_flywheel
So all right? Well we'll do another podcast then um, hardest part I mean it sounds like you've had a lot of good upswings. But I'm sure those aren't like by chance you're obviously putting in work and energy. Um.

39:47.64
Paige
It is.

39:53.82
mike_flywheel
And it sounds like you're bootstrapping which is unto itself challenging but it forces profitability which in a market like right now taking on additional dilutive or non-dilluted isn't always the answer. It's It's the the businesses that can prove they have a product people are willing to pay for and can drive profitability That's King What's been the hardest part.

40:05.96
Paige
Ah, her.

40:12.70
mike_flywheel
For you so far. So.

40:14.95
Paige
What a big question I think um I mean there's a lot I think just touching on like the funding component That's definitely been like a question that's been top of mind for us because I do think as you're scaling and there's a lot of initiatives we want to take on. It's. Really comes down to okay well what does that investment look like and I'll give you a really good example as to what that looked like for us. So the hypothetical of we had 3 things that we could do with with our resources and one of them was. We had the Vancouver home show really pitch us hard on. Spending $20000 to be at their home show over 4 days. The flipb of that was okay well we know we want to do a pop-up in Toronto realistically that's going to be about four months of potentially renting a space out that's another way to allocate our funding and then. Another one was okay well what if we put 20 came to advertising through lead generation like I'm pretty sure that would bring us multiples usually like a 10 x return on that. So I think right now it's understanding decision making frameworks and understanding how to make good decisions. Because I'm realizing that we have so many to make on a micro and a macro level so that was one that came across. Let's say a month ago when I was like hm how do we want to do this to scale up into black friday or how do we want to do this to go into like 2024. What are our main initiatives that we want to focus on. So.

41:41.30
Paige
I would say figuring out a framework is not only challenging but also really exciting it forces you to think in a really analytical way which I would say most of the time a lot of my decisions were emotional and and it's worked for us so far really well. But I think when you're working with bigger numbers. You need to. Be a little bit more cognizant of how that could work in in your favor and then also not.

42:03.56
mike_flywheel
Is there is there some framework or toolkit of how you're approaching those you know now you said you've switched from it being more like emotional and feeling based to more practical and maybe numerically based or or something else. So.

42:13.69
Paige
Um, ah.

42:17.55
Paige
Yeah I mean I don't know if this sounds silly but it's my brother came from is in a finance world and all he does is financial models and when he used to talk about that like. Two or three years ago I literally said Eric I have no idea what you're talking about like I'm thinking of models on a runway and I know that sounds silly. Um, but I was so ignorant to the process of understanding how you can make better decisions. So. Yeah I would say now putting that into financial models and the prime example of what I just had laid out as those 3 options is like well how do you? Invest twenty k if that is the example and what is the greatest return and how do you measure that so I think really just inputting your data in there and figuring that that out optimally is.

43:01.32
mike_flywheel
Did you already choose 1 of those 3 So.

43:01.35
Paige
Is how I'm trying to learn that. Yeah, the ah the option is up is ads and a mix of a pop up I think that the home show Sorry no offense wasn't the wasn't the work for us.

43:14.95
mike_flywheel
Yeah I mean for where you're at it sounds like having the ability to do the pop-up and get people to try that product and driving the sales. The home show feels like it's an awareness in some regard, but it sounds like that's maybe secondary to the immediate sales opportunity of.

43:23.80
Paige
A.

43:34.80
Paige
Exactly I'm yeah sorry I was gonna say and I was well you were also asking um about like the challenges and I think one of the other ones.

43:34.79
mike_flywheel
Being able to continue to self-sustain growth which is cool. Um, yeah.

43:49.97
Paige
Specifically that we've been talking about a lot is how to stay ahead. Um, and with that that comes with technology so we've really been imagining what this industry looks like in 5 years and I think for like people who are listening in the space as well. Not specifically furniture but in their business. What does your industry look like 5 years and how can you get there sooner. Um, so for us, it's augmented reality on our website and how people can envision their furniture in their home and how they can use our website more optimally rather than just a click. Essentially how can they see better. Um, so maybe that's our other challenge is figuring out what does it look like and how can we get there.

