Each month, we are delighted to introduce you to one of the members of Alkaloid Networks, a coworking space on the Eastside Atlanta Beltline.
What are you working on right now?
Highstreet is working on The Living Retail Lab, a dream of many years create an innovation test bed for retail innovation inside of a real, already-loved store. The current Lab is inside Citizen Supply, and our first sprint–digital menu boards–is about to conclude. You’ll see more evolving in there as the year progresses!
Who is your ideal client?
A retailer that knows that they’re in trouble and is enlightened enough to seek help!
What is a common misconception about your industry or work?
That it’s easy. We are all about ‘expanding the boundaries of brick and mortar’, which is both physical and rhetorical. To do anything inside of a retail store with a big brand, you have to work with TONS of stakeholders–and since no one owns the store, it’s a goat rodeo! We use new in-store measurement tools to prove out our ideas and kill executive opinion.
What is your big picture vision for your business?
To become the go-to group for cracking complex shopper experience challenges inside of the store…and to be the people that show the industry how to do it. Which is the vision for the Lab!
What is your superpower?
I’m a Pioneer + Advisor in the Strengthfinders world…Kat on our team is as well, and Ed is the Professor + Advisor. I’d say we’re amazing at cutting through the BS and doing the right thing for all involved–and PROVING that it works.
What is your favorite business or productivity tool?
Slack. I really dig Mindnode too.
What book should every entrepreneur read?
Anyone sitting in this space HAS to read The e-Myth. There is no book more important for an entrepreneur.
Why Alkaloid?
The vibe. I’m a beach girl at heart and spent most of my life in FL or California–which are utterly foreign environments to Atlanta. Here, I feel like we have a community that doesn’t have to pose or posture. Just people doing their thing, being their own people, making their dreams real.
What advice would you give someone considering coworking?
Consider the freedom, the energy and the financial feasibility of coworking. Once you go there, you’ll likely never be happy in a stodgy corporate office again.
Tell us something more about your experience at Alkaloid?
We had the head of innovation from SunTrust coming in and were worried that we’d look to start-up or beatnik to him. When he came in, someone was taking a nap on the couch…and we were like, “”OH GOD, dude asleep on the couch!!!” But he LOVED it! Made us take him on a tour and expressed how jealous he was and that this scene would be a dream for him to work in!
Leave a Reply