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#67: Havenly CEO Lee Mayer on Disrupting the Interior Design Industry and Building a Global Brand

About the Episode:

In today’s episode, we’re talking to Lee Mayer, the CEO and co-founder of Havenly, the online interior design and decorating service that’s disrupting an industry that had for so long been very old school and traditional.

Originally from the Washington, DC area, Lee grew up learning much of what she knows about business from her father who ran multiple successful companies working on government contracts.

After attending school at the Colombia School of Business in New York City, Lee went out into the work world where she spent a couple of years working for Canon. Shortly after getting into her career, she made the decision to take a slight detour…

She applied and got into Harvard Business School; so she went. And that investment would go on to serve her well in many different ways as the years went on. After working for Bain and Company out of grad school, Lee decided she was ready for a change of pace and so she moved out to Denver, Colorado.

And it was then as she was dealing with all the fun that comes along with a cross-country move, coupled with wanting her new home to feel like a great space that Lee and her sister Emily came up with the concept for Havenly. And the rest is history.

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About:

[02:33] What book she’s reading at the moment.
[04:09] Where she originally from.
[04:56] Why she moved to Colorado.
[05:05] What it was like growing up in Washington D.C.
[09:30] The best piece of business advice that her dad gave her.
[11:51] When she decided to go to business school.
[13:48] Her advice for anyone looking to go to business school.
[15:39] About Havenly and how the business works today.
[17:10] Early challenges they had.
[19:12] How the business idea came about.
[20:01] How they got a big client of theirs.
[22:15] How they currently acquire new clients.
[24:43] Strategies she’s tried in the past that have failed.
26:15 The best investment she’s ever made in terms of growing his business.

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Resources Mentioned:

Circe by Madeline Miller

Connect with My Guest:

Havenly

Lee on LinkedIn and Twitter

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If you enjoyed this episode of The Side Hustle Project, I would love your support. Head over to the show on iTunes or in the Apple podcast app and give us a rating please! And as always you can catch every episode on the Apple podcast app, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for tuning in.

Hi I'm Ryan Robinson

Blogger, podcaster and recovering side project addict. Head of Content at Close. Join me here, on ryrob.com to learn how to start a blog, make money blogging and grow a profitable side business. Be sure to try my popular free keyword research tool & AI article writer tool, as well. Somehow, I also find time to write for publications like Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Next Web, Business Insider, and more. Let’s chat on Twitter and YouTube about our feelings (and blogging, of course).

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