During a summer’s night out with friends in New York City, I found myself sharing a cab with a guy named Jeff Safenowitz. As we did the expected “What do you do?” exchange, I gave him the elevator pitch on my fashion bedding company, 41 Winks.
A community manager for WeWork, he handed me his business card and suggested I take a look at the offices. I thanked him and tucked the card into my wallet. A month later, I realized how miserable I was at my current office and decided to dig up his card and reach out. I toured a few WeWork offices just for kicks, and before I knew it I was booking a two-person office space at the company’s West Broadway location. 41 Winks officially had a new home.
My calendar quickly started filling up with coffee dates, free seminars, and networking events within the collaborative walls of WeWork. I found myself spending most of my time at WeWork and talking about it somewhat obsessively to my friends and family—I had become WeWork’s new no.1 fan.
Feeling more inspired and motivated with 41 Winks than ever before, I spoke to my aunt, the founder of 41 Winks, about freshening up our brand and establishing ourselves as the go-to bedding brand for the college and after-college market. I quickly realized the potential of having WeWork’s network to make that happen at my fingertips. Literally.
The first step was to find a consultant to help design a new product line that would better align with our updated brand. SoI looked first at the WeWork network, an internal social platform for members to engage. After checking out a few NYC-based members in the design world, I found Natalie Kathleen and “swiped right” pretty quickly.
At WeWork’s Meatpacking location, Natalie knew everyone. We realized that Jeff was a mutual friend and skipped straight to talking details in a comfortable tone. With a background in fashion design, she had already built her own luxury handbag brand called Sienna Ray. Now she wanted to use her experience building her own company to help other people do the same. Turns out I found the perfect person at the perfect time.
I wanted to play a big role in creating the new bedding collection, but I am far from being a designer. Natalie provided that experience and more. Together we worked to create a new product line using up-cycled materials that were already in the 41 Winks inventory. We ran around the Garment District (Natalie in heels, me in flats) and hung out with our wonderful and patient female manufacturer, loving every minute of it.
The potential of the brand that slept under 41 Winks’ sheets excited us—we had the same vision for the company and truly enjoyed working together. We were two peas in a pod, or two pigs in a (throw) blanket.
But the WeWork connections didn’t stop there. Natalie and I participated in the WeWork Holiday Market where we met Lisa Josephsen. It wasn’t long before we began working with Lisa and her business partner David Walker of Rocket and Walker, a branding and web design firm from WeWork’s SoHo West location. Together we created a team that brought the 41 Winks brand to life through a photo shoot, a promotional video, a few disco balls, and lots and lots of confetti.
Every day it amazes me how one shared cab ride led to such a fun friendship, fulfilling business relationship, and subsequent growth for 41 Winks. And I strongly believe this is only the beginning.
Photo credit: Lauren Kallen