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Utah Business

Honorees 5/25 & 6/25

2024 CEOs of the Year | Alix Lewis Burrows & Kelly Dearth

Alix Lewis Burrows & Kelly Dearth | 2024 CEOs of the Year

2024 CEOs of the Year | Alix Lewis Burrows & Kelly Dearth

Co-Founders & Co-CEOs | LitJoy Crate

What key principle guides your leadership style?

People come first. Whether a team member, a customer or our community, they are all viewed first as human beings. This may not sound groundbreaking, but in our eight years of doing business, we have found the human-first approach to be quite unconventional. Caring about an employee’s personal growth makes for a wonderful company culture and has been pivotal to our success!

What has been a significant challenge you’ve faced? How did you overcome it?

LitJoy was founded in 2016 by two full-time moms and $1,000. With four kids under the age of four, we planned products during nap time and shipped hundreds of packages out of Alix’s kitchen until 3:00 am every day. Those first three years are an absolute haze. When we were finally able to hire our first paid employee, we broke down in tears. Looking back, the physical and emotional toll of the first three years serves as absolute confirmation that we love what we do.

Connect with Alix Lewis Burrows and Kelly Dearth on LinkedIn.

Savannah Beth Withers Taylor is the assistant editor of Utah Business and a graduate of the editing and publishing program at Brigham Young University. Beth has written content about travel, academics, and mental health for Stowaway magazine, BYU College of Humanities and the United Way of Utah County.