Jumping Out of the Conventional with Ariel Kaye, the Founder and CEO of Parachute Home

Ariel Kaye has known from a young age that she wanted to learn, improve and move forward in all aspects of life. Today, she talks with us about her journey in starting Parachute Home, a popular direct consumer brand offering bed and bath linens as well as other home essentials for the modern home. We discuss the challenges and rewards of fundraising, how to build a collaborative environment and ways to tell a story in a big, bold and undeniable way.

In This Episode You’ll Hear About:

• Ariel’s unconventional path from working in Advertising to starting her own business.
• How Ariel merged her interest in building a brand with her passion for high-quality home essentials to start Parachute Home.
• What she did to update investors and show progress in order to secure capital.
• How she took feedback and applied it feverishly to better herself and her company.
• Best lessons learned and tips on hiring the right people based on your own core competency.
• Some of the challenges she faced in building her confidence, and ways she encourages camaraderie and bonding within the Parachute culture.
• Why it’s not rare to see employees of Parachute cardio boxing each other.
• What investors need to feel and see, and what Ariel has done to bring out the “crazy” within her own pitch meetings.
• Her recent $30M Series C round, and why fundraising is like a performance.
• How Ariel measures success, and her focus on building a long lasting brand.
• The moments where Ariel felt most defeated, and how she got back on her feet.
• Ariel’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

To Find Out More:

Parachute

Quotes:

• “You have to fake it til you make it.”
• “You are investing in the person so much more than the actual idea”
• “I had to let go of my own insecurity regarding the types of people that would be excited to work here.”
• “When you have a great brand that people are inspired by, it becomes a lot easier to recruit people.”
• “You are your own biggest advocate. You must put the excitement and passion on the table so it can be felt and experienced by others.”
• “Nothing is easy, and that’s what keeps it fun.”
• “Everything takes longer than expected.”
• “I think when you have an idea you really believe in, it’s totally worth following that passion.”
• “You have to get used to things going wrong, and moments that are overwhelming.”