Haley Weidenbaum, now co-founder together with her husband Adam Weidenbaum of window-covering firm Everhem, acquired her begin in inside design again in 2011. She enrolled in a certification program on the subject via UCLA’s extension program, and a yr and a half later, she was able to tackle enterprise.
That is when Haley found Homepolish, the home-design startup that related inside designers with purchasers. Haley labored as an inside designer with Homepolish for about six years. The corporate, which raised $20 million in funding in 2016, shuttered in 2019 after revealing it had run out of capital.
Haley’s expertise with Homepolish gave her a firsthand have a look at what may occur when a startup grows too quick. The work additionally helped lay the inspiration for her and Adam to launch an interior-design-related enterprise of their very own — utilizing a slow-and-steady method to do it.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Everhem. Adam and Haley Weidenbaum.
“On the time, window remedy was the toughest a part of my job,” Haley tells Entrepreneur. “I could not discover the best firm to execute the designs I needed. The standard wasn’t nice. The customer support in any respect the businesses I attempted was actually poor. I simply needed to do it higher. Providing distinctive, memorable experiences has at all times been my favourite factor to do as an inside designer.”
Adam, a graphic designer with an expert background in finance, was a great co-founder to assist make the imaginative and prescient a actuality. When Haley approached him about her concept for Everhem, Adam was working at a digital media company the place he centered on branding — and he was prepared for a change.
“I knew sufficient to know to not doubt Haley at that time,” Adam says. “When she comes up with one thing, it is normally going to occur. So I stated, ‘Positive, let’s do that.'” Adam discovered all he may about window remedies, constructed out the corporate’s financial fashions and set to work on model id. One of the essential first steps was arising with their new enterprise’s title.
“We needed to provide you with a reputation that wasn’t particularly centered on window remedy per se as a result of we did not know what the way forward for the enterprise may maintain,” Adam remembers. “Possibly we might get into one other vertical or a number of different verticals. After which if we’re pigeonholed into one thing to do with home windows, it isn’t going to make sense to folks.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Everhem
“It had this double entendre. It is Swedish for dwelling, and all of our merchandise are going to be hand-sewn.”
The wheels began to show after the couple watched an episode of Summary: The Artwork of Design, a Netflix documentary about creatives, that featured the British inside designer Ilse Crawford. Shortly earlier than they launched the enterprise, the Weidenbaums took a visit to Stockholm, Sweden, the place they stayed at The Ett Hem Resort, which Crawford designed.
”We have been very impressed by it,” Adam says. “[It was] utterly our vibe. We discovered that ‘hem’ is principally the Swedish phrase for ‘dwelling,’ [and] we have at all times felt a connection to the hygge motion, the coziness. [‘Hem’] made a variety of sense. It had this double entendre. It is Swedish for dwelling, and all of our merchandise are going to be hand-sewn. Then the ‘ever’ was added as a result of it made sense too: That is in your perpetually dwelling.”
Everhem’s typeface additionally attracts inspiration from Crawford — it is the identical typeface used for the title of the designer’s guide, A Body for Life. It additionally occurs to be known as “Tarzana,” which is the title of the city the place Haley grew up. It was a “full-circle” second, the co-founders say.
“We needed to deliver the consumer expertise on-line and elevate it.”
The Weidenbaums have been cautious of taking exterior capital from the beginning. In these early days, they used their financial savings to self-fund the enterprise. A lot of the cash went to constructing a web site and buying stock. Embracing the slow-and-steady mentality, the co-founders did not count on a “large increase” on the official August 2019 launch. The primary natural order and month of gross sales have been “exhilarating.”
”We entered an trade that is been round for many years and a long time,” Haley says, “so we weren’t actually attempting to reinvent the wheel [in terms of] what everybody else was doing [with] making customized window remedy. However we needed to vary the format of the customer support. We needed to deliver the consumer expertise on-line and elevate it. As a result of that was a giant problem for lots of people.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Everhem
Nonetheless, the Weidenbaums have been cautious; not sure precisely how a lot enterprise they’d have on their arms, they did not really feel able to pitch to traders.
Throughout her time at Homepolish, Haley witnessed how an injection of exterior capital may essentially alter a enterprise’s operations — and never essentially for the higher. Homepolish tried to manage a variety of the inside designers’ companies with a view to earn cash and meet traders’ bold expectations, the Weidenbaums notice.
“ Our warning with traders has at all times been, we do not need to cede management of the future of the corporate too early and threat ruining it,” Adam explains. “It appeared like a wiser resolution, no less than at first, to do it bootstrapped, let it’s sluggish and see the place it goes.”
That conservative method to development additionally prolonged to the corporate’s hiring. At the start of 2020, a few months into launch, the co-founders have been nonetheless doing every thing themselves. At that time, the Weidenbaums had one little one and twins on the best way, in order that they knew it was solely a matter of time earlier than they would wish to deliver on additional assist. The couple employed their first staff member a number of weeks earlier than the pandemic lockdowns.
”In fact, for a time period [during the pandemic], every thing primarily shut down [and we] could not make something,” Adam says. “[We were] principally bleeding capital. However we supplied 30%-35% reductions throughout the board. Place your order now; we’ll fulfill it once we can. And that actually labored.”
Like many companies associated to the house, Everhem noticed a rise in demand amid the lockdowns, with extra folks caught inside and keen to enhance their residing areas. Then got here a spate of natural influencer partnerships, which additionally helped the enterprise stage up. Everhem did not start its paid advertising and marketing technique till 2021.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Everhem
Immediately, Everhem is a multimillion-dollar model with a “small however mighty staff” that helps it maintain its regular development trajectory. Hiring — and ensuring new staff members are the best match — stays one of many firm’s most essential and difficult goals.
“You by no means actually know if you rent somebody if they are going to work out or not,” Adam explains. “We have been extraordinarily lucky with some individuals who have grow to be [essential]. I do not assume the enterprise would run with out them. However we have additionally had our share of hiccups.”
“We’re right here to vary the notion of window remedy.”
Transferring additional into 2025, the co-founders are excited for continued development and Everhem’s upcoming collaborations.
”Collaborating with designers has been an enormous objective of ours,” Haley explains. “This enables us to remain within the realm of inside design at all times, making it apparent to our client base that is on the forefront of each resolution we make. We’re right here to vary the notion of window remedy. It may be difficult and complicated, nevertheless it’s such an essential facet of inside design, and lots of people do not realize that.”
Everhem simply launched its Matchstick Shades product with Annie Meyers-Shyer, who runs the Instagram account This Oak Home. The corporate additionally lately introduced a partnership with the artist Carly Kuhn to supply unique materials and patterns.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Everhem. From the Carly Kuhn collaboration.
The co-founders have discovered loads through the years spent constructing Everhem, and one among their high items of recommendation for aspiring entrepreneurs hoping to begin companies of their very own is easy however important: Do not have a look at income daily — and even month by month.
“It may drive you nuts, particularly when the financial system is in flux,” Adam says.
Haley additionally stresses the significance of believing in your imaginative and prescient. “You probably have an concept about launching an organization or an concept of a product you need to launch within the firm you have already based, strive it out,” Haley says. “Do it in a method that mitigates the chance as a lot as attainable, however go together with your intestine and do not doubt your self.”