There are those jobs that on paper look like a dream come true. Ultra smart co-workers, international teams that jet-set around the world, multimillion-dollar budgets, and a product with over 90 percent market share. Sounds too good to be true? It's not. This was the job Marty Collins had at Microsoft for almost nine years. In 2014, she walked away from that job because she had an unshakable feeling that something else was out there for her.

"I felt like I'd done the corporate thing. In a company the size of Microsoft it became increasingly difficult to have any measurable impact on marketing strategies and, ultimately, results. I wanted to feel like my contribution mattered. If I was going to leave my family for so many hours and days on end, it had to be for something I felt I could have impact on. I had no idea at the time I'd become a founder in my own company. I just knew my next thing was going to be wildly different from Microsoft."

Without a roadmap to what that next thing was, Collins began to talk to people in her network. During this time, she was introduced to her future co-founder and business partner Alison Andrews Reyes. Unlike Collins, Reyes had spent her entire career in startups; her last company, Vigilant, was acquired by Deloitte.

From the beginning, their partnership just worked. "We can easily stay in our lanes," explains Reyes. "My background is leadership, technology, and finance. I've run companies in the past and know what it takes to build a tech company from the ground up. What Marty brings is the BtoC marketing experience. She understands how to use storytelling and digital media to connect with consumers."

When Collins and Reyes met, they both shared a love for home design but felt the process was fractured. Both women took on large-scale home remodels, but were left frustrated and unsatisfied in the end. One summer night last June, they were sharing horror stories over some wine and Thai food when they had a breakthrough. What if they could combine their passion for home design with their tech expertise to create a company that changes the way consumers design and remodel their home?

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