Lauren Roe | The Great Indoors

Lauren Roe lived many lives working in the arts, banking, and education sectors before finding her true passion in French Linen. This newfound love led to the creation of I Love Linen, a lifestyle brand that, 12 years later, has grown to offer an extensive range of bedding, fashion, and home products.

The Alumni team sat down with Lauren to discuss her business, the lessons she's learned about navigating growth, and the importance of cultivating a strong team culture.

Can you tell us more about I Love Linen and what inspired you to start the business?

It was not really my plan to start my own business ever! I was on maternity leave with my first daughter and I decided to have a ‘hobby’ that would earn some pocket money. My family had been working in retail for some time and I decided to try my hand at an online store—ecommerce was definitely not as finessed 12 years ago when I launched.

What might a standard week look like for you?

It’s varied but will definitely involve conception or planning for photoshoots, styling on shoots, working with my marketing team to ensure we’re hitting our numbers, considering new ways to evolve, and designing products.

The I Love Linen blog is incredible, I could not stop reading it. Where do you find inspiration for the content?

Wow, thank you for that feedback. It’s pretty much a reflection of my personal interests and therefore a way to inject a bit more of myself into the brand. I am super passionate about enjoying the good things in life and love finding new artists, designers, restaurants, bars and travel locations to profile.

I Love Linen was a side hustle that very quickly grew. What do you wish you had done to make the pathway to growth smoother?

1000000% without a doubt I should have set up all manner of guidelines, templates and processes to assist the rapid growth we felt. I had come from corporate where that was very much commonplace but then in my startup mode I should have realised that startup energy cannot take you through to growth and stabilisation of your business.

Do you have any advice on finding the perfect team members?

Finding great people is hard but I have found once you have an initially strong team, you attract really amazing new employees and everyone’s positivity and professionalism keeps growing. Hiring can make or break your team and it’s so important to find people with the same values as yourself and of the team already in place.

How many people do you currently have in the I Love Linen team? What do you like to do to foster your team culture?

We have about 10 team members and they’re all great! We make sure our onboarding is really thorough, so from even before you join you’re very clear on the value you add, your role and the values of our business. Then we have a focused career and performance process in place, and it’s always important to have organic moments of fun like dinners, snacks, celebrating birthdays or big life events with our team!

We work from home three days a week, so having the in-office days is our way to collaborate and connect.

What’s one thing you learned during your time at QUT that has stayed with you over the course of your journey?

I chose QUT because the slogan was the University for the Real World and there was a good focus on getting proper work experience and practical skills. I learnt that as much as theory is amazing, you need to sometimes just get in and do something for real to become really good at something.

What should we know when choosing linen?

I am so passionate about linen as a fabric! And yes it’s true now after so many years I know so much about it. Not all linen is created equal, so you cannot always assume that if you see Pure Linen or 100% linen that it’s the best quality. You need to do the research and find if the linen is long stapled yarn which means the fabric is longer lasting and of higher quality. You should also discover how it’s been stonewashed. Stonewashing is a process to soften the linen fabric as it can be very rough. You want linen that has been stonewashed the traditional way with pumice stones (how we do it) and not with cheap chemicals.

Can you name some of the individuals who inspire you? What qualities in these individuals do you admire and seek to emulate in your own work/life?

Gosh that is a tricky question! I don’t know if I can name any names, but I am inspired by many of the women who managed and mentored me throughout my career. They taught me to work hard, always find solutions and try and be the smartest and kindest person in the room.

What is one skill you couldn’t live without and why?

My ability to multitask a whole heap of things at once! It does mean I am quite a messy person as I am comfortable living with chaos but then it also means my brain can work through multiple ideas and timelines without panicking.

QUT degree - Bachelor of Business (2002).

Do you have a question for Lauren? Connect with her on LinkedIn.