My Week

LuxDeco CEO and Founder Jonathan Holmes tells Management Today that he was doing some freelance design when he spotted a gap in the market.

He knew that opportunity was knocking when he realised there was a gap for selling whole collections of luxury goods and furniture. And LuxDeco was born.

He tells Management Today: “We are still in the launch phase and the site is still in a sort of beta format so we’ve been very busy for the last few weeks. We got our first-round funding from some angel investors as recently as August, so it’s early days. We’ve got a team of 14, all working to get the website looking great and contacting brands to get them on board with our idea.”

LuxDeco aims to provide customers with collections of high-end products, that all work together in terms of style, appearance, and quality. With anything from homeware and furniture, to accessories available.

Jonathan tells the publication: “You might think it is a risky time to start a business selling expensive collections in this economic climate, but now that the ball is rolling we’ve got more and more brands keen to work with us. We’ve got around 125 brands that we work with already to put together collections.

“We don’t have long product runs where a product is always in stock. The collections are designed to last around a month, and there is an element of ‘social buying’ on the site, where the items that other shoppers choose help to inform what the collection should look like – the idea is that people with similar tastes will often choose the same things to be in a collection.

Jonathan Holmes tells Management Today “It’s hectic”

Jonathan tells Management Today that because LuxDeco is just launching is hectic. He says he’s tried to divide his week spending time on the website, marketing, talking to brands, and so on, but that his time is spent on whatever needs doing.

He discusses securing second-round funding, and how the best thing about the job is the team of people he’s working with. “They’re a great team and they all want to be there, and they believe in what we’re doing. We’ve also got some good credibility with the big brands out there because of who we’ve hired: we’ve got two stock buyer who used to work for Harrods, and one who used to work for Selfridges, so they have been able to convince a lot of high-end brands that the site is a good idea.”

He also offers advice to other people wanting to start their own business.

You can read the full interview with Jonathan Holmes in Management Today here.