As anyone who has ever bought furniture from Ikea can attest, buying and assembling furniture is a stressful process that hasn’t caught up to our more transient lifestyles.
I recently moved to a new apartment in NYC and my wife and I were looking to shed some of our old furniture. During my search I discovered a startup called Greycork: a furniture company that designs, manufactures, and sells its own furniture via its website. They want to streamline the process of buying furniture online by making it more like buying shoes online. It’s easy to shop, free to ship, simple to try out, and easy and free to return if you don’t like it. To use a phrase that has become cliché, it’s like the Warby Parker of furniture.
To do this, Greycork has removed middlemen to keep costs low and keep the company focused on always improving the experience. All of Greycork’s furniture is designed and manufactured in the USA through its hub of manufacturing partners based in the Northeast.
Greycork’s first furniture line is the Brooks collection, which includes a dining table/desk, a coffee table, and a bench. Each is available in three wood options (ash, white oak, or walnut) with collapsible metal legs available in charcoal or white that set up in seconds. The company is currently in the process of designing its second collection, which should be available this summer.
I really liked the product and had a chance to connect with John Humphrey the founder to learn more about Greycork.
Alexander Taub: Where did the name Greycork come from?
John Humphrey: Up until this moment, we’ve told people the nexus for the name Greycork has been secret. (Yes, it has been fun to make people curious.) The truth is, we wanted to start with a clean slate, and create a scenario wherein our name would become synonymous with our products and culture. So, we picked a name that had no inherent association to anything.
In fact, Greycork’s name was once Howse. I stumbled across this email that I sent to the “team” in November 2013 (we were all still at our other jobs), which explains why we ditched Howse and went with Greycork. Screenshot below.
Taub: Designing and manufacturing your furniture in the USA seems to be a big focus - why?
Humphrey: My family has been in the lumber business since the 1880s. When I was eight, my dad put a broom in my hands - just as his dad did for him - and I began working in a factory during the summers. By the time I was 12, I had been working on assembly lines, building the products we were shipping out. The people I met and the equipment I used are all a part of who I am. Every day, I become more appreciative of the unique experience I had growing up. Greycork is my opportunity to show people the manufacturing world I love.
There’s also something bigger. Throughout history, we’ve seen that economic development is linked to a country’s ability to manufacture goods. Going a step further, we find a unique parallel among the world’s great powers, which is that these countries have historically created the technology that is the means of production. In other words, making goods is one thing, but making the machines that make the goods is the key to sustained economic growth.
When I think about the current state of manufacturing in the United States, two things stand out to me. First, our economy has just undergone a multiple-decades-long shift where enterprises have segregated R&D, design, and production - keeping R&D and design domestic, but offshoring production to leverage lower costs. Second, the U.S. is producing increasingly less of the world’s means of production - research shows in 1950 we produced about 50%, now we produce less than 16%.
At Greycork, we see an opportunity to relink R&D, design, and production to grow America. We believe that history will rhyme, and the keys to sustained future economic growth lies not simply in innovation at the product level, but innovation at the factory level. We understand the means to this end are complex, so we’re starting by bringing our Millennial peers into the factory setting via group factory tours, which will kick off this year. By bringing more exposure to the equipