Our Place
Shiza Shahid helped build a Nobel laureate's foundation, then co-founded a cookware brand whose pastel Always Pan became Oprah's favorite thing, drew a 30,000-person waitlist, and turned up in celebrity kitchens.
Shiza Shahid helped build the Malala Fund, working alongside a future Nobel laureate on global education for girls. Her second act was a pan. The Always Pan, a pastel piece of ceramic cookware that promised to replace eight tools at once, became one of Oprah’s Favorite Things, drew a waitlist of more than 30,000 people, and turned up in the kitchens of David Beckham and Selena Gomez.
Shahid co-founded Our Place in 2019 with her husband, Amir Tehrani, to sell cookware free of the toxic coatings on most nonstick pans, and built it into a direct-to-consumer hit that was profitable within months of launch. On roughly $7.5 million in outside funding, a modest sum for a physical-product company, they made one of the most recognizable DTC objects of the era: a pan people put on their counters on purpose.
At a glance:
| Founded | 2019 |
| Founders | Shiza Shahid (co-founder, Malala Fund) and Amir Tehrani |
| Hero product | The Always Pan, a ~$145 ceramic nonstick pan |
| Funding | ~$7.5 million total |
| Revenue | Profitable within months; ~$20 million in 2020 |
| Model | Direct-to-consumer |
| Cultural markers | Oprah’s Favorite Things; 30,000+ waitlist; celebrity kitchens |
The Story
From the Malala Fund to a frying pan
Shahid’s first career was activism. She helped launch and run the Malala Fund, the global girls’ education organization built around Malala Yousafzai, and spent her twenties in the world of nonprofits and international causes. By her late twenties she wanted to build something of her own, and the idea that pulled at her was, of all things, cookware, specifically the ritual of cooking and gathering people around a table, which she connected to her own heritage and family.
The pan that did everything, and looked good doing it
The Always Pan launched in 2019: a ceramic nonstick pan that could braise, sear, steam, strain, sauté, fry, and boil, sold in soft, Instagrammable pastels with a matching lid and spatula. It replaced roughly eight pieces of a cluttered cabinet with one, and it was designed to be seen on a counter, not hidden in a drawer. It became profitable within months and did around $20 million in its first full year.
Non-toxic as the actual product
Underneath the aesthetic was a real pitch. Most nonstick pans use coatings like Teflon that can release harmful chemicals when overheated, and Our Place built its pans on ceramic coatings free of PFAS and other “forever chemicals.” It turned a health concern most people had never thought about into a reason to replace cookware they already owned and thought was fine.
Oprah, a waitlist, and a cultural object
The Always Pan became a phenomenon. It landed a spot on Oprah’s Favorite Things, built a waitlist north of 30,000, and showed up in the kitchens of celebrities from David Beckham to Selena Gomez, who went on to collaborate on limited-edition colors. A frying pan had become a status object, which is not a sentence the cookware industry expected to hear.
The Strategy
One hero product, done unusually well
Our Place didn’t launch a catalog. It launched a pan, and put everything into making that one product recognizable, beautiful, and genuinely useful before expanding into cookware, tableware, tools, and appliances from the strength of a single hero. It’s the same restraint that built Merit: master one thing people love before you sell them ten.
Direct-to-consumer, so the brand owned everything
Selling DTC let Our Place control the aesthetic, the price, and the relationship with every customer, rather than handing a cut and the shelf placement to a retailer. That control is what let a pan carry a premium price and a distinct point of view instead of blending into a store display.
A problem people didn’t know they had
The non-toxic angle created demand where none existed. Nobody was walking around worried about their frying pan, so Our Place named the concern, PFAS and forever chemicals, and offered itself as the fix. Reframing an ordinary object as a health decision is how a $145 pan competes with a $30 one.
The Marketing
Designed to be photographed
The pastel palette wasn’t decoration, it was the marketing. The Always Pan was built to look good on a kitchen counter and on an Instagram grid, which turned every customer into a billboard and every unboxing into earned attention. New shades released as limited color drops created scarcity and gave people a reason to keep watching for the next one.
Cultural placement over paid ads
Oprah’s Favorite Things, celebrity kitchens, and the Selena Gomez collaborations gave the pan a cultural weight no ad could buy. Each placement told the same story, that this ordinary object was somehow desirable, and desirability is the whole game for a product nobody strictly needs.
The table as the through-line
Shahid framed the brand around gathering, cooking as the thing that brings people together, rather than around specs and heat retention. That gave a piece of cookware a meaning customers could feel part of, and tied every product back to a mission instead of a materials list.
The Numbers
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Our Place and the Always Pan launch |
| April 2020 | Profitable |
| 2020 | ~$20 million in revenue |
| Ongoing | Expanded into full cookware, tableware, tools, and appliances |
Funding: Our Place raised roughly $7.5 million in total, modest for a company selling physical goods, which means the growth was driven by product demand and word of mouth rather than by burning capital to buy customers.
The hero: the Always Pan retails around $145, and its recognizability carried the brand’s expansion. A single object doing the marketing for an entire catalog is the efficiency that made the small funding go far.
What You Can Learn
One hero product beats a catalog. Our Place became famous for a pan, not a product line. Make one thing people genuinely love and recognize, and it becomes the door to everything else you sell.
Design is marketing. The pastel colors weren’t a nice touch, they were the reason people posted the pan for free. If your product is worth photographing, your customers will do your advertising.
Name a problem people don’t know they have. Nobody was afraid of their frying pan until Our Place explained forever chemicals. Reframing an ordinary purchase as a health or values decision is how a premium product beats a cheaper one.
A mission gives a commodity meaning. Cookware is a commodity. Gathering, family, and the table are not. Tying an ordinary product to something people care about is what lets it charge more and mean more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded Our Place?
Our Place was co-founded in 2019 by Shiza Shahid and her husband, Amir Tehrani. Shahid previously co-founded and ran the Malala Fund, the global girls’ education organization associated with Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.
What is the Always Pan?
The Always Pan is Our Place’s hero product, a ceramic nonstick pan designed to replace about eight pieces of cookware, sold in pastel colors for around $145. It can braise, sear, steam, strain, sauté, fry, and boil.
Is Our Place cookware actually non-toxic?
Our Place uses ceramic coatings free of PFAS, PTFE (Teflon), and other “forever chemicals” that some conventional nonstick pans can release when overheated. That non-toxic positioning is central to the brand’s pitch.
How much revenue does Our Place make?
Our Place became profitable within months of its 2019 launch and did roughly $20 million in revenue in 2020. It has since expanded well beyond the Always Pan into a full cookware, tableware, and appliance range.
Did Selena Gomez work with Our Place?
Yes. Selena Gomez collaborated with Our Place on limited-edition colors of the Always Pan, framed around connecting with the earth and gathering people together.
Sources
- Inc., “She Mentored a Nobel Laureate. Now She’s Helping Home Cooks”. Shahid’s background, profitability, and 2020 revenue.
- Forbes, “Inside The Rise Of Our Place And The Always Pan,” April 2024. Oprah’s Favorite Things, the waitlist, and celebrity ownership.
- Canadian Business, “Shiza Shahid on How She Started D2C Giant Our Place”. The Always Pan’s function and the DTC model.
- Cosmopolitan, “Selena Gomez Is Back at It Again With Another Limited-Edition Our Place Collab”. The Selena Gomez collaborations and co-founders.
- Crunchbase / Tracxn, Our Place company profiles. Total funding raised.