Collaboration with Cate Luzio
Collaboration with Cate Luzio
To say that the last four months have been a challenge for me as an entrepreneur is truly an understatement. The degree of immensity of the problems I’ve had to address and the speed at which I’ve had to address them have left me with a lot of battle wounds. When you’re in the bunker, though, it’s always nice to have other people to inspire and help you see through it and Cate Luzio is one of those founders.
Cate is founder and CEO of Luminary, a premier collaboration hub in New York City for women and women-identified who are passionate about professional development and expanding their networks. Cate joins me today to talk about what the last four months have looked like for her and how she plans to lead her business to an even stronger place, despite all of the challenges.
What are we drinking?
Cate - Tequila, lime juice, and salt
Shannon - Rosé
Podcast Notes
Cate never wanted to be an entrepreneur. Her younger brother was and is an entrepreneur and she never thought she could do it.
Cate led very large businesses and found there weren’t enough opportunities for women or other minority groups. She was sensitive to this as a woman in finance.
She wanted to make a bigger impact, and in 2018 she wrote a business plan for Luminary, and there was no turning back. She saw that women were siloed, but in order to make progress and change you need to bring everyone together.
There are really incredible digital communities, but Cate never had the time to jump on calls and invest in that space. She does much better face to face. Her business plan never had a digital aspect, until March 2020.
Cate has been self-funding her business since the beginning. She looks at investments versus frivolous spending. Her business model has been to grow sustainably with a path to profitability.
Taking other people’s money comes with strings and there are good strings and bad strings. Cate wanted to control their destiny. She wanted to run a successful, impactful business with inclusion and diversity at the core. She felt strongly that the mission would get diluted if she took on investors.
Cate is leveraging on 20 plus years of corporate experience and building large, global businesses.
The control is so important in the early days. When Shannon first started The Gym, she did free plans for people, because she had the time and she didn’t need to explain it to anyone.
When she first started, Cate knew that her time to market was accelerated. She wrote her business plan in March 2018 and she wanted to open in November 2018. This included building the physical space, which was 15,000 square feet.
Cate was introduced to The Coven in Minneapolis. They needed to raise money in order to fund their space. They used ifundwomen.com to fund their space. This is a rewards-based crowd funding platform.
Cate didn’t need to raise money, but she met with the founder of ifundwomen.com to talk about using the platform as a rewards-based marketing strategy. Before Luminary was open, she offered memberships to her network and her team’s network. She had about six people on her team at the time.
They made a professional video, took professional photos, and went out and started building awareness. They pitched to the press and they got Sway and Fast Company to come in.
Cate wanted a foundation of founding members when she opened the doors. She continued to build this over 2019 and into 2020.
Cate knew the roles she needed to fill at her company, like COO and marketing. She leaned on her network to help her with everything from writing the job descriptions to interviewing. All of her employees came from referrals.
One thing Cate’s team does well is collaboration over competition. There is a big pie out there and we can all have a piece of it. Early on, they partnered with Elevate. They figured out how to complement their communities instead of compete.
You cultivate those early relationships and they become part of the family. It was all about word of mouth and being authentic.
Luminary also does corporate memberships. They are good at bringing everyone together and creating opportunities among them.
When Cate saw what was happening in China and what was happening in Italy, she knew the U.S. wasn’t going to be able to avoid COVID. Luminary saw a decrease in attendance and event bookings. She never thought it would last this long.
March 20 was the last day her space was open. Cate actually got COVID. She realized it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. They only exist if they have a community. With them, the space is one component.
Their numbers show that 90% of the community comes to the space for community and connection, not just the space to work out of. About 43% of their members are entrepreneurs and small business owners, and their revenues were changing.
Having a wonderful community and a personal touch has helped, but there has been a big impact on Luminary. You can plan for a recession, but you couldn’t plan for this. Now Cate is in recovery mode. She did qualify for PPP funds.
Luminary has a strong balance sheet and no debt, but they need to figure out what to do next and how to recover.
With COVID and the George Floyd murder, there is an emotional component in figuring out what to do as a leader and managing your company, but being sensitive to what is going on in the world.
It is important to keep things top of mind and not brush them under the rug. Every company needs to focus on gender equality, racial equality, pay equity, etc., and do it authentically.
Cate and her team have been working towards reopening. They joined WORC, Workplace Operators Readiness Counsel, which was started by Industrius. There are about 20 in that counsel globally that look at industry standards for co-working spaces.
Cate did town halls and polls to get information about comfort levels from their members. They also evaluated what employees could work from home and how they could continue to run the space. Luminary has implemented limited hours and limited amenities and added around the clock cleaning and sanitizer stations.
They looked at how to make every dollar go farther, but not decrease health and safety. The digital aspect is complementary to what they are doing, but Cate is careful to not dilute the value of the membership.
The biggest focus right now is to continue impacting the community they built thus far and having more and greater and broader impact to those who will come in the future.
If you want to start a business, you have to have a business plan — a real, well thought out business plan with a financial projection and a profit and loss so you understand what you are aiming for. Before you have that, what is your objective?
Once you have the idea, do the hard work, even if you only do a SWOT analysis and a financial projection.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Talk to your network and trusted advisors. Give them your elevator pitch and have them poke holes in your idea. Just getting money doesn’t get you prepared. Understand where your revenue will come from.
Takeaway: My biggest takeaway is the importance of understanding the ROI, or return on investment, in your business, especially in the early days. The fact that Cate could manage cash flow through a challenging time speaks volumes to her ability to build a long term sustainable business.
Random Three Questions
When was the last time you cried? Where is your favorite crying space?
What is something you’ve been bingeing during quarantine?
If this was your last night on earth, what is your last meal?
Connect with Cate
Podcast: luminary-nyc.com
Social Media: @Bealuminary, @cateluzio
If you have any topics you would like me to cover on this podcast, or If you’d like to get in the financially naked hot seat, I encourage you to email me to Shannon@fingyms.com, or join the private Martinis and Your Money Facebook group, and let me know what you want to hear.
If you’d like to talk to my team at the Financial Gym to help you manage your finances, if you have a business or you’re thinking about starting one, we’re offering a number of great deals right now. Our team is more than happy to help you make your plan and take money stress off your plate. So head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com to get set up today.