10 Questions: Carley Read, CEO and Founder of Yearn

I met Carley through instagram a few months ago when she was working on the launch of Yearn Club in the UK, we instantly connected in our love for all things eco and agreed to collaborate so that you guys could learn all about this inspirational company too – which I think could really help new parents and people who have been parents for a while alike… Please read on to find more, but first here is the companies promo video…

Here’s the interview:

Hi Carley, thank you for collaborating with JamJarGill.com.

Q1. Can you start by telling me a bit about yourself, what is your background/education?

I grew up in London, didn’t go to University and never really knew what I wanted to do so I started work at 18yrs old. I bought a house by taking a cash advance on my credit card for a deposit and had a bit of a ‘is this it?!’ moment at the age of 22.  So I went backpacking for a year, took a job at British Airways as crew for 2yrs and then my career began at News UK. I started in project management, worked my way up the ranks until I was working directly with the Exec team on priority strategy initiatives.

I was asked to go to NYC for 3mths to work at The Wall Street Journal, those 3mths turned into 3yrs. I then worked for a small agency who asked me to help them in San Francisco and I ended up staying longer, again. At the beginning of 2019 I thought I was leaving the US for good, that’s when I had the spark of the idea for Y’earn.

Q2. What made you decide to start Yearn?

I had moved to countless homes in 3 cities, on 2 continents in 5yrs. Each move was a headache of packing, shipping, storage and buying new items to make the space feel like home. It was expensive, stressful and time consuming. I was becoming more conscious of the impact I was having on the environment, but there wasn’t an alternative.

When I was due to pack up my apartment in SF I was talking to a friend who had recently moved there and was struggling to create a home with the budget she had. I joked that I could have loaned her a full home of furniture and it would have saved my storage costs. That was the start, but it quickly evolved to creating a community that helped each other through the big life moments like creating your first home, moving to a bigger one or a new city, and starting a family.

The Baby & Kids part of Y’earn was an idea for the future, but when I moved back to London due to the pandemic I decided to push on with the business, even though some people thought I was crazy. I believe that Y’earn is now even more pertinent and can have a positive impact on people, communities and the environment.

Q3. What is Yearn? What service do you offer?

Y’earn is a Marketplace to rent Baby & Kids items from people and small businesses in your local community, or make some cash if you have items that you don’t need right now. It’s a bit like Airbnb.

Our community consists of three parts:

• Y’earners (people that want items) can focus on creating important memories with their children without spending endless hours researching and shopping for everything that they need. Whether they rent short-term or long-term they can save cash and help Mother Nature.
• Earners (people that make money from items) Whether they need the money, space or want to help others less fortunate, or are a business. They can rent out items for as long as they like, and then decide to sell, donate to charity, or have them returned before their next/younger child needs them.

• Coordinators (like the parent version of an Uber driver!) pick up, disinfect and drop off between each parent. They then do the reverse if the rental isn’t renewed or donated to charity. to: Coordinators (the parent version of an Uber driver!) pick up, disinfect and drop off between each parent. Making a side hustle around the school run.

Our Mission: To help people navigate life’s biggest moments while creating lasting memories and positive impact through convenient, sustainable, and affordable rentals.

We launched a couple of weeks ago in London and some surrounding areas with a plant to expand in early 2021. Register for our newsletter and leave your postcode so we know where to go first!

Q4. How is your business beneficial to the environment?

Renting instead of buying is obviously sustainable, but we’re also planting trees for every new customer and adopting bees/paying for hives when customers refer us. We also donate time, money and goods to charity and make it easy for our community to do the same. We are very proudly partnering with Great Ormond Street Hospital, The Child Rescue Coalition and Baby Basics. 

 

Q5. What are your business hours? What does your working week look like? How do you manage it around family life? Do you feel that you manage to get some sort of balance (whatever that is)?

Y’earn will be a 24/7 service and I work 7 days a week!

Family life is easier to balance when you live at home in your childhood bedroom, this was not where I expected to be at 37yrs old! Life hasn’t been ‘normal’ for a while because I lived out of a suitcase for the year it took to ideate, build and launch Y’earn, I’ve been in London another 6mths. However, I do have a sense of routine regardless of who’s house I am staying in. I get up everyday at 7am and I usually work until dinner time, except for lunch and a break to run or do some yoga which does wonders for my mental health. I look after my Niece on a Wednesday and I take friends and family up on any opportunity to spend some time together.

Q5. How have you adapted what you do and what you offer during lockdown?

I switched from operating in the US and focusing on furniture to deciding to launch in the UK with Baby & Kids. So, in some ways, it’s a massive pivot and some ways it’s just minor details.

We planned for Y’earn to be a big part of the sharing economy and I think lockdown has made that industry even more relevant. People are looking for ways to make their money work harder, whether that’s by saving money or making money from what they have. They also have a lot more time on their hands and are likely to be more receptive to the shift towards renting instead of buying everything that they need. I also think that we’re all craving community and wanting to help each other and see positive impact in the world. This is exactly what Y’earn is about.

Q6. Are your services available worldwide? Which countries do you currently operate in?

We will be launching Y’earn Baby & Kids in San Francisco in Spring 2021 with an exclusive partner and we plan for that to expand across the US the following year. Our goal is for Y’earn to be a global brand.

We are looking for Ambassadors to help us grow the community so please get in contact if you’re interested in helping. Even sharing a post of our brand video as a story is an easy way to get involved.

Q7. What do you do for downtime / to unwind?

I have an all in or all out personality. So I either crave to be completely alone in silence or laughing (preferably dancing) with my friends.

Q8. How would your friends describe you?

I asked them and the general theme: Driven, caring, level-headed and has a lust for life!

Q9. What’s your favourite hot drink and what’s your favourite cocktail?

I love this question! I used to ask people what’s your favourite drink, cheese and dance move. I was convinced it said a lot about a person!

My go-to hot drink is coffee, although my favourite is a Chai tea latte. I’ve really gotten into Mezcal or good tequila based cocktails – my Brother makes a great Smoky Diablo!

Q10. Where can people find you online and how do they access your services?

Visit www.yearn.club to see if the community has reached your area. If we haven’t, leave your email and postcode and we’ll know where to head to next! Use code gill10 and skip delivery fees.

I hope you find this an interesting read, I do hope to expand this section of my blog further to talk to inspiring women from all walks of life to get an insight into their worlds. Please do drop me a line at gill@jamjargill.com if you are interested in getting involved in my next 10 Questions post 🙂