Founder Friday: Greg Hayes, Sib Mahapatra & Verity Sylvester, Co-Founders of Branch🗄️
Issue #10
Founder Friday is a content series from SuperAngel.Fund highlighting companies in our portfolio and the inspiring founders behind them.
In our tenth edition, we are featuring Greg Hayes, Sib Mahapatra, and Verity Sylvester, Co-Founders of Branch, the world’s fastest growing office furniture brand.
We couldn’t have picked a better week to highlight the talented team behind Branch. Earlier this week, the company announced its $10M Series A round, led by Springdale Ventures with participation from Maywic Select Investments, Group RMC, Agya Ventures, Nine Four Ventures, Alate Partners, RRE and strategic angels.
After launching in 2019 with a focus on enterprise sales, the Pandemic forced the team to reassess their strategy. With so many companies forced to make layoffs and give up their corporate leases, and with more and more people working from home for the foreseeable future, an opportunity to outfit home offices presented itself.
For the last two years, Branch seized on the home office trend, to the tune of 600% growth in 2020 and then quadrupling that growth in 2021. Now, as more employees head back to the office, Branch is well positioned to carry on a two-pronged approach, selling its full suite of ergonomic furniture (chairs, standing desks, workstations for teams, filing cabinets, and more…) to both consumers and companies.
The Series A funding will allow them to focus on R&D, new product development, expanding the team with a handful of new hires, and build new technology and digital optimization around their furniture. It’s time to sit back, kick your feet up, and watch this venture absolutely soar…And if you’re going to do that, we recommend sitting back in a Branch chair and kicking your feet up on one of their desks!
Describe your company in 5 words or less.
Greg: Great office furniture, made easy.
Sib: Beautiful, accessible office products.
Verity: Inspiring, ergonomic, & affordable workspaces.
What was your primary motivation for starting your business?
Greg: We started Branch to fix inefficiencies in the huge ($45B/year) and antiquated enterprise office furniture market. We were laser focused on our four pillars: value, speed, customer experience, and sustainability. When the pandemic took the wind out of our enterprise sales, we applied the same principles to the emerging consumer opportunity, and found that WFH was experiencing the same frustrations as our traditional enterprise clients. We’re now serving both markets, creating inspiring workplaces at home and in the office!
Sib: I’m fascinated by the process of bringing something new into the world, and the freedom of answering to customers as your only boss. As nerdy as it might sound, I also love institutional design. If the first act of a strong executive team is building a product or service that customers love, the second act is building the culture, processes and team that enable sustained excellence in executing on that mission. Building a high-performing culture is the only competitive advantage that lasts, and it seemed like an amazing and rewarding challenge.
Verity: Creating affordable, ergonomic workspaces (whether in the office or at home!) that inspire productivity and creativity, while allowing you to work at your best!
What piece of advice would you give an entrepreneur starting a business today?
Greg: Find amazing cofounders, and hire people who care!
Sib: Really, truly consider whether your product meets a large and enduring customer need in some defensible way. Every other business fundamental (margin expansion, market expansion) starts there. Office products can seem boring at first look, but they are the opposite of a fad; we serve a fundamental need that will exist for all time (your body will need to sit, even if you’re jacked into the Metaverse, trading your Solana for a monkey NFT).
Verity: Surround yourself with founders and early employees that complement your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses. Exceptional early hires have been one of the main driving forces behind Branch’s success to date!
What do you love to do in your free time?
Greg: Travel as much as possible and spend time with my wife and our dog, Jane.
Sib: I read a ton of books! I try to read at least one a week, mostly fiction. I love writing, but need to find more time to do it…
Verity: I love walking! Living in NYC through COVID has renewed my love of exploring the city, especially when there was not much else to do. Going for walks throughout the day (even in the winter) is what kept me sane over the last couple of years while working from home.
What is the most interesting place you’ve visited recently and why?
Greg: Japan - it’s like traveling to the future. I’ll be back soon.
Sib: I feel like it’s blowing up recently, but I spent a few weeks in Mexico City and absolutely loved it. Incredibly energy, food, people (both local and a healthy ex-pat scene) and culture, and all in a US-friendly time zone!
Verity: I just got married in Mexico last week - so now it will always be a special place for me!
What is your favorite app or tool in your work life and in your personal life?
Greg: Work life: Excel. I can’t imagine how anyone managed a business prior to Excel. Personal life: my Breville Barista Express, which has taken my coffee game (and morning energy) to the next level.
Sib: It’s kind of a meme at Branch that I’m the #1 Notion evangelist. Whether you use Notion or a different tool, documenting best practices, strategy and areas of ownership is one of the biggest super powers for companies starting to hit scale and product market fit (fine balance in the earlier days between documenting too much and too little, since so much changes). A company is just a group of talented people coming together to work toward a common mission and vision, and I love Notion for making it easier to share information, make genius repeatable, and get the team aligned in the same direction.
In my personal life, I’ve been using the app Streaks (recommended by Dan Shipper, over at Superorganizers) to build more foundational habits! Once you get on a roll, it gets easier and easier to keep it going. Eight glasses of water, meditation, and stretches…here I come!
Verity: In my work life, it is definitely my Notes app! Whether it’s right before I fall asleep or in the middle of a dog walk or a workout, I am constantly thinking of things I need to do, ideas for my teams, etc. Notes may be basic but it is also so accessible and seamless! For my personal life, it is Duolingo. My New Year’s Resolution has been to learn Spanish - and I am very slowly learning my basics!
What do you believe is the most important skill or attribute of a successful founder?
Greg: Hard work. As Paul Graham said, startups take off because the founders make them take off. Work hard, never give up, run through walls, make it happen. And then, layer on some humility - understand your limitations and surround yourself with great people who help you to overcome them.
Sib: This probably varies to some extent by business; for us, and likely for many startups, it’s been resilience as the facts on the ground change and every assumption gets thrown out. Our ability to stay lean, mean, focused and efficient has been key to making it through multiple black swans (COVID, supply chain armageddon, etc.)!
Verity: Resilience - as a founder at a startup, I am constantly putting out fires. Learning to bounce from one fire to the next (with a smile on your face!) is key to being a great leader.
SuperAngel.Fund is an early stage fund that invests in Consumer, PropTech & Future of Work. The fund is led by Ben Zises who was the first investor and founding advisor to quip, Caraway & Arber. You can learn more and apply at SuperAngel.Fund.