Reinventing Furniture: How Lovesac Scaled from Side Hustle to Household Name | Shawn Nelson
Millionaire University
Defining success beyond revenue
Shawn reflects on work–life balance, measuring success by relationships and culture, and appreciating small-business choices.
#602 What does it really take to build a billion-dollar brand from a side-hustle idea? In this episode hosted by Kirsten Tyrrel, Shawn Nelson, founder and CEO of Lovesac, shares how a giant foam-filled beanbag he stitched together after high school sparked a 25-year entrepreneurial journey. From maxed-out credit cards and a scrappy first retail store to reinventing the furniture industry with modular couches, Shawn opens up about the mistakes, resilience, instincts, and culture that fueled Lovesac’s rise to 300+ stores and thousands of employees — all while staying true to a “design for life” philosophy and building a company people genuinely love!
What we discuss with Shawn:
+ Origin of Lovesac in 1998
+ Giant beanbag side hustle
+ Missionary years in Taiwan
+ First retail store launch in 2001
+ Lessons from early mistakes
+ Pivot to modular couches (Sactionals)
+ Importance of instinct in business
+ Culture, fun, and company values
+ Scaling through marketing & DTC model
+ Redefining success beyond money
Thank you, Shawn!
Check out Shawn Nelson at ShawnDNelson.com.
Check out Lovesac at Lovesac.com.
Follow Shawn on Instagram.
Watch the video podcast of this episode!
To get access to our FREE Business Training course go to MillionaireUniversity.com/training.
And follow us on:
To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors.
Want to hear from more incredible entrepreneurs? Check out all of our interviews here!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The AI-powered Podcast Player
