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September 10, 2013 11:47 pm GMT
Adi Tatarko, the CEO and co-founder of Houzz,the fast-growing online platform for home remodeling and design,took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt SF this morning to discuss the company’s past, present and future with our own Leena Rao. Tatarko, who co-founded the company with her husband Alon Cohen, stressed how important bootstrapping the company was, but also how finding the right mentors and investors helped them to scale it once they had a good base in place. They founded Houzz to scratch a very personal itch. She did not really want to start another company, but things just grew organically. “We wanted to remodel and design our house and the tools to do it weren’t there,” she told Rao. At the time, Tatarko and Cohen had just bought a house in Palo Alto. “We had big dreams about how fun it would be to renovate it, but it was a nightmare.” This was about three years ago and they weren’t able to find the right tools to get inspiration and find the right contractors to turn their vision into reality. For a long time after this, Houzz was just “a fun project,” Tatarko said. “We were very, very passionate about it. It was great. At some point, we just felt it would be very hard to scale this.” Still, she argued that “bootstrapping was the best thing that ever happened to us.” Too often, she argued, “entrepreneurs spent the first six months or a year chasing investors. They go out there, they create presentations and meet investors.” But then the investors tell them to go and change their presentations and do it again. “But why do that?” Tatarko asked. “Why not spend the first couple of months creating a project that people use and love.” Houzz, of course, had the advantage of having Sequoia come to them. At first, the Houzz team didn’t really want to take money, Tatarko told Rao. “Bootstrapping meant we were running a very lean company and didn’t need to take an investment.” At some point, they realized that to scale, they would need to not just take outside money but also find the right mentors. Once Houzz decided to work with Sequoia, Alfred Lin, the former chairman of Zappos.com joined the Houzz board. Asked about why they decided to work with Sequoia, Tatarko noted that “it didn’t feel like Sequoia was going to change how we
Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eGGak_3AAMk/
Adi Tatarko Of Houzz: Bootstrapping Was The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Us
Adi Tatarko, the CEO and co-founder of Houzz,the fast-growing online platform for home remodeling and design,took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt SF this morning to discuss the company’s past, present and future with our own Leena Rao. Tatarko, who co-founded the company with her husband Alon Cohen, stressed how important bootstrapping the company was, but also how finding the right mentors and investors helped them to scale it once they had a good base in place. They founded Houzz to scratch a very personal itch. She did not really want to start another company, but things just grew organically. “We wanted to remodel and design our house and the tools to do it weren’t there,” she told Rao. At the time, Tatarko and Cohen had just bought a house in Palo Alto. “We had big dreams about how fun it would be to renovate it, but it was a nightmare.” This was about three years ago and they weren’t able to find the right tools to get inspiration and find the right contractors to turn their vision into reality. For a long time after this, Houzz was just “a fun project,” Tatarko said. “We were very, very passionate about it. It was great. At some point, we just felt it would be very hard to scale this.” Still, she argued that “bootstrapping was the best thing that ever happened to us.” Too often, she argued, “entrepreneurs spent the first six months or a year chasing investors. They go out there, they create presentations and meet investors.” But then the investors tell them to go and change their presentations and do it again. “But why do that?” Tatarko asked. “Why not spend the first couple of months creating a project that people use and love.” Houzz, of course, had the advantage of having Sequoia come to them. At first, the Houzz team didn’t really want to take money, Tatarko told Rao. “Bootstrapping meant we were running a very lean company and didn’t need to take an investment.” At some point, they realized that to scale, they would need to not just take outside money but also find the right mentors. Once Houzz decided to work with Sequoia, Alfred Lin, the former chairman of Zappos.com joined the Houzz board. Asked about why they decided to work with Sequoia, Tatarko noted that “it didn’t feel like Sequoia was going to change how weOriginal Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eGGak_3AAMk/
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