An interview with Yael Shemer, Co-founder and CCO at TULU

We invited Yael Shemer from TULU to share some tools and resources that helped her on her journey. Let's dive in:

1. How did it all start?

“When I met my co-founder, Yishai Lehavi , we both had a strong passion for utilizing urban resources and unused spaces in cities.

We wanted to leverage the proximity of people where they live to create solutions that would benefit the masses, rather than just individuals. Yishai's experience in architecture and the built environment, combined with my background in alternative consumption, led to the creation of TULU.

Today, TULU is a digital and physical platform that operates in residential buildings, student housing, offices, hotels, and more. It provides residents with on-demand access to household and lifestyle items that they can rent and purchase.”

2. What is one thing you wish someone had told you before you launched TULU?

“The rough and dirty days, where you don't always know how things will roll out, are the most beautiful and rewarding days. The innocence and optimism are actually to your advantage, and the more focused you are on the "now", the further you'll get.”

3. What did your biggest professional failure teach you?

"How you do anything is how you do everything. You'll never regret the extra effort you put into something if it's important to you. Always give it your best, and sign off on things when they're great, not just good.

Sure, you also have to launch fast and move quickly, but if something has the power to change a trajectory, go the extra mile. Professionalism is a currency and will elevate you and your company's brand.”

4. What are some resources that you've found particularly helpful?

• Mel Robbins's TED Talk "The Five-Minute Rule," truly resonated with me. After watching it, I decided to train myself to act on things and not let my inner critic get in the way.

• The Time Ferriss show is a classic one, but the two episodes that still stay in my head are the ones with Kevin Kelly called "The One Thing" (about focusing chapters of your life on one big thing) and Seth Godin called "The Game of Life" about his book and his practice.

• "The Surrender Experiment" by Michael Singer is a book that changed my life in the sense that I trust life and how it unfolds. It taught me to look at life with curiosity, understanding that certain things will happen no matter what.

• Mindvalley - I took some of their classes, and it's some of the best value for leadership, management, and human relationships.

• Poetry gives me peace, and in every city I've moved to, I always brought a copy of Wisława Szymborska's poetry collection with me.

Find something that moves your heart and revisit it every once in a while."

5. What has been your most effective growth strategy?

"With almost zero marketing to this day, our best growth comes from happy clients. In my perspective, making our first partners and members extremely satisfied with our product and service led to more reviews, referrals, and organic growth than we could have ever dreamed of.

We also learned a lot about our product, but we use a human touch to gain more knowledge about the customer experience and eventually built it as features. As tempting as it is for a startup to build scalable services from day one, we actually benefited from learning from each customer, and at the beginning, we saw how much leverage our personalization and human relationships contributed to our growth."

6. What's one piece of software that your business couldn't function without?

"As a customer-obsessed and data-driven startup, we are hooked on our data platform, currently using Tableau and Mixpanel to learn about usage patterns, consumer insights, and different funnels.

On a personal level, my heart has always been in customer service. I check our chat a few times a day. We use Intercom , and there’s an entire world of knowledge about every single aspect of our business that we can learn only by reading customers’ conversations, feedback, or issues they run into.

7. How did you go about securing your first round of funding, and what advice would you give to others seeking venture capital?

"We have always been fortunate to have investors on board who believe in us and our product. They see the need and potential, and also believe that we should be the team building it.

We focused on an MVP that we could showcase in our first round, and a go-to-market strategy that we knew we could execute. Having a funnel to show and discuss was extremely important. I am also incredibly lucky to have Yishai as my co-founder, and I am learning a lot from him and the way he was able to get so many great investors on board as our CEO.

My advice would be to focus on a core MVP that can first and foremost give you conviction in your product and growth plan. Focus on talking to as many customers as possible, learn obsessively about the market you are in, and remember that investors should be your partners in this journey, so find ones you share a similar vision with."

Thanks, Yael! You're awesome :)

P.S. TULU is helping people rent the things they need instead of buying them. Visit Tulu.io to learn more.

P.P.S. Follow us, Ground Up Ventures , for more tips, memes, and resources for startup founders.