Ex-Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond’s daughter Nell takes on the business world with luxury interiors company Hill House Home
Former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond has moved from banking to blog-design according to his daughter Nell, who this week launched a startup selling high-end bedding in New York.
“My dad’s area of expertise obviously isn’t e-commerce and retail, but he’s so excited I’ve gone this route as an entrepreneur,” said Diamond Junior, speaking exclusively to City PM yesterday. “He thinks of himself as an entrepreneur. He’s had so much fun working on the website and blog.” She was keen to stress, however, that she's received no funding from her father- "I wanted to keep it totally seperate."
A Yale graduate and former Deutsche Bank analyst, the budding young entrepreneur – who is married to a banker – has some stern advice for City folk. “When I was working in finance, and had to be up in work at 5am, it really messed with my sleep schedule. Finance messes with your sleep. Bankers need more sleep.”
She said she in the run up to the launch she tried to have a "no emails after midnight policy," because "it's not on brand for us."
The company, Hill House Home is hoping to bring "smart luxury to the market that's as equally aspirational as it is attainable”.
"It should be fun buying beautiful things for your home. And it should have an accessible price point, people shouldn't have to spend hundreds of dollars," Diamond added. A basic set of linen from Hill House Home starts at $250.
The concept was developed as part of Yale’s Start-Up Founder Practicum, an incubator for companies conceived by students at the Yale School of Management, where Diamond studied, graduating last year.
"I've always loved this, even before Yale, but business school was really useful, I was working with other entrepreneurs and we were all going through the same processes together," she said.
While studying at Yale, Diamond worked as a retail performance analyst at Louis Vuitton in the US. She previously worked as a fixed income analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York.