OurHouse.com

About OurHouse.com

In the dot-com boom of 1999, Philip Airey founded OurHouse.com as an online retailer for home improvement and DIY projects. The Evanston-based company aimed to sell everything from garden supplies to kitchenware, offering up to 30,000 different items. To bolster its operations, OurHouse.com formed a strategic partnership with Ace Hardware, leveraging their established warehouse and distribution network. With significant backing, the company raised a total of $87.7 million from investors including Meritech and Liberty Digital. The company's playbook included growth by acquisition, purchasing the specialty cookware retailer Tavolo.com in early 2001. However, the competitive home improvement market proved challenging. Despite the large investment and strategic partnerships, OurHouse.com struggled to achieve profitability. By November 2001, just two years after its founding, the company ceased operations and sold its inventory. The story didn't end there. In December 2001, the e-commerce giant Amazon acquired the remaining assets of OurHouse.com, including its brand name. This was part of an Amazon strategy at the time to purchase struggling or bankrupt e-tailers to quickly acquire their customer base and expand market reach. Following the acquisition, the OurHouse.com website was redirected to Amazon's own home goods section, folding the brand into its ever-growing empire.