On this episode Abadesi talks to
Kathryn Duryea
Wyndowe, founder and CEO of Year & Day.
They make beautiful tableware that they sell direct-to-consumer online via
their website.
In this episode they talk about...
## How she came up with the idea for Year & Day
> “I felt very empowered by this idea of buying a new set of plates outside of
this proposition of getting married and a wedding registry.”
Kathryn graduated from Stanford GSB and started working at Tiffany & Co.,
helping to bring them online. She was inspired by the new direct-to-consumer
brands and had always loved the ritual of setting the table. She decided she
wanted to make “tableware fun again.” Through trying to buy a set of tableware
for herself, she found that the experience was confusing and uninspiring.
After going through that, she “turned on the other side of her brain” and dug
into the market for tableware, which accounts for $7B in annual spend, which
led her to start Year & Day.
## Her crazy year preparing to launch the brand
> “It took about 11 months, almost a year, to go from basically this is my
full attention, full-time professional endeavor to now we are selling to
customers.”
Kathryn thought that she could launch in eight months, but it actually took
almost a year. She talks about the wide range of tasks that she had to tackle,
basically by herself, from design to manufacturing to fulfilment to arranging
for web development. She talks about “fighting against the inertia of the
world” to will the brand new company into existence. She says that her launch
strategy was to email 500 of her friends about the company and that in the
beginning she had her brother doing customer service. Since then they’ve grown
to a team of 8 based in San Francisco.
> “All aspects of starting a business are both wildly thrilling with high
highs and low lows and real challenges, but what's so exciting about those
early months and days is that this idea that you formulated, now you're
starting to bring it into shape into the real world.”
## The power of Instagram and the rise of direct-to-consumer
> “A lot of the product discovery these days happens on social media on
platforms like Instagram. People are relying more and more on people that they
follow there to help them discover products that they’ll love, that suit their
lives.”
The rules for marketing to the digital-native generation have changed with the
advent of social media platforms and influencers. Kathryn explains why
Instagram is such a powerful platform and why people are gravitating towards a
different kind of shopping experience. She talks about the importance of
curation when it comes to products like tableware.
She also talks about some of her favorite productivity hacks, including why
she meditates, works from home one morning a week, and why she still uses good
old fashioned pen-and-paper for her to-do lists.
> “As an entrepreneur you could literally work 24 hours a day and still feel
like your list is growing, so in order to have a healthy balance you need to
actually set some boundaries.”
She also discusses some of her favorite products.
We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on
Apple
Podcasts,
Google
Podcasts,
Spotify,
Breaker,
Overcast, or
wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to
Knowable for their support. 😸
### Companies and Products Mentioned on This Episode
Audm — The world’s best longform
journalism, read aloud.
Insight Timer — The
best free meditation timer.
Snagit — The best screen
capture software.
Read more
On this episode Abadesi talks to
Kathryn Duryea
Wyndowe, founder and CEO of Year & Day.
They make beautiful tableware that they sell direct-to-consumer online via
their website.
In this episode they talk about...
## How she came up with the idea for Year & Day
> “I felt very empowered by this idea of buying a new set of plates outside of
this proposition of getting married and a wedding registry.”
Kathryn graduated from Stanford GSB and started working at Tiffany & Co.,
helping to bring them online. She was inspired by the new direct-to-consumer
brands and had always loved the ritual of setting the table. She decided she
wanted to make “tableware fun again.” Through trying to buy a set of tableware
for herself, she found that the experience was confusing and uninspiring.
After going through that, she “turned on the other side of her brain” and dug
into the market for tableware, which accounts for $7B in annual spend, which
led her to start Year & Day.
## Her crazy year preparing to launch the brand
> “It took about 11 months, almost a year, to go from basically this is my
full attention, full-time professional endeavor to now we are selling to
customers.”
Kathryn thought that she could launch in eight months, but it actually took
almost a year. She talks about the wide range of tasks that she had to tackle,
basically by herself, from design to manufacturing to fulfilment to arranging
for web development. She talks about “fighting against the inertia of the
world” to will the brand new company into existence. She says that her launch
strategy was to email 500 of her friends about the company and that in the
beginning she had her brother doing customer service. Since then they’ve grown
to a team of 8 based in San Francisco.
> “All aspects of starting a business are both wildly thrilling with high
highs and low lows and real challenges, but what's so exciting about those
early months and days is that this idea that you formulated, now you're
starting to bring it into shape into the real world.”
## The power of Instagram and the rise of direct-to-consumer
> “A lot of the product discovery these days happens on social media on
platforms like Instagram. People are relying more and more on people that they
follow there to help them discover products that they’ll love, that suit their
lives.”
The rules for marketing to the digital-native generation have changed with the
advent of social media platforms and influencers. Kathryn explains why
Instagram is such a powerful platform and why people are gravitating towards a
different kind of shopping experience. She talks about the importance of
curation when it comes to products like tableware.
She also talks about some of her favorite productivity hacks, including why
she meditates, works from home one morning a week, and why she still uses good
old fashioned pen-and-paper for her to-do lists.
> “As an entrepreneur you could literally work 24 hours a day and still feel
like your list is growing, so in order to have a healthy balance you need to
actually set some boundaries.”
She also discusses some of her favorite products.
We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on
Apple
Podcasts,
Google
Podcasts,
Spotify,
Breaker,
Overcast, or
wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to
Knowable for their support. 😸
### Companies and Products Mentioned on This Episode
Audm — The world’s best longform
journalism, read aloud.
Insight Timer — The
best free meditation timer.
Snagit — The best screen
capture software.
Read less