There are few things in life people enjoy more than luxury items at affordable prices. Away, a global lifestyle brand founded by Steph Korey, offers premium luggage to customers with a slew of features, all with durability and affordability underscoring their creation.
Fueled by personal experiences, Steph’s success with Away wouldn’t have happened without passion for her work, preparation for her tasks, and a keen eye for knowing what the people are looking for.
Let’s take a closer look at Steph Korey as well as all the ways she helped guide her team to success.
Find Success By Solving Problems
The vast majority of success found by entrepreneurs in the modern world is due to their ability to solve a problem. For Steph Korey, a chance phone call with a close friend and former colleague, Jen Rubio would change everything.
Korey had been at home when she received a phone call from Rubio. Rubio had been at the airport struggling with their luggage. The call quickly revealed that Jen’s luggage had broken in transit and why couldn’t there be a more affordable (and still durable) option around?
Steph Korey said of the conversation during an interview with Columbia Magazine, “We got to talking about why there wasn’t an affordable, durable option on the market. And we wondered what it would take to make one.”
The encounter would turn into an idea that would foment Away, a global lifestyle brand that has accrued more than $156 million in just over five years. Of course, there were plenty of stakes that Korey and Rubio had to take before reaching this successful stage.
How Away Changes Expectations For Affordable Luggage
Understanding that they had a market if they could tap into it, investor Steph Korey and Rubio began to fervently work on developing a suitcase that was at once premium in quality while friendly to most budgets.
Korey said of her first talk with Jen, “She didn’t know whether to shell out a lot of money for high-quality luggage or to buy something else cheap that wouldn’t last.”
Away aimed to address all of these issues at once.
As a professional brand marketer, Rubio would help to conduct extensive interviews alongside Korey as they tapped into their market. Eight hundred people ended up being interviewed to discuss their travel habits, travel pitfalls, and travel concerns as it pertains to their luggage.
It was clear by Korey’s interview that these were revelatory for the process of developing a winning product.
Korey stated, “We wanted to map out the whole experience to figure out the pain points.”
Figure out the pain points they certainly did. Away’s line of affordable luggage features a reinforced shell that has been maximized for weight and durability. Additionally, Korey got the idea from her research to install USB charging ports into the bag.
Away officially began business in 2015 and has since reached a valuation north fo $1.4 billion.