44:32.59
mike_flywheel
Tech Innovation I Love it. Um, if people want to buy a coach see a coach or just support you on the journey where can they go to find out more and is there anything specifically that you are. Looking for if people are looking to help out and as part of your journey or is it just hey if you know someone that needs a coach come to this site. Okay.

44:55.92
Paige
Totally no I'm actually really glad you asked that we're really looking for people which I think is also one of the challenges in growing and scaling as a founder is not being a founder dependent business but um website is couch house h a usdotcom um Instagram Couch UnderscoreHAUs . and we're on all the socials there. So I'm sure they'll link through and in terms of growing. Yeah I would love to know if there's anyone on the East Coast specifically toronto who's interested in being a part of our popup and then also going into q one next year we're going to be launching strong on influencer partnerships with content creators. So I'd love to see if there's. Ah, there people out there that would love to create content for our furniture in their space.

45:35.25
mike_flywheel
Cool. We'll make sure all those items are listed out in the show notes and description links as well as I always love it when when I talk to a founder and they have some specific things because there's a million things on your plate and so if you can carve them out with clarity. Hey we're looking for some influencers. We're looking for partnerships around our ability to to drive a pop-up in Toronto. Um, those are all great. Great ways to to help and I'm sure there's hopefully some listeners out there that that might want to tap into those 2 2 areas for you? Um, yeah i.

46:03.91
Paige
Totally and actually while I'm at it may as well plug you as well. Yeah, just may as well. We have a referral program. So if you mentioned stuff his name and that has a couch then you get one hundred fifty few dollars off but in this case since you hosted me on pitch please if you mentioned Mike.

46:09.90
mike_flywheel
Layered on.

46:22.12
Paige
Then you'll get a hundred and fifty dollars off your purchase and mike gets a little thank you commission as well. So happy to throw that your way.

46:24.62
mike_flywheel
I love it. I love it. I love it. Cool well page. Thank you so much for joining today. It's cool to see you know that pivot from you know the the sciences background a little bit of like business on the side to all in winning it. Driving a profitable business winning awards along the way and really disrupting what hasn't traditionally been that disrupted of a space. It's cool to see your journey and I look forward to hearing a bit more about when your pop-ups coming to toronto I make I'll make sure to pop through.

46:58.55
Paige
Yes.

47:00.62
mike_flywheel
Um, any closing thoughts or words on your side just for anyone kind of listening in tonight. So.

47:05.89
Paige
Um, I think one of the things I've heard a lot from founders or just entrepreneurs or people who want to be in this space but don't know where to start one of the things I always say is it's never going to be 100% so it's okay to even put out your 80% because it's always going to be a work in progress. Um, prime example is our website we did it two and a half years ago and we finally just updated it and it finally looks like something that I'm a little bit more proud. Of now. But yeah I guess same thing goes for anyone who's unsure of where to start like just get it going and put something out there and it's always going to be an iterative process too. Exactly.

47:46.30
mike_flywheel
That's cool, One foot in front of the other it's it's such good advice and I think the part that specifically you said ah other people have said kind of similar ideas around just get one foot in front of the other get started. But I think the piece that you said that resonated the most is it doesn't need to be perfect like we almost self. Get self-critical and never get something out there because it has to be perfect and if you kind of reflect back on where you started. It was a kajigi ad with some pictures and that was it and then you're doing like basetime calls to get the ball rolling your most adamant customers don't care.

48:10.69
Paige
Um, totally yep.

48:22.79
mike_flywheel
And you will grow into the rest. But if you wait for all of it to be perfect. You might never get started. So I think that 80% um is a really good framework for people just just get something rolling and you know what it'll either work or it won't and you'll find out really quickly if people care.

48:26.18
Paige
Exactly.

48:34.63
Paige
Totally yeah I agree. Well Mike thank you so much for having me today. It was really fun to go down memory lane this morning too.

48:42.73
mike_flywheel
I Love it. Thanks a lot Paige Thanks for joining us on the pitch please podcast and for everyone that joined. Thanks again for listening in and make sure to catch us on the next episode have a good one. Thanks.