Look Before You Leap

I Was Wrong

In 2016, two years after launching her bedding company, Parachute, founder and CEO Ariel Kaye started burning through cash. The direct-to-consumer linen shop had just raised a $4.6 million Series A, and Kaye was getting pressure from investors to spend a good chunk of that on finding new customers.

"Our marketing budget was next to nothing, and then suddenly we brought in this capital," recalls Kaye, 38. "We were told: 'Go, go, go." So she and her team of 15 allocated $1 million for marketing and began brainstorming ways to get as many eyes as possible on the brand.