Shiza Shahid, co-founder and co-CEO of Our Place, the cookware company known for its all-in-one pans and kitchen tools, has reshaped her approach to design and leadership since becoming a mother.
Before motherhood, Shahid built Our Place with the mission of making high-quality cookware accessible to families worldwide. The brand focuses on practical, versatile products that simplify cooking across different cuisines and cultures. Her daughter's arrival forced Shahid to examine what "accessible" truly means.
Motherhood shifted Shahid's priorities in unexpected ways. She began designing with different constraints in mind. Products that looked sleek in meetings needed to work in the chaotic reality of a kitchen where a parent juggles cooking with childcare. Safety features became non-negotiable. Durability took on new urgency when she considered the wear and tear of daily family use.
This personal experience informed how Shahid leads her company. She moved away from the traditional definition of success measured purely by growth metrics. Instead, she considers whether her products actually improve family life. That distinction matters for parents seeking brands aligned with their values.
Shahid's evolution also influenced company culture. She advocates for parental flexibility and acknowledges that leadership doesn't require sacrificing family time. Her willingness to discuss how motherhood changed her business decisions breaks the silence many working mothers maintain about the real tensions between career ambitions and family responsibilities.
Her story resonates with parents who feel caught between two worlds. Shahid proves that personal transformation can strengthen professional vision rather than compromise it. When founders build products through the lens of their own family experiences, those products often serve real needs better than those designed from purely analytical distances.
Our Place continues expanding its product line, now informed by a founder who tests everything in her own kitchen with her daughter nearby. Parents shopping for cookware find not just functional