About us:

Laura and Eve are best friends, and now we are also business partners! We are very different in almost every way, but also very similar where it matters. We come to the Lokal Thread with common values and complementary roles: Eve is focussed on strategy and in helping full time businesses maximise their potential on the platform. Laura is focussed on the marketing and distribution strategy, and in helping “side-hustlers” make the most of the LokalThread.

We firmly believe that building a solid platform where both full-timers and side-hustlers can co-exist is our secret sauce.

Lokal Thread was born over coffee, like so many good ideas are. We had both individually explored the idea of a local marketplace, before we even knew each other. But ideas are fleeting and we had our reasons to shelve this one for years: Laura didn’t have the tech know-how, and the business side of a running a marketplace seemed daunting. Eve didn’t have the patience for dealing with a hundred vendors, and going on Instagram to promote a business was not her idea of fun.

But! The whole can be  greater than sum of its parts. One day, while discussing our frustration at all the usual things: algorithms, AI, influencers, Temu slop, and the difficulty in finding exceptional local products we realised that we could fix this and that we should fix it. For the fun of it. (But also: for the money, let’s be honest).

Eve’s Version:

I hate shopping. I hate the generic malls, markets overwhelm me, and the online space is horrendously fragmented and inconsistent. But I love pretty things! And I want a lot of them! I have long wanted an online space where I can have options of locally made products, no Chinese crap, no bad quality junk and filled with items that are unique, spectacular and that speak to my personality. All under one umbrella.

In a country of such immense creative talent, I don’t know why this online space does not yet exist. And I am thrilled that Laura and I are building one.

My vision is to help local makers – whether they be part timers making candles on the weekends or full timers with factories full of locally produced stock – present their wares to a welcoming and niched audience, eager to buy from a trusted online platform. I want this desperately for myself, and I imagine thousands of other customers want it too.

Laura’s Version:

From themed birthday parties for my children, to piles of scrapbooking albums, to personalised mugs — creating has always just been part of who I am. For a long time it was purely a hobby, something I did for the love of it rather than any kind of income. Until recently.

We spent a year unschooling my then 10-year-old, and during that time she decided she wanted to start making money. We spent a while figuring out what that looked like for her, and she settled on making bracelets — think Taylor Swift friendship bracelet energy, because that was very much the vibe at the time. Not long after that, a little Cricut Joy landed in our lives and suddenly a whole world of possibility opened up. We added iced coffee mugs, pencil cases, totes — a proper little range. She sold her products mainly at local markets with her dad, but markets are time-consuming and a little unpredictable, and we quickly realised we needed something more consistent.

Being at those markets also opened our eyes to just how tough the world of creatives and local sellers can be. The passion is there, the products are incredible — but the platforms and the exposure often aren’t. That reality, combined with the need to find a better outlet for Emma’s products, pointed us firmly toward the online space.

Online isn’t the easy alternative it sounds like, though. Building and maintaining a functioning website can genuinely be a full-time job, and if you don’t have the expertise, it gets expensive fast. It is, however, a space I know well and feel confident navigating.

It was over coffee one Friday that it all came together. I was chatting to Eve, mentioning that I wanted to create something for Emma. In what I can only describe as an impulsive but inspired moment, we decided to build something — not just for our kids, but for all creatives who are looking for a safe, transparent space to showcase their products.