Family • Entrepreneur • Property Owner

Kate Tellier

Building a family, creating businesses, reinventing ideas and finding opportunity in places other people might overlook.

Her Story ShopLeaf

2002 BS in Law

Founder ShopLeaf

Upstate NY Real Estate

Her story Not one straight path — a series of ideas, pivots, family decisions and new beginnings.

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The beginning

She never really followed the expected path.

Kate's story is less about one career and more about adapting to whatever came next.

She worked while attending college, built a family just as she was beginning adult life, launched a technology business before online marketplaces were everywhere, invested in property, and eventually watched an old idea find an entirely new purpose.

Through all of it, family remained at the center.

2002

Law, late nights and security shifts.

Kate earned her Bachelor of Science in Law from St. John Fisher College in 2002.

While going through school, she worked security — an occupation that might have seemed unexpected for someone with her small frame, but one that suited her independence and determination.

Graduation wasn't followed by a traditional career track. At nearly the same time, another major chapter was beginning: family.

Degree B.S. in Law

School St. John Fisher College

Graduated 2002

A new chapter

Career plans changed. Family came first.

Just as college ended, Kate began building a family. The professional path that followed wasn't a straight line — and that became one of its strengths.

Being present for family didn't stop her from creating. Instead, it helped shape the kinds of businesses and opportunities she pursued.

The first ShopLeaf

An idea that arrived a little early.

ShopLeaf began as a place where small businesses and individuals could sell homemade and locally created products online.

The idea was aimed squarely at mom-and-pop sellers: give small creators their own place on the web without requiring them to become technology companies.

Then the online marketplace landscape changed quickly. Etsy received significant investment and grew at a scale that a small independent platform simply couldn't match.

The original ShopLeaf gradually faded into the background. But the story wasn't finished.

Small sellers. One simple storefront.

Homemade

Local

Independent

The comeback

Then ShopLeaf found a completely new purpose.

Years later, ShopLeaf was revived as an ecommerce platform for restaurants — giving independent businesses a way to take orders directly online.

The timing turned out to matter.

Just before COVID

Restaurant ecommerce quickly went from convenient to essential.

Reinvention

A storefront became a whole website platform.

Marketplace

A way for small sellers and makers to get homemade products online.

Restaurant Ecommerce

A new version emerged around restaurant ordering and independent ecommerce.

Website Management

During COVID, the platform expanded into a broader website and digital-presence management system.

Buy. Improve. Reimagine.

Real Estate

Seeing potential in properties too.

Technology wasn't Kate's only entrepreneurial outlet.

Over the years she purchased and renovated a number of properties in Upstate New York, improving them and reselling several along the way.

Today, she also owns and manages a small number of residential rental properties — another extension of the same instinct to find something with potential, improve it, and make it useful.

The common thread

Different chapters. The same instincts.

Family

Success only matters if there's still room for the people who matter most.

Independence

Build something yourself instead of waiting for someone else to create the opportunity.

Adaptability

An idea that didn't work once might simply have been waiting for the right moment.

Practicality

Whether it's software or a house, useful beats complicated.

Today

Still building. Just differently.

Kate's life has never needed one job title. She's been a student, security worker, mother, founder, entrepreneur, property renovator and landlord.

The common thread is simple: take care of family, solve practical problems and don't be afraid to change direction when circumstances change.

Kate Tellier

Family. Ideas. Another chapter ahead.

A personal collection of the projects, experiences and people that shaped the journey.

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