StayRaus

In 2022, I joined StayRaus as Cabin Production Lead, excited by the company’s mission: to offer urban dwellers a new kind of access to nature — through well-designed, sustainable micro-cabins placed in beautiful remote locations. The promise of building something tangible, modular, and meaningful resonated deeply with my background in architecture and product design.

Over the course of 12 months, I helped scale StayRaus from 8 to 38 cabins, built its operational infrastructure, and guided production through one of the company’s fastest phases of growth. It was a time of intense output, high expectations, and valuable lessons — not all of them easy.

Building a Scalable Product System

My role sat at the intersection of design, logistics, and execution. I took on responsibility for nearly all aspects of cabin production:

• Developed and implemented a modular construction system that allowed cabins to be replicated, improved, and scaled
• Tripled the daily setup rate through redesigned processes and more efficient deployment structures
• Reduced material costs by over 21% through supplier renegotiations and smart substitutions — without compromising on quality or brand

I worked closely with partners, builders, and site teams to ensure every unit met StayRaus’s aesthetic and functional ambitions. That meant solving problems on-site, adapting quickly to material and staffing constraints, and advocating for quality under tight timelines.

Where Growth Outpaced Structure

The experience was rich and rewarding — but not without its friction. Startups grow fast, and when roles, hierarchies, and responsibilities are unclear, it often leads to misalignment between expectations and support.

Despite my efforts to create clarity and drive quality, I found myself navigating leadership voids and inconsistent decision-making, which ultimately created strain across teams and operations. With no trained architectural leadership at the helm of production, many decisions lacked the structural foresight or empathy needed to sustainably guide people through complexity and pressure.

What I Take With Me

This chapter wasn’t a failure — it was an education. I learned how to build scalable design systems under pressure. How to align physical space with brand values. And perhaps most importantly, how not to lead: why clarity, support, and listening matter just as much as speed or vision.