There are “first’s” for everything...first love, first job, first car, and first home. While each #lifegoal is exciting, it also comes with high levels of stress and frustration. Focusing on new and young homeowners tirelessly searching for furniture to design their first home, Nidhi Kapur founded Maiden Home by mixing craftsmanship and convenience at a price that doesn’t break their bank.

Born in Pennsylvania and brought up in California, Nidhi Kapur was no interior designer. In fact, she was quite the opposite. Having graduated in 2008 from Stanford University with a major in Human Biology, Nidhi was constantly surrounded by technology and innovation. Yet, her desire to leave the Cali bubble and move to New York led her to a consulting gig at McKinsey & Company.

Surrounded by the smartest people in town, Nidhi quickly realized her lack of interest in finance and healthcare industries and decided to move back to Cali for a job at Google. After a two year stint in their Business, Operations & Strategy group, Nidhi found herself back in NYC as the Head of Business Development at Birchbox in 2012. This was the year of e-commerce where companies such as GILT, Bonobos and Rent the Runway were just starting off.

A big career change, Nidhi worked directly with one of Birchbox’s co-founders and was in charge of business deals. After almost three years at the job, she quit and decided to start her own direct-to-consumer business, Maiden Home in late 2015. Meant for first home buyers, Maiden Home helps one customize furniture through seamless online user experience. Goodbye hours and hours of result-less furniture shopping!

The Aha Moment

Nidhi had always thought about the home furnishing category. “When I got married in 2013, my husband and I bought our first apartment together and wanted to furnish it. There were so many hilarious moments while trying to find the pieces that fit us. I was in this world of e-commerce where every category had brands that I feel I could connect to, be it Everlane or Casper; brands disrupting industries. But, there was nothing for furniture. I saw it as the last frontier.” Specifically, she wanted to target the woman who cared about her home for the first time and was very vulnerable and scared because she was trying to spend a lot more money than she ever had.

After sharing the same, broken experience with her friends, i.e. 14 weeks for the sofa to arrive or payment for boxing and shipping in addition to other hidden details, Nidhi found a gap in the market between entry level furniture (think IKEA) and nicely designed furniture where one would need an interior designer. In between, there were people who were just married and/or were furnishing their first home. Voilà, Maiden Home was born!

“It’s a beautiful partnership because the furniture makers do what they do best and we do what we do best by building the brand online.”

Maiden Home launched with a beta version in late 2016 and officially hit the Internet in 2017. The differentiating point for the brand is the customization element for furniture, specially handcrafted by artisans in North Carolina. Why North Carolina, you may ask? “North Carolina is known for many factories with heritage and tradition of craftsmanship passed down generations. While a lot of production services have moved to China today, these factories are left in the dust.” After seeking out factories at a trade show and having several face-to-face meetings, Nidhi agreed upon three factories who became her manufacturing partners, each with its unique strength.

“I have always been aesthetically savvy (one part of my life I don’t approach analytically) and I just go with what I love.”

When it comes to the design process, Nidhi works with technical designers from an aesthetic standpoint but all designs are very much her own imagination. Each piece has an original design where one can mix and match them. “We make sure that our pieces have some sort of a complicated element to it because that’s what our factories are good at. To the naked eye, you see a beautiful chair but when you ask what’s beautiful about it, there is attention to detail where the craftsmen take three hours for just the chair’s back…we wanted to let that shine!”

As a shopper, one can discover styles from different product categories, choose the fabric (the swatch is sent via mail so you can truly touch and feel it) and the wood finish. Best part? All materials are eco-friendly and are sourced from local, family-owned businesses in the U.S. Lastly, the sizing can be changed which will ultimately determine the price of the product. Where a usual sofa is sold for $6,000, you can get one per your taste for $2,000 via Maiden Home. That’s some value for your money!

“If you knew how hard it was going to be, you wouldn’t do it. Naïveté is magic!”

For Nidhi, who had for most of her life, worked in teams or with groups of people, the biggest challenge was working as a sole founder. Although she reminisces that perhaps having a mentor or a co-founder may have helped in the beginning, “what I ended up with was an organic and pure vision of me.”

Another challenge for Nidhi was the fact that she didn’t come from within the industry. She says, “When you are approaching an industry that hasn’t changed, don’t talk to people in the industry; bring your own point of view. Don’t assume that being an outsider is a disadvantage; realize that it’s your biggest asset!” Today, Nidhi’s endless determination and constant search for newness has helped successfully raise an angel round of funding for Maiden Home. In the long term, Nidhi is hoping to provide a full home furnishing experience beyond simply furniture.

Sick of aimlessly walking into furniture stores with no luck? Let Maiden Home be your way to designing your dream home. Get shopping here and if you'd like to get in touch with Nidhi, email us here.

Photo courtesy of Maiden Home.