Meet Lee Joselowitz | Co-founder of The Quality Edit

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lee Joselowitz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lee, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. I immigrated to Miami when I was 17 years old and after graduating from college moved to Los Angeles. Growing up in South Africa gave me a unique perspective that has impacted so much of my worldview to this day. One thing that can easily be taken for granted when growing up in the United States is just how big the opportunity is in this country. Everything really is bigger and better here and I feel a lot of gratitude for all the opportunities I have at my doorstep that I know are unique to the US (and in some cases, unique to now living in Los Angeles). Having that perspective drives me and allows me to operate with an abundance mindset.

Immigrating also shaped me in a big way socially. It gave me a lot of practice in being out of my comfort zone, adjusting to change, and building relationships with new people despite significant cultural differences.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Growing up around my parent’s entrepreneurial pursuits as a child, I always dreamed of starting my own business. Out of school I built a career path in e-commerce, starting on the agency side before leading growth at Ritual, a disruptive direct to consumer women’s health business. I joined Ritual on the ground floor and helped build the business to over $100M in annual revenue.

It was during my time at Ritual that I also started to advise direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands like Our Place and Comrad, along the way discovering strategies to drive impact and ROI for my clients. I also met my now cofounder at Ritual – we sat side by side tinkering with high impact growth ideas that could change the trajectory of the company. A few bespoke content partnerships with top tier publishers served as the proving ground for what would become TQE: leveraging press and third party editorial content via paid ads to drive value for brands like Ritual.

As a brand advertiser interested in performance driven results, I saw first hand that the large publishing houses (think Conde Naste + Hearst) weren’t innovating quickly enough to drive customer acquisition for DTC brands. And as a consumer I felt overwhelmed with all the DTC products and brands in the ecosystem; which could I trust to be high quality? I realized a trustworthy authority to help discover and vet the best brands was a necessary tool that didn’t exist; The Quality Edit was created with both of these stakeholders in mind, and we’re now two years into our journey delivering a great experience for consumers and brands alike.

The road to getting to where I am today was challenging and required a lot of risk-taking. The two biggest risks I’ve taken in my career have both been instrumental to my success. The first was making the move to Los Angeles to take a job at a startup rather than accepting a cushy finance job closer to home.

The second was leaving a well respected leadership role at Ritual that I loved to start my own business. I recently read a tweet that has really helped me think through risky decisions. It recommended we replace “what ifs” with “even ifs” in our decision making running a business. For example, instead of “what if our biggest client fires us”, I think “even if our biggest client fires us, there are many other clients that could benefit from the value we provide”. This small but important shift in my mindset and vocabulary has made a big impact on how I weigh decisions and continue to get comfortable with risk taking.

Finally, the lesson I’ve learned along the way and principle I live by is that relationships are everything – in life and in business. I always put the people I work with first and I find that in turn positively impacts my business and career. And reputation matters! We’ve built our business largely via word of mouth from existing (and happy!) clients. We operate with integrity and care and it shows up in how our employees and clients feel about us which I’m really proud of.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We just moved to Hancock Park, so we’re enjoying being in the middle of all the action on the east side.

We’d start with drinks at Gigi’s gorgeous bar – their charcoal infused Mezcal cocktail is insane and the decor/wallpaper of the space is on point. Don’t skip the piping hot bread and butter to start.

If you can snag a reservation at Mother Wolf – jump on it, but you can always show up early and sit at the bar for dinner if you get there right as they open. Best pasta in the city, bar none.

We’re also crushing very hard on the perfect neighborhood drag that is Larchmont; check out the Wednesday or Sunday farmers market’s for local produce and artisan cheese, meat, and fish vendors. If you find yourself around Larchmont when the farmers market is not going on grab a sandwich at Larchmont Wine & Cheese or grab a piping hot Jersey slice from Village Pizzeria.

We’re big into home design right now furnishing our home, so we like to window shop at lots of furniture and antique stores in this part of town, too. Pop Up Home on Western is a vibe.

The fun continues further east: grab a weekday morning bagel at Courage Bagels to avoid the weekend crowds and lines. We’re crushing hard on Found Oyster and Saffy’s for other great eats in East Hollywood, too.

I’d round out my east side tour with some culture; see what’s playing at the Greek Theatre or if you’re visiting in summer have a magical night at the Hollywood Bowl (don’t forget to pack a picnic!).

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
To keep this short and sweet, I’m just going to shoutout my two co-founders, Lauren and Scott. I can’t imagine where I’d be without them. When ever I’m asked what sets The Quality Edit apart, I often say that the unique skill set, passion and experience that each member of our leadership team brings to the table is a key differentiator for our success thus far. Along with that has come our ability to hire and mentor team members that can take us to the next level. Building your own business requires a million micro decisions everyday; having people around you that you trust who are also domain experts in their respective lanes makes growing the brand an incredibly fun and rewarding experience.

Website: www.thequalityedit.com

Instagram: @thequalityedit

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leejoselowitz/

Twitter: @thequalityedit