The Side Hustle She Built on Her Honeymoon Raised $35M

This Facet Hustle Highlight Q&A options Blake Geffen, founding father of luxurious accent rental firm Vivrelle.

^{Courtesy of Vivrelle. Blake Geffen.}

Why have been you interested by entrepreneurship, and what does being an entrepreneur imply to you?

Earlier than founding Vivrelle, I spent nearly all of my profession in public relations, and I used to be all the time so impressed by the founders and CEOs that I labored with as shoppers. Now, being on the opposite aspect, I hope to be an inspiration for anybody I work with! Being an entrepreneur means being an inspiring and personable chief whereas being extraordinarily passionate concerning the model I’m constructing and the staff I’m working with. Each of those parts proceed to maintain me motivated, it doesn’t matter what challenges come up.

When did you begin your aspect hustle, and the place did you discover the inspiration for it?

The concept for Vivrelle truly got here to life after I was planning my wedding ceremony in 2017. As I used to be planning for various bridal occasions and events, I needed to decorate every outfit uniquely and in a approach that mirrored my type, however I discovered it practically not possible to seek out high-end, high quality choices that did not break the financial institution. That is after I realized there was a massively untapped market for borrowed luxurious equipment. I bounced the concept of making an unique membership membership that provides entry to extremely coveted equipment off my fiancé (and now husband/enterprise associate!). We began constructing Vivrelle from the bottom up, each main as much as our wedding ceremony and on our honeymoon, and we formally launched the corporate in September 2018.

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What have been among the first steps you took to get your aspect hustle off the bottom?

As talked about, we spent our honeymoon, particularly our time within the Maldives, placing our marketing strategy collectively. We nonetheless joke that we skipped the bellinis on our honeymoon and as a substitute made a full-blown marketing strategy. We then got here again, and on the time, I used to be nonetheless working in public relations, so I used to be utilizing the small quantities of free time I needed to construct the model I used to be so captivated with. On weekends, we might spend our time pitching potential investors and garnering relationships with distributors and companions to assist us create an internet site, tapping mates to assist with advertising and marketing, and so on. We used each waking minute to construct our imaginative and prescient for Vivrelle and convey it to life.

What have been among the largest challenges that got here with the aspect hustle, and the way did you overcome them?

One of many largest challenges, which got here at first, was displaying potential buyers that that they had cause to consider in us and this mannequin. Earlier than we launched, we mentioned if we may get 50 members to enroll the primary month, we might be on to one thing, and we far surpassed our purpose! With my background in PR, we leveraged influencer marketing to assist get us off the bottom. As purveyors of trend and life-style, we knew they may assist deliver our message to life rapidly, so we prioritized working with ones recognized for his or her private type and total life-style to spotlight how Vivrelle helps them elevate their day by day.

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How lengthy did it take you to start seeing constant month-to-month and/or yearly income out of your aspect hustle?

We really feel very lucky that, with onerous work, we surpassed our preliminary projections in month one and have continued to see consistent growth month over month.

We proceed to develop triple digits yr over yr and proudly raised $35 million in our Sequence B spherical with buyers together with celebrities Morgan Stewart, Nina Dobrev and Lily Collins. We have continued rising and increasing, and we’re excited to disclose what we have centered on since our fundraise.

What do you get pleasure from most about operating your enterprise?

There may be a lot to like about operating Vivrelle. One of many issues I get pleasure from essentially the most is assembly members on streets, airports, eating places and listening to about how Vivrelle has introduced them pleasure or improved their day-to-day lives. We have now a showroom location in Manhattan, and I like moving into and listening to which luggage members are loving most, how they’re styling and utilizing them for particular events, vacations and every little thing in between.

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What’s your recommendation for different side-hustlers who hope to develop profitable ventures of their very own?

Discover one thing you’re passionate about, and the work won’t ever really feel like a real “job.” I’ve all the time liked luxurious trend and experimenting with my type, so beginning Vivrelle felt like a pure evolution of this ardour. As a CEO and mom of three, day by day actually appears completely different and throws new challenges my approach, however I am all the time excited to deal with no matter we face as a result of I care a lot about this area and the brand we’ve built.