For Lisa Schulner-Fine and Michael Fine, a journey to business ownership began greater than ten years ago in New York-when their newborn son didn’t go to sleep.
“I would be in his room in the dark in the middle of the night, holding him and I started to dream”- Quiet citysays Entrepreneur. “For some reason, my mind would go to shower curtains.”
Picture loan: Customary Cicha Town. Lisa Schulner-Fine and Michael Fine.
Lisa was frustrated with the lack of a shower curtain option on the market for some time. She and Michael had an eye on design – she worked as a styling director in Madewell, and he as an independent fashion photographer – and the couple tried to seek out aesthetic bathroom accessories on the retail shelves. Even worse, most of the available items were far from balanced.
“We would be in Bed Bath and not only with a large basket, choosing terribly made plastic things that did not feel like us at all,” recalls Lisa.
For fox, bath accessories seemed “the largest category of the weaker” that she could approach the creative and balanced perspective. She continued meditation when designing a shower curtain in nights and weekends, balancing the side hustle and bustle with a full -time profession and raising a young family.
At first, Michael admits that he didn’t quite understand the impulse for his wife’s passion. “[I felt] like, It is crazy “ says. “Nobody cares for shower curtains. Why would you ever start such a business?“However, he also knew that Lisa was” very creative “and” visionary ” – so it made sense that she was able to bring a latest perspective of the industry.
“So I said ‘Okay, I can help you repel it, “says Michael.” We had no idea where it was going. It was really like a lateral hustle and bustle. “
Photo: due to the kindness of a quiet city
“It was a mood for us, less about being specific in what we do.”
Lisa decided to make shower curtains from the canvas. The couple got here a lot to think about at every stage of the process, from dyeing to ending. The goal was to create a product that became more beautiful with age, “like a pair of jeans”, explains Lisa.
For the first side session in history, Hustle Michael and his photography assistant took samples of canvas shower curtains, which Lisa made to the beach. They set the curtains with a rope, pulled them out and photographed them in a nice light – and then placed the Splash page and used the image of the inaugural post of the brand on Instagram to tell those who something soon.
“We never did anything traditional in this way,” says Michael. “It was never, shoot in the bathroom in front of the bathtub. It was like, go to the beach or find a really beautiful red wall and shoot there. It was about mood, less about being specific in what we do.”
(*3*)
Photo: due to the kindness of a quiet city
Because in 2016 and now the couple perceives a company that extends beyond bathroom accessories – and in a lifestyle brand. Michael and Lisa desired to create functional products that individuals really needed, but tried to do it in a “beautiful, aspiration way.” Some of the first products were named after their favorite quiet cities, similar to “Ojai” and “Mendocino”, which also inspired the nickname of the company “Silent City”.
In these early lateral times, Hustle Lisa approached and saved “every scrap on the floor” during production, not wanting to waste a “beautiful side product”. Soon one other opportunity appeared: to start out the project, named Re: Canvas, which could keep these residues and transform them into “something new and cool” through strategic partnerships.
The couple have established cooperation with Brooklyn Textile Art Center for First Re: Canvas Project, transforming the material into inspired by Portuguese rugs. The quiet city cooperated with hand -exhausted pillows with the artist Rebecca Raney, pads and napkins from West Elm, a colourful jacket and shorts with designer Alex and more.
“It’s really difficult, very expensive and it takes a long time.”
From the very starting, the co -founders engaged in building a sustainable brand admit that they were initially hesitant to provide liners for shower curtains. Lisa and Micahel didn’t wish to bring more plastic to the world, but after discussing the problem with friends, they realized that they’d to come back up with methods to develop into a sustainable rotation of the product – after all, the quiet city began as a business of a shower curtain.
The solution to co -founders, which they do not even call a “liner”, was “solar shower curtain”. Made of non -toxic vinyl plastic EVA, which are free of chlorine, PVC and BPA, sunny shower curtains will be used as a pad of shower curtain or as an independent veil. They also decided to create a post-consummer recycling plan for them-a difficult undertaking for a small company.
“It’s really difficult, very expensive and it takes a long time,” says Lisa. The establishment of a recycling project was a goal from the very starting, and in the last few years he quietly “marked the map towards the circle” as a result of the shower curtains, working with the international recycling community called Precious Plastics, which provides resources that help people solve the problem with plastic waste. The company Circular Sun Shower will start this summer.
“The Sun Shower category began to explode because it was affordable and aspiration.”
Like many firms that focus on home products, Ciche Town has seen an increase in demand during a pandemic.
“If they were lucky that they were still a job and could afford to spend money, people did not know what to spend money on than food and toilet paper,” says Michael. “It was like Oh, wait a moment, I spend so much time in my bathroom. The Sun Shower category began to explode because it was accessible and aspiration. “
The silent city finished the side Hustle in a full -time business in 2020. In April this year, revenues began to grow monthly by month. The quiet city earned around USD 300,000 during the first year in this trajectory; Now the brand generates over $ 3 million a year.
Photo: due to the kindness of a quiet city
In addition, like many people during a pandemic, the couple began to think about their location. Michael and Lisa lived in San Francisco in 2001 for about a year; They loved the west coast and all the time felt as if they’d an “unfinished business” there. So they decided to make this move, give him two years and devote themselves to a cake.
“[The Bay Area] It gives us access to all the things we wanted – says Michael, “similar to mountains, beach, city, a really excellent spot to lift children. So there was all the time in our minds, to the extent that the use of the world as our bathroom during photo sessions.”
“[The West Coast] She all the time informed about our design approach: “He adds Lisa.” “Now it seems that we are at home.”
“No matter how small it grows [the business] You must believe it so passionately. “
Now, almost a decade, to conduct business, co-founders have learned a lot about what it is advisable to move through the ups and falls of entrepreneurship-how helpful to have a partner through all this.
“I think that I can give someone the best advice, is an attempt to start a company with a partner,” says Michael. “It is so difficult to do yourself. Make sure your partner has completely different skills than you. If you are creative, find someone who has a mind for finances, business or operations.”
Michael also suggests maintaining a healthy balance between skilled and private life, noting that he finds one of the best inspirations for business when he is on a journey, listening to music.
Lisa emphasizes the importance of “obsession” in the business that you would like to start – and believing so fully that you just are able to fight for it from the first day.
“No matter how small it grows [the business] To believe it so passionately, 1000%, because he really takes over your life in so many ways, “says Lisa.” Unless it’s something you really believe, don’t give him such a lot of power over your life. “