On sustainable furniture design with ready-to-assemble, flat-pack furniture company, Floyd.
Floyd is challenging the way people buy and keep with ready-to-assemble, flat-pack furniture. Designed in Detroit and founded in 2014, co-founders Kyle Hoff and Alex O’Dell built Floyd as a solution to disposable big-box furniture. They started by only selling a stand-alone, industrial table leg that was portable and could be clamped on any flat surface. They would slowly expand to beds, bookshelves, and tables. By building off the same sustainable and responsive design language as the Floyd leg, each new product is a considered addition for the home.
On this episode, Kyle and Alex talk about scaling international growth when their Kickstarter raised 14 times more than their original goal (6:32). Alex talks about how Grand Rapids, Michigan is the secret land of furniture (9:32), how Cranbrook Academy is a wizarding world of historical art inspiration (11:29), and how iconic Herman Miller products influences their design thinking (13:48). They talk about finding inspiration from Ikea’s experiential model while building a competitive alternative to their consumerist culture (16:23). Kyle shares how Floyd layered competencies over time to evolve from a bare-bones minimum viable product (21:41). Alex talks about aligning with your partners, dealing with rejection, and the influence of the Motor City while fundraising (30:55). Finally, Kyle and Alex talk about planning long-term (38:23) and embedding enduring value into Floyd (50:23).
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