Inside Acacia, the Valencia Home Goods Store That’s All About the 415

San Francisco, CA – After years on the corporate side of companies like Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Base Escentuals, and Good Vibrations, Jonathan Plotzker launched his own brand— an all-natural, locally-made, customizable skincare line called Heliotrope. It was a second act of sorts, transitioning from big box to small business, but one that’s worked out for Plotzker and business partner Don Snider.

Lily Chau took a different —albeit similar— route to small business. “As a child of immigrants growing up in New York, I was either going to be a doctor, a lawyer or a banker,” Lily explains. She chose law. Lily didn’t love being a lawyer —and she had always loved design— so she decided to make a change after the Great Recession shook up with legal industry. She moved to San Francisco with a white, limited edition Le Creuset dutch oven, and not much else.

The Dutch oven was surprisingly transformative for a woman who rarely cooks. The minimalist vibe in Lily’s San Francisco studio let her focus on objects she truly loved. “It was not really a conscious decision, but it became an experiment of sorts— working with a blank slate and a new mindset about making more deliberate choices about the stuff we bring into our living spaces,” Lily tells Racked.