Natalie Hartkopf, the CEO of the small-but-growing Seattle office furniture company Hightower, soon will join her sister Rachel on maternity leave.
The sisters founded the company with their father, Scott, 16 years ago when they were students at the University of Washington.
The women show no signs of stress over temporarily relinquishing control of their design and manufacturing company, though.
“It’s because we have a team behind us keeping the wheels on the bus,” said Rachel Hartkopf, who is the board chairwoman for the company and is having her first child.
Hightower founder and CEO Natalie Hartkopf (left) and her sister Rachel Hartkopf are part of the company's leadership team and are pictured in their swank Smith Tower offices in Seattle.
She will be a stay-at-home mom at the board level. Her CEO sister is expecting her second child.
Located in Seattle’s Smith Tower, Hightower’s clients include high-profile technology companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook. Hightower has facilities on the East Coast and the Midwest and collaborates with San Francisco design firm Most Modest while also partnering with manufacturers in Scandinavia.
The compatny’s revenue is under $100 million with 20 percent annual growth most years. Hightower is in a building phase now and expects to grow by double digits this year, Natalie Hartkopf said, adding the company will start considering international exports.
Hightower sprang from the sisters’ design sense and their father’s work as a division president at office furniture behemoth Steelcase. As kids they visited Scott Hartkopf at work and went with him to the factory. Their house was full of nice pieces, and at hotels they often flipped furniture over to see who made it.
But neither expected to go into the business.
When they did, they wore most of the hats, overseeing product development, outside sales, project management, logistics and partner relationships.
They moved to San Francisco, then Hightower’s top market, where they lived together and worked long hours while shifting into higher leadership roles.
They commemorated this intense bonding experience by getting matching tattoos, each a pair of tiny birds on their right wrists.
Nine years ago, Seattle became Hightower’s top market, and today the company operates out of the refurbished Smith Tower, which the local Building Owners and Managers Association chapter named one of its 2018 TOBY (The Outstanding Building of the Year) winners.
“Smith Tower won the TOBY for the historical category, and Hightower’s space was instrumental in a part of this process,” said Lynda Collie, director of Real Estate Services for Unico Properties, which manages and partially owns the 42-story building. Collie said Hightower’s contribution was showing how tenants can blend a modern, clean look with the classic fixtures of the iconic tower.
The Hartkopfs like what they're seeing on the skyline. By one count, Seattle still has more construction cranes than any other city in the United States.
“It’s a huge indicator,” Natalie said. “It’s looking good through 2020.”
Hightower, which also operates in the higher education and hospitality markets, is preparing for the eventual downturn by diversifying its offerings, exploring new markets and planning new product categories, which the Hartkopfs declined to discuss.