Kate Kennedy

After feeling struck with panic on her way to work that she was going to burn down her apartment, Kate painted 'turn off your curling iron' on her doormat so it would face her as she walked out the door. After noticing that the doormat category was very dominated by dated designs that focused on welcoming guests into the home, she decided to (literally) turn the ubiquitous welcome mat upside-down and to make doormats that remind people of things on their way out. So she opened her 'remindoormat' shop and LLC 'Be There in Five' on Etsy in January 2014 in case anyone else felt anxious about turning off their appliances. While it started as a hobby, after some early circulation around social media, she started selling out daily despite having a lead time of over 1 month. She, along with her mom, painted the first 1,000 units from their living rooms while Kate figured out a plan to scale the business. A little over a year in, she quit her day job as a marketing consultant to run Be There in Five full-time. Be There in Five now has over 40 SKUs, a line of artwork, a consulting business, and has sold about 8,000 units on Etsy alone, with thousands more across her own website, Wayfair, select Nordstrom stores, and over 50 boutiques nationwide.
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