By Yael Shemer, Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer, TULU

At 7:14 a.m. in a residential tower in New York, one of our residents unlocks a vacuum cleaner from a TULU unit in the lobby. Ninety minutes later, the item is returned, logged, cleaned, and made available again — without a single email, staff request, or front-desk interaction.

That moment is invisible to most people. To me, it’s the point.

I’m Yael Shemer, 33, co-founder and chief customer officer of TULU — a venture-backed platform rethinking how people access everyday household items inside the buildings where they live. We install smart, connected units in residential properties, allowing residents to rent products like cleaning appliances, gaming items, scooters, and printers on demand, without owning them.

I co-founded TULU with Yishai Lehavi, an architect-turned-founder. Since launching, we’ve expanded to more than 500 buildings in over 250,000 units across North America and Europe, serving hundreds of thousands of residents and processing millions of transactions. We’ve raised nearly $42 million in funding and were incubated at MIT DesignX — and as part of Our Generation Speaks, an Israeli-Palestinian incubator for young entrepreneurs who seek to work together.

But I’m not focused on the transaction itself. I’m focused on what happens when those small moments of access repeat — hundreds of thousands of times — across cities.

What we’re really building is a behavioral shift that’s embedded into daily life.

Building Where Life Actually Happens

TULU didn’t begin with a flashy consumer app or a direct-to-consumer pitch. It started with a simple observation: people living in cities repeatedly buy, store, and discard the same rarely used items — often within the same building.

“That inefficiency always bothered me,” I often say. “We talk about sustainability as an abstract idea, but daily life is where consumption decisions actually happen.”

Rather than trying to convince people to change their values, we embed circularity directly into residential infrastructure. We install shared product hubs inside buildings, stocked with items curated for that specific community. Residents unlock what they need through an app, use it for a few hours or days, and return it — freeing up space, reducing waste, and lowering costs.

The result is a model that benefits residents, property owners, brands, and cities alike.

It’s not anti-consumption. It’s smarter consumption.

An Operator at Heart

My role as chief customer officer is intentional. While many founders gravitate toward vision or product, I anchor myself in execution: partner relationships, adoption curves, operational health, and long-term retention.

“Yael is exactly the kind of founder you want building the future — she combines sharp commercial instincts with genuine environmental conviction,” says Gideon Argov of New Era Capital Partners. “Watching her and the team scale TULU from an idea into a global platform serving half a million people is a testament to her vision and relentless execution. This recognition is well deserved.”

Before co-founding TULU, I studied environmental science and worked across urban innovation and sustainability-focused projects. That background shaped my belief that meaningful climate impact doesn’t come from awareness campaigns — it comes from infrastructure.

As TULU expanded across multifamily residential, student housing, and mixed-use developments, that belief increasingly shaped how we approached behavior change.

The Software Layer That Enables Scale

While our physical units are what residents see, I’m most energized by what’s happening behind the scenes.

What excites me most right now is our software layer. That’s what’s enabling us to scale.

Our platform doesn’t just unlock products. It tracks usage patterns, predicts demand, flags operational issues before they escalate, and helps partners understand how residents engage with shared resources in real time. What once required hands-on oversight is increasingly automated, data-informed, and repeatable.

“In the early days, a lot of this was manual,” I explain. “Now the software is learning. It’s helping us decide what to stock, where to place units, and how to design access based on real behavior — not assumptions.”

That software layer has become the connective tissue between residents, building operators, and brands. For me, it’s also what shifts TULU from a clever amenity into durable urban infrastructure.

Hardware gets you in the door. Software is what allows you to grow responsibly.

Growth Without Losing the Thread

Scaling a hardware-enabled business is notoriously complex. Maintenance, logistics, and adoption all pose constant challenges. But it’s also an opportunity.  

“We don’t chase growth for growth’s sake,” I say. “We care about whether a building is actually working — are people using it, does it feel intuitive, does it actually make life easier?”

That mindset has helped us secure long-term partnerships with major real estate operators and positioned TULU as a category-definer in the emerging access economy. It’s also why we’re frequently invited to speak at universities, climate forums, and industry conferences about circular systems, urban living, and the future of consumption.

A Different Definition of Power

Being recognized as one of Inc.’s Top 500 Female Founders marks a milestone — but please allow me to reframe it.

For me, success isn’t just building a big company. It’s proving that alternative models can work at scale — that we can design systems that are profitable, human, and better for the planet.

I don’t romanticize entrepreneurship. The work is intense. The trade-offs are real. But I’m clear-eyed about what I’m choosing.

There’s something deeply motivating about building something that aligns with how you want the world to function. That’s what keeps me going.

As cities densify and consumers rethink ownership, the bet feels increasingly prescient. TULU isn’t asking people to live differently. We’re meeting them where they already are — and changing the rules.

And somewhere in another building, another resident uses exactly what they need — no ownership required.