Meet Jennifer Lea, Founder and CEO @ Entry Envy & Hammer and flip flops

How would you describe the startup culture in Nebraska?

My entire network until 2021 was based on 20 years in the legal industry. When I decided to start Entry Envy, I knew I needed resources I didn’t even know existed. Fortunately, I knew a founder at the time, Joe Petsick, who was able to point me in the right direction for the startup ecosystem in Nebraska. I found it immediately welcoming and overwhelmingly helpful. It’s an incredible group of people who understand that this is a challenging journey and are there for each other through thick and thin. Nebraska’s founders are ambitious, creative and dream big!

How do you balance taking risks and making calculated decisions in the pursuit of innovation?

My risk tolerance has increased significantly as a founder compared to when I started. I always say that if I knew what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to go down this path, but I’m really glad I did. I use this simple question as my guiding light when making a decision, “What is in the best interest of the company?” When you own the business, it is your “baby”. You are emotionally connected to it and it is directly connected to your checkbook. It is sometimes easier to make decisions based on your personal interest, rather than what is in the best interest of the company.

If you can separate the emotions from the facts and know that it is your fiduciary responsibility to always act with the best interests of the company in mind and take the long view, you will make better decisions. Once the decision is made and you take action, it’s important to pay attention to the data and pivot sooner rather than later if something is going south. So much of running a startup is trial and error. The only way to learn is to push through fear, test and learn. There is no failure in my mind, only feedback.

How do you define success and what metrics do you pay most attention to?

Customer satisfaction is my number one indicator of success. I learned a long time ago growing up in an old steakhouse that the customer is always right. That has never been more true in a world where information can be communicated in seconds. We look at Entry Envy indicators such as the number of new subscribers, the number of new followers and traffic to the site. We also monitor browser abandonment and cart abandonment closely. There are hundreds of metrics you can see through Google Analytics and other resources, but you need to pay attention to the revenue drivers.

In an e-commerce world, traffic is a numbers game. In other words, we need to know how many signs we need to sell in a month, what our website conversion rate is, and then how many people need to visit our website that month to reach our sales goals. Every activity that we do through advertising, organic content, store markets, direct sales calls, etc., is driven by the total number of visitors we need to reach our website each month. Browsing and cart abandonment rates are driven by how well our site converts in terms of customer journey and ease of use.

What are the top one or two challenges/opportunities facing startups in Nebraska?

In my experience, the biggest challenge I’ve faced is not thinking big enough and using our market here as my baseline. Consumers in the Midwest tend to think more conservatively and spend less money compared to other parts of the country. When you run an e-commerce site that specializes in front porch home decor, the stigma of Southern Living magazine and iconic cover images of sweeping Southern front porches is a real thing. Our first subscriber state is Texas. If I had only measured my product value based on who would buy it in Omaha, Nebraska, I would have quit a long time ago! It’s not that Omaha doesn’t support, I’ve just found faster traction in the lower half of the US and the east coast.

What is an emerging industry or technology that you think will have a significant impact on Nebraska’s startup ecosystem in the next few years?

Undoubtedly, it is artificial intelligence. It doesn’t matter if we are a technology-based company or an e-commerce company, we are driven by technology. It’s happening so fast, and the companies that take advantage of it early will be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition to increase customer experience, improve efficiency, reduce expenses and thereby increase profit margins.

It’s overwhelming right now in many ways and challenging to know which AI train to jump on, but you have to jump on at least one to safely get into the game. We currently use AI to assist with virtual consultations and augmented reality to help customers visualize our signs on their homes. The technology is not perfect yet but is getting better every day!