Building Brands with Your Customers with Suze Dowling of Pattern
This week on Above the Fold, I sat down with Suze Dowling, Chief Business Officer and Co-Founder of Pattern, for a conversation about what it really takes to build brands that last. Suze has spent over a decade helping companies launch, scale, and connect with customers in meaningful ways. Pattern is now a family of seven home-focused brands built around one mission: making everyday life feel a little more joyful, from your morning coffee mug to the sheets you crawl into at night.
From Agency to Operator
Before launching Pattern, Suze and her co-founders ran a branding agency. They were world-class at bringing brands to market, but Suze admits that moving from agency to operator was a wake-up call. Running a business isn’t just about creating a beautiful brand book and getting great launch press. It’s about building something customers actually want, and that means listening to them early and often.
Learning From The “Oh Shit” Moments
Suze’s biggest early mistake was building their first brand for themselves, not their customer. The launch looked great on paper, but the product didn’t hit the mark. A year later, they had to relaunch while competitors had already gotten ahead. It was a painful but important reminder: direct-to-consumer should be direct with the consumer. The best brands aren’t created in isolation, they’re built in conversation with the people who will actually use them.
Why Brand Strategy Matters
Suze stressed that a solid brand strategy is the foundation of every decision you’ll make. It’s not just a pretty deck. It’s your “why” and your lens for making choices. Without it, you’re building on shaky ground. She compares a brand to a human being, it needs depth, layers, and personality traits that evolve over time. A one-note brand will never build lasting connections.
CX as a Philosophy
For Suze, customer experience is about more than support tickets. It’s about anticipatory hospitality, guiding customers through every step of the journey and meeting them where they are. She believes product quality is non-negotiable, but CX extends to content, education, and even what you send to someone’s inbox. Every interaction is a chance to build trust and loyalty, but only if you treat it like the privilege it is.
The Business Side of Building
Beyond storytelling, Suze is clear-eyed about the numbers. Margins, pricing, and market insights matter just as much as branding. A good idea without a strong business model won’t last. For her, brand and product are a virtuous cycle, one informs the other, and both must be grounded in customer needs and solid economics.
Advice for Founders
When it comes to raising money, Suze is cautious. She believes most consumer brands don’t need institutional capital, and that bootstrapped companies often end up stronger because constraints force creativity. Her advice for fundraising is simple: be clear, concise, and ready to answer the tough questions. And always build as if you might never raise a dollar.
My Takeaway
Talking with Suze was a reminder that building brands isn’t about chasing buzz or creating clever ads. It’s about listening, serving, and building alongside your customers. Pattern’s success proves that when you ground strategy in empathy, clarity, and discipline, you don’t just sell products, you create relationships that last.
