Laura Jennings: Looking Forward [Built in Seattle Ep. #50]
Knack Founder & CEO, Laura Jennings, talks about developing a vision, responding to failure, and letting go of other what other people think
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Laura was a successful VP at Microsoft in the 80s and 90s. She led Exchange from $9 to $175M, launched the first MS Office product, and grew MSN.
Still, she had fear about founding.
She said that worrying about what other people think caused her to delay 4 years.
I loved learning how she pushed past the doubt.
Now Knack is a profitable, growing business with a unique take on gifting. It wasn't a straight line for Laura, but it's now one to watch.
Laura shares her lessons on this episode of The Built in Seattle Podcast
Episode Highlights
- Insight from 20+ years exploring consumer behavior.
- Thinking about consumers a creative force.
- How Knack discovered the gifting market on route to a related vision.
- How Laura learned an entirely new business model out of her basement.
- Why in-person tests were key to creating the right user experience.
- The choice to bootstrap and unbundling VC.
- Lessons from leading new products at Microsoft in the 80s and 90s.
- What happened when Knack ran out of boxes during the peak holiday season.
- How to face fears and failures with a forward-looking mindset.
- Why BabyList is Laura's Seattle business role model.
- Why Loria Yeadon is Laura's Seattle leadership role model