About Adi Tatarko
Adi Tatarko, CEO and co-founder of Houzz, discussed the company's origins and her initial reluctance to scale the business in a recent podcast appearance. She noted that when she and her husband launched Houzz in 2009, they did not anticipate it becoming a global enterprise, and she initially resisted advice from experts who suggested it could grow larger. Tatarko said she preferred to treat Houzz as a lifestyle business, focusing on community growth and user adoption rather than financial projections.
Tatarko recalled being told that if she did not raise money, a competitor would copy the concept. She stated that she did not want to include speculative financial figures in a pitch deck, preferring to emphasize the community's organic growth and product roadmap. Tatarko eventually left a finance career to become CEO, leading Houzz to become a platform for home design ideas and connections with industry professionals.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Adi Tatarko's recent appearances.
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Transcript (9 segments)
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Sahar Thadani0:00
From Wall Street Journal Tech Live, I'm your host Sahar Thadani, and today we're here with Adi Tatarko, who is the CEO and founder of Houzz. Tell us about Houzz.
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Adi Tatarko0:10
I heard that you started this as a side project. So along my husband and I are the first user of our own project. That started because we wanted to remodel our house, and the process was not a fun process. One thing led to the other, and after spending a lot of time, energy, and money and getting nowhere, Houzz was born. We have on one side homeowners — we have 65 million homeowners today — on the other side, home design and remodeling professionals, we call the Houzz Pro Community. We have over 3 million of them today. And there is a flywheel between their activities and the reasons for each one of them to come, which creates the overall community leveraging the platform.
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Sahar Thadani0:56
What was that journey to grow your audience and business like?
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Adi Tatarko1:00
I think mainly getting a lot of feedback from both the homeowners and the professionals of the industry, really understanding what are the major challenges but also opportunities, and then translate it into the right technology that will simplify things, that will give more control to people, and you know what, on top of everything, we'll make it a much more joyful process. I think that choosing your co-founder is one of the most critical decisions you're going to make, and the more complementary you'll be, you know, if you know each other very well, if you build things together even if it's not companies, if you have a lot in common, if you're coming from the same place, same stage in life with same expectations in life, you have much higher chance of surviving this crazy roller coaster that's called the startup journey.
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Sahar Thadani1:57
What is next for Houzz in the coming year, years?
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Adi Tatarko2:01
We'll definitely develop much more of this technology, of this software to put in the hands of the pros to better execute for the homeowners. And hopefully, you know, when you'll interview homeowners years to come, you'll hear less and less frustration or complaints about the process and more and more joy that comes from really the ability to use tools to reimagine and manage the project the right way. That's what we believe in. Technology can change industries even if they are, you know, a bit slower to adopt new technology, and the opportunity here is huge. We are very excited to be in that, you know, position right now at that time when the adoption is high, the engagement is high. Much more to come from us on that front.
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Sahar Thadani2:49
Amazing. Well, good luck and congratulations, and thank you so much for being here.
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Adi Tatarko2:54
Thank you for inviting me.
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Sahar Thadani2:56
Absolutely.
