High-end furniture and decor brand Kathy Kuo Home has been profitable (and self-funded) since its founding in 2012. In 2019, Kathy Kuo met with investors to explore fundraising that could grow the business even faster—but ultimately decided to pursue a different route.

I first decided to consider fundraising in order to accelerate growth of a specific part of the business—the interior design service, which launched in 2017, had 400 percent growth year-over-year and brought in millions without advertising. We thought, If this is the high-margin piece of the business, why not double down on that growth rate by fundraising to build out the tech?

Kathy KuoShannon Ho