Meet YouCopia Co-Founder and President Lauren Greenwood

It would have been surprising if Lauren Greenwood had NOT become an entrepreneur and small-business owner.

Entrepreneurship is in her bloodline starting with her maternal great grandfather, an inventor of rail car loaders. Her marketing chops come from her paternal grandfather, a public relations executive from the “mad men” era. Fostering her entrepreneurial drive is her father, Mark Greenwood, an industrial designer who built and sold a successful juvenile accessories business in the late 90s and co-founded YouCopia with Lauren in 2009.

Today, she leads YouCopia, the global brand of category-leading home organization products, which celebrates its 15th anniversary beginning this month.

From an early age, Lauren was involved with her father’s product development – first as a product tester and then a packaging model for his children’s products, which often came out of his experiences as a new father. At six years old, Lauren asked him to build an honest-to-goodness lemonade stand for her first “business.”  

The kitchen was truly the heart of the home for the Greenwoods. At the kitchen table, Mark would often ask how a particular household item could be improved. When the dishes were cleared, “family business” would begin. This involved stuffing envelopes with press releases or customer invoices for Mark’s juvenile accessory products company. 

Lauren and her middle sister, Joanna, who would become YouCopia’s art director, loved to go into the office with Mark on the weekends to play “office” and “warehouse.” They grew up in a home where their father was constantly sketching product concepts and building prototypes late into the night, and their mother, Cynthia, had her own public relations business.

When it was time to attend college, Lauren toyed with the idea of being a doctor or lawyer, but her entrepreneurial genes and upbringing won out. In 2004, she graduated with a marketing and management degree from the University of Virginia, and then went to Washington, D.C. as a marketing analyst and business development associate at IXI Corporation, now a division of Equifax.

In 2007, Mark asked Lauren to help him market his latest design, the SpiceStack® Spice Bottle Organizer. The first-of-its-kind spice rack contained three drop-down drawers where 27 spices could be stored horizontally in the cabinet, yet easily located. SpiceStack was manufactured in Elk Grove Village, Ill., sold through a website, and promoted through a television infomercial. They stored their inventory in Mark’s garage and Lauren printed shipping labels before taking product to the UPS store in her Honda Accord.

Lauren and Mark identified the need for a full line of kitchen storage and organization solutions, and co-founded YouCopia Products, Inc. in 2009. Lauren became the company’s first full-time employee, and later its president. YouCopia made its first public appearance that same year at the Gourmet Food Show in San Francisco, and connected with their first retail partner, Bed Bath & Beyond. Their big break was a 200-store test with BB&B in 2010, which led to SpiceStack becoming available in more than 1,000 stores the next year… and Lauren was hooked on being an entrepreneur!

Many of their product ideas come from their own homes, where sit-down family dinners and parties are important, but kitchen drawers, cabinets and pantries can be chaotic due to busy lives. During YouCopia’s first years, Mark often sat at the kitchen island and watched his wife prepare meals. From that came dozens of innovative ideas (some practical, some not) for organizing every corner of the kitchen.

From 2012 to 2018, the company rolled out several one-of-a-kinds and category busters, including: TeaStand® tea bag organizer and caddy; Crazy Susan® lazy susans with removable bins and height adjustable tiers; StoreMore® adjustable racks for cookware, bakeware, pans and lids; and StoraLid® container lid organizers that remains a top seller today.

Since 2020, YouCopia has introduced dozens of new and improved solutions for cabinets, pantries, fridge/freezer, drawers, and under sink, including its StoraBag®, StoraRoll® and DoorStash™ lines, as well as its RollDown® Egg Dispenser, which went viral on TikTok and YouTube, garnering millions of views.

Today, the father-daughter duo works with a talented team of design, product, finance, sales, marketing and operations professionals to grow YouCopia’s line of innovative storage and organization products that meet the needs of consumers like Lauren, who are setting up households, raising kids and pursuing careers. As helpers at heart who believe in the magic of a well-organized home, the YouCopia team creates beautiful, patented designs that solve real life challenges and make spaces more functional and sustainable. “Our team is inspired by the organization problems in our own lives. Everything we dream up must work in our own homes,” Lauren said.

YouCopia’s story continues to be centered around values that Lauren learned at home, including:

• Family is everything: A family-owned business can be challenging, but also rewarding. When we learn to work together as family members, we learn to treat others like family, too. Lauren appreciates and rewards her talented staff through generous phantom stock, 401K matching programs, professional development, parental leave, hybrid work, and vacation policies. She treats YouCopia’s business partners with fairness, loyalty and respect. Her team listens to customers, reads their reviews, and helps design products to meet their needs. Customers are supported with local customer care and flexible returns through the Feel Good™ Promise.
• Give back: YouCopia’s role extends beyond making and selling products. The company wants their work to contribute to building a better place for employees, their families and their communities. Through YouCopia’s Organizing Helps™ program, five percent of every purchase is offered as a donation to one of three nonprofit organizations that help build homes for the unhoused, empower women, and create a healthier planet. And in 2023, YouCopia made a commitment to sustainable products, packaging and practices through their Organizers Made Better™ initiative.
• Solve problems: Each and every product YouCopia brings to market must solve a real problem and help consumers feel a “woo hoo” sense of satisfaction in their home. Easier routines and positive feelings at home can lead to people being their best selves out in the world.

“Idea by idea, we have developed into the company we are today – thoroughly obsessed with organization for the purpose of improving daily life, not chasing perfection,” Lauren said. “The unique products we choose to develop are those that help people feel better about their homes, and themselves.”

Meanwhile, back at home…Lauren is working from her home office, while her daughter, Birdie, sits nearby and listens in on meetings or watches YouCopia’s mascot Woohoo in product videos. The six-year-old even has a concept for a business that makes doors and windows for people who need them, even if they can’t afford them. When asked a question about her business, Birdie says she needs to talk to her team. Just like Momma. It appears the entrepreneurial gene will continue!