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Homepolish: The Startup Turning the Interior Design Industry Upside Down

This article is more than 8 years old.

In late 2012 Will Nathan, a former tech M&A investment banker-turned-BuzzFeed-coder had trouble finding a savvy, straightforward, and talented interior designer for his new Chelsea apartment. Through a friend he met Noa Santos, a Stanford-educated, high-end interior designer running a one-man shop using a new, hourly model. After Will's apartment was whipped into shape, the two decided to scale the model to homes and offices across the country, and thus came up with the idea of Homepolish, the easiest way to get set up with an interior designer for your home or work.

On Homepolish.com you can browse thousands of original room photos designed exclusively by Homepolish designers (about 7 new projects a week). Then, when you’re ready, you can meet your own Homepolish designer either in your home or via video chat.

After your initial hour-long consultation, during which you’ll receive advice and resources tailored to your project, you can hire your designer for a flat hourly rate to make your vision a reality. Every hour is spent working on what you need - from picking paint colors to sending you furniture options to renovating. They have two package options for hours: a Single Day Session (three hours) and The Design Package (as much time as you want with a minimum purchase of ten hours). The Design Package comes with discounts at leading furnishings vendors.

Homepolish has 245 designers, branched out to 12 cities and has thousands of residential clients, including 400 startup offices. I had a chance to connect with cofounder and chairman Will Nathan to learn more about the business.

Alexander Taub: How do you manage thousands of projects simultaneously in 12 cities?

Will Nathan: We've built a deep bench of technology that allows our client service team (each of whom we affectionately call a "Queen Bee") to be hyper-efficient with their time and focus on the projects that need their attention the most. From billing to client/designer matching, we've developed a client-first approach to how tech can underpin an unparalleled, bespoke experience.

Taub: What does the ideal Homepolish customer look like?

Nathan: Our ideal clients come in all shapes and sizes, from an individual with a 500 sq ft apartment, to corporations with tens-of-thousands of sq ft of space to design. But they all share a few commonalities (1) a belief in the power of a well designed space to make their life better, (2) the desire to tap into the talents of the country's best designers and unparalleled customer support for their design journey, (3) a savvy approach to spending, making the most of their budgets through transparency, aligned interests (our designers don't get a commission on the products our clients buy), and discounts.

Taub: You've been able to build Homepolish without taking any outside investment. How did you manage that?

Nathan: Noa Santos and I started Homepolish with $400 and very complementary skill sets. For our first few months, our corporate budget was paid for with design projects Noa took on, while I took care of our tech needs. We continued this model as we grew and were fortunate that the economics of our business (and prudent cash management) have allowed for self-funded rapid growth.

Taub: How do you approach branching out into a new city? What are some dos and don’ts?

Nathan: We look for areas where there's a match between the demand for our services from clients and a supply of talented designers. All of our cities start with a small 'field team' that we use to experiment, iterate, and let the market inform our growth. We've learned that every market has its own character, so we adapt our approach to the pulse of the new city and don't try to push too hard for adoption.

Taub: What would you say is the breakdown of customer base between companies and individuals?

Nathan: About 10% of our business comes from commercial clients, largely startups like Classpass, Venmo, Change.org, One Medical, GILT, Instacart, Rent the Runway, Sailthru, Giphy, Newscred, and over 400 others.

Taub: What do you have in store for the rest of 2015?

Nathan: We're excited to soon launch a way for clients who don't live in one of our cities to use Homepolish! We've developed Homepolish Virtual to take the best parts of our in-home service and deliver it remotely. We'll also be evolving our online magazine to show off over 5,000 professionally-shot Homepolish project photographs and continue to improve our client's experience from dreaming about the possibilities of their space through to a successfully completed Homepolish project.

Taub: Where do you see Homepolish in 5 years?

Nathan: We started Homepolish to change people's lives by changing the spaces they live them in. And we've committed ourselves to creating lasting relationships with our clients based on a love of design, and more importantly, a mutual trust. Those kinds of relationships require significant investment and time, but it's on them that we will build Homepolish into a destination for not only the best interior design service but also the most inspirational content and furnishings. We believe that only through the marriage of these three home design components can we deliver the perfect Homepolish experience.