Katharine is CEO and Co-Founder of Stuf, one of Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies in 2022. She was named to Inc. Magazine’s Female Founders 100 list in the same year. Katharine is passionate about reinventing consumer experiences in the physical world and leads the company’s strategic vision and overall strategy in transforming the self-storage industry.
From 2015-2020, Katharine led supply growth at Industrious, the nation’s largest premium shared workplace provider. She built and managed a 20+ person team and oversaw the company’s rapid expansion while developing go-to-market strategies for new digital products and tenant experience services. As VP of Real Estate, Katharine pioneered an "industry first”
asset and liability-light growth strategy leading to CBRE’s partial acquisition of Industrious in early 2021.
Prior to Industrious, Katharine worked at Equinox as Manager of Development, supporting the company’s national expansion of luxury fitness clubs. She previously worked at L&L Holding Company and PGIM Real Estate (Prudential).
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Follow Jake on X: https://x.com/JWurzak
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Links:
Katharine on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharinelau/
Stuf - https://www.stufstorage.com/
Topics:
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:06) - Katherine’s career in RE/Hospitality
(00:07:36) - Advice to young people in RE + AI
(00:11:06) - Insights learned from development at Equinox
(00:13:51) - Niche vs. expansive real estate
(00:15:27) - Inside building a successful coworking space
(00:29:40) - remote work philosophies
(00:33:36) - Starting and building ‘Stuf’
(01:12:00) - What would you like to be doing more or less in 3 years?
(01:13:14) - How do you compete with your larger competitors?
(01:15:19) - What was the most surprising thing you’ve gotten wrong in building Stuff?
(01:23:08) - What’s your favorite hotel?
