Bentonville entrepreneur on ground floor of tech startup co-founded by Venus Williams

A Bentonville entrepreneur is leading product strategy for an AI-based tech startup co-founded by professional tennis great-turned-entrepreneur Venus Williams.

Joe Payne was one of the first employees hired by Palazzo, an interior design tool that helps users create realistic and high-quality visuals of their space. The software debuted on Feb. 29 and was co-founded by Williams, a former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Raffi Holzer and Edward Lando.

“Interior design has been a passion of mine since I was a teenager and is a craft that I have honed over the last 21 years, so the launch of Palazzo as one of my new ventures in the space is incredibly meaningful to me,” Williams said. “Our goal is to provide design enthusiasts like myself with a community that drives design, collaboration, connection and growth. To create a more accessible platform where imagining designs is easy and communicating them is effortless.”

Before Palazzo, Holzer founded the successful venture-backed startup Avvir, a reality analysis platform for the construction industry, raising $ 17 million and bringing the team through a successful exit. Lando is an early angel investor in nearly 900 companies across the world.

“With Edward’s extensive experience as an entrepreneur and Raffi’s technical expertise from his background in engineering and the recent sale of his computer vision startup, their shared history of innovation laid the groundwork for what was to come,” Payne said.

Payne is head of product and has been leading product strategy and design for the past two months.

“My involvement [in Palazzo] may be the least interesting part of this story,” Payne joked. “I stumbled across a post about it on LinkedIn. I contacted Raffi directly because they were looking for someone to lead product strategy and design. They liked my background and work; one thing led to another, and before long, I was coming on board full-time.”

Payne said Williams makes herself readily available for the Palozzo team, often calling into working sessions and team meetings courtside in between matches and training sessions.

“Venus has been in the weeds with the team helping fundraise and lending her experience as an interior designer to help represent the voice of the user, both regular consumers as well as interior design pros that are the target demographics for us,” he said. “It’s been really great working with her in that capacity.”

Payne has been part of Northwest Arkansas’ creative tech community for years. He helped launch the print and design agency Moxy Ox in Tontitown in 2009, then joined Bentonville software firm RevUnit in 2015 as creative director and eventually was appointed COO. He left the company in March 2021.

Most recently, he has been part of the founding team behind the interactive media company The Society of the Hourglass. He is also CEO and co-founder of ULTD, a generative AI-based tool for procedural storytelling that creates dynamic, ever-changing interactive scenarios for gaming and mixed reality environments.

Payne said Palazzo is unlike other AI-driven platforms in that design enthusiasts can now upload photos of their actual spaces and leverage the platform’s capabilities to provide customized designs for those rooms.

One of Palazzo’s main features is Vinci, the platform’s AI-powered design assistant. Utilizing the latest in generative AI, Vinci engages with users to find out what they are looking for in terms of colors, design styles and more to give them a possible design for their space.

“Edward, Raffi and Venus form an unmatched trio,” Payne said. “They wanted to offer an intuitive tool that not only makes design accessible to enthusiasts but also cultivates a community with the interior design world, bringing designers and those who love design together.”

Payne said new features and collaborations with notable interior designers are planned throughout the year. Palazzo will also partner with a retailer to allow users to explore furniture and accessories that match their unique style preferences.

Other key features of Palazzo include:

• Style Transfer: Users can upload an inspirational photo and update their room to match its style.
• Segmentation: Users can edit only specific parts of an image (a couch, the walls, etc.) without changing what they already love.
• Aesthetic DNA: Users will have access to the platform’s custom style quiz to define their taste and get a custom-made design style that feels unique to them. Vinci will then consider users’ Aesthetic DNA when creating new designs.
• Explore: A feed of generations and other content from the Palazzo community will be the digital heartbeat of the platform for users to browse.
• User Profiles: The creation of profiles will enable users to follow and engage with other community members, including designers and influencers.
• Referral Program: Get five tokens (good for five free generations) for every user who is referred to the platform and signs up.

“Palazzo bridges the gap between design and personalization, offering users a seamless experience to explore endless customized possibilities for their spaces,” Holzer said. “The platform allows users to transform inspiration photos into cohesive designs, engage with other design enthusiasts, and create unique, aesthetically pleasing spaces easier than ever.”