Ati Williams’ Rise from Renovations to Renown

Ati Williams (EO San Diego)

It started with a starter home in the Washington, D.C. suburbs — a modest space in need of some TLC. Ati Williams, now an Entrepreneurs’ Organization member through EO San Diego, did not have a crew. She did not have a blueprint. She did, though, have the Home Depot guidebook, countless episodes of “This Old House,” and a relentless belief that she could figure it all out.

It was 2004. She was in her early 20s, newly employed in public health, and had a home of her own. Then, suddenly, her department was shuttered, and she was laid off. And so, with little to lose, she started work on her house. She fixed it up and sold it within six months, walking away with a $31,000 profit—more than her annual salary at the job she had just lost.

Two decades later, Ati runs her own boutique home building and design firm; she is also a Netflix and HGTV personality, Emmy winner, and one of the most distinctive voices in home design.

“That was kind of what sparked my entrepreneurial mind,” she says of that first home flip. “I was set to be a government worker for the rest of my life. That moment changed everything.”

Hustle and Hammers

Ati was raised in Kenya, attended college in Canada, and subsequently landed an internship in D.C. She had only US$260 to her name when she made the move to the U.S. to pursue a new career in a new country but remained undaunted.

“My strongest trait is grit,” she says. “I know that I do not want to go through a lot of challenges, but I do know that if one is presented to me, I will be able to figure out how to get out of it — or how to pivot.”

In the five years after that first flip, she moved eight times — each house doubling as her home and a project. Purchase. Renovate. Sell. Move. Repeat. She did much of the labor herself and was self-taught through books and “This Old House” reruns on PBS. (Remember: Ubiquitous YouTube tutorials did not yet exist.)

That hunger — and fearlessness, she admits with a laugh — paid off. She added a real estate license to her arsenal and, in 2007, launched her own brokerage in D.C. Just a year later, as the U.S. housing market crumbled, she held steady through the crisis. Ati calls herself “a dangerous optimist,” and that mindset has helped her navigate the uncertainty baked into entrepreneurship. When the IRS audited her at age 31, she did not panic.

“Everybody else was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s terrible.’ But I kind of felt like I just made it (if I am doing well enough to be scrutinized),” she said.

All the while, she was not simply building houses. She was building a reputation — and, unknowingly, a brand. A story about her in a local community newspaper highlighting local women small business owners snowballed into a New York Times video feature. 

“My goal is to show up authentically. I don’t think about pleasing everyone. Show up as who you are.”

- Ati Williams (EO San Diego)

From there, television producers started calling. The idea of being on TV seemed laughable: She did not even have one. When HGTV came knocking with a show concept, she was confused: “‘Wait, people want to watch someone knock down walls?” But she accepted the offer. Then came “Hack My Home” on Netflix — an ensemble-style home renovation show that helped cement her as a recognizable name in the industry and even won an Emmy for outstanding instructional and how-to program.

“I didn’t pursue that intentionally,” she says. “But I’m trying to be intentional now about how I work through that as a brand.”

How, though, did she become so comfortable on camera so quickly? Clarity of identity: She is herself on projects and shoots, no media training necessary. “My goal is to show up authentically,” she says. “I don’t think about pleasing everyone. Show up as who you are.”  

Today, Ati runs Honeycomb Design & Build, a boutique firm that specializes in San Diego’s Mission Hills neighborhood, which she also calls home. Her six-person team focuses on high-end residential projects, shepherding them through architecture, permitting, construction, and design.

“We work collaboratively from the very get go,” she says. “The architect is drawing up something and the contractor can say, ‘You can’t build that.’” Streamlined communication, she believes, is her differentiator — and part of why her firm grossed US$6 million last year.

Ati is a self-taught home construction, renovation, and design guru, 
but has leaned on peers in EO for advice and expertise
that has helped her manage a successful business.  

Building a Powerhouse

Ati joined EO in 2015 and says her decade-plus with the organization has been transformative. In an industry — and world — where Black women remain underrepresented in positions of power, Ati has navigated her share of skepticism and scrutiny. Early on, she posed as her own administrative assistant when dealing with subcontractors, because otherwise they would not take her instructions seriously.

“I’ve grown out of that,” she says. “EO has been a really good place for me to develop the muscles to realize what I bring to the table and gain confidence.”

The impact is practical, too. Ati says her EO peers have saved her “a lot of legal dollars” by lending invaluable advice and expertise — like free audits to navigate California’s labyrinthine small-business regulations. Beyond resources and connections, though, EO has also offered emotional grounding.

“It is nice to be in a room where people’s brains are wired the same way,” she reflects. “We all have that learning and growth mindset.”

EO tapped Ati this year to interview none other than Martha Stewart for the organization’s Powerhouse Speaker series. When an EO staffer casually floated the idea of moderating an event — and only later revealed who the guest would be — Ati was stunned. It felt like a full-circle validation of the life and business she had built from that first meager flip in D.C. that, long ago, felt so monumental. “It was one of those pinch-me moments,” she says.

When she shared the news with friends, expressing disbelief, one of them reminded her that an Emmy win, a successful business, and a chance to hold court with Martha Stewart are inevitable results of two decades of dangerous optimism.

“Of course you are,” the friend wrote. “This is what you're destined to do.”