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Nick Larson, CEO of Evlo and Silicon Valley native, disrupts space of buying local furniture

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Nick Larson is co-founder and CEO of Evlo – a platform to easily and conveniently buy local furniture and art. Evlo (Everything Local) not only helps to find the perfect piece, but the product can be brought to the customer with no obligation to buy. Sounds cool, right?

Nick is a Silicon Valley native and was raised in Los Gatos. He studied marketing and business at San Jose State University, then worked full time as an Account Executive, and today he is in 100% devoted to his startup. Since he was raised here, finding the team was rather easy – Nick asked his friends to join. However, all the rest is a challenge – from finding the first furniture suppliers, through figuring out the logistics necessary to deliver the products, finding first clients and getting funded.

How does Nick compare being employed full-time to running his own startup? At what point did he decide to leave the job? How did he find the first partnerships in San Francisco? How does “Try before you buy” option work out for Evlo? What is important to know when pitching to investors? Watch the interview and discover the insights of Evlo’s story!

Here are some highlights from the interview:

  • It was tough to work full time and grow Evlo at the same time, but being passionate about what you’re doing makes it possible to get through:

    “I was only getting a few hours of sleep per night, but it was a passion project. It was something that we are all really excited about, to democratize design, bringing design locally and supporting local business.”

  • Silicon Valley always emphasizes the fact that founders should also make sure that their investors will be able to help out along the way:

    “When you’re talking to investors, you should say ‘Look, we don’t just want your money. We’re looking for a partner, somebody that can give us real feedback.’”

  • This is why it’s fun and exciting to grow startups in San Francisco:

    “San Francisco is a very cohesive city, people are very ambitious. But they don’t have the ego, they are actually just interested in creating awesome projects and products for people to make their lives better.”

  • Making new connections in San Francisco is often as easy as sharing an Uber or Lyft with someone:

    “I always take Lyft Line, or UberPool, and people that I meet in a car always ask ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ I can share a little bit about Evlo, ask them questions back. Typically, we end up connecting on LinkedIn.”

  • People in San Francisco are used to new solutions popping up all the time, therefore it’s much easier to convince them to try your product than anywhere else:

    “San Francisco is really suitable as an initial launch city, because people are constantly moving from place to place. They are tech savy, they like to work with new companies. They want immediate gratification, and they love design.”

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