Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Elias Horat. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Elias, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
I worked at a number of successful design firms before founding Creates Cool. I often tried to treat each of my past jobs as if it was my own business. Searching for better ways to maximize communication, efficiency, and workflow. Architecture and interior designs firms seem to be a decade behind on processes and systems of modern successful companies. Unfortunately my ideas were often if not always met with pushback, and one time leading to me being let go from a role. I was constantly told I was too young to understand, and “this is the way things have always been done”. It became clear at a point I would need to start my own company. What’s so exciting about not only running a successful company, is that not only my ideas but also the ideas of my team can be brought to center stage, tried out, and if they work well we implement them. Each month I ask my team at our checkins what are boring, repetitive, or time sinking tasks. We think through possibilities of automation, standardization, and making sure our time doesn’t get sucked into areas it shouldn’t be. Our time should be focused on good design, and customer satisfaction. We’ve automated internal project management to remove unnecessary meetings, developed templates that remove over 50% of production time on design presentations or construction document sets. One of the biggest items is we have changed how we present to clients, and although our newest method likely isn’t final, just by having a shared workspace and clear information for clients we are able to cut out a world of meetings that should have been emails, and emails that were unnecessary.
Elias, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I was raised under the Big Sky of Montana and after finishing my Masters of Architecture I chose to plop myself in the middle of San Francisco. With a fast stride I embrace new situations, intense learning curves, and seasons of growth. My previous experiences vary in size from detailing a tiny cabin for Getaway to working on 300,000 sq ft tech campuses. I’ve enjoyed working on a variety of project types and styles. I eagerly look forward to new projects, working with existing clients, and continuing to design.
Creates Cool is a versatile design studio based in San Francisco, I founded in 2020. We aim to give our clients the best projects by pairing rigorous conceptual designs with a technology-driven process. We hold ourselves to the philosophy that we do not have one singular style or look; rather, our projects are a product of a collaboration with our clients, sites, and project goals.
It’s our mission to design for anyone by making great designs through a transparent process that are not only economical but promote healthier, happier lives.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
During the pandemic I was furloughed from my full time job. I was fortunate enough to have a little PTO saved up to give me a little bit of income, and keep my health insurance. Unfortunately this was not enough to pay rent, so I searched out design jobs of my own. During this time I found a part time contract job that would make me enough money to pay for rent, while still giving me a little bit of time to build my company. My first big jump came from leaving my “full time” job, although almost 100% furloughed, I needed to step away from this design studio to begin my own. I kept my contract role for quite some time after that, thankfully the design work was different enough that there were no issues with competition. But less than a year later it came time for me also to leave that team as well. Leaving the contract role was scary, and what I told my partner was “the great experiment”. I had enough capital to support my couple part time designers and myself for three months, and if we didn’t get more clients I would need to seek out full time employment. One of the wonderful things about having all my energy focused into Creates Cool was how I was able to now spend the time focusing on clients, marketing for new ones, and growing our company. Now our success speaks for itself.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
I have worked a number of contract roles. So as I hired my own contract designers I vowed to never miss a payroll. In the past I had bosses who would miss by months, or complain that clients hadn’t paid them, and I knew I would never put my team through this. Earlier on I was fortunate enough to land a large client, but unfortunately not smart enough to know I should require a retainer to begin work. Of course we always have contracts, so I knew we would get paid, but after we had completed some work. For this particular project I needed a lot of designer time, including hiring a senior designer. At the end of the month I invoiced the client, but of course that money doesn’t instantly come to me. To pay all my designers I had to pay from our business account, my personal account, and ended up paying for rent on a credit card. This only happened once, and of course within a couple weeks after the client had paid our accounts were full and debt paid off. But I can still remember the stress of knowing that if I needed to withdraw cash, all of my checking accounts were empty.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://createscool.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/createscool/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/creates-cool/?viewAsMember=true
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/creates-cool-san-francisco
- Other: https://eliashorat.medium.com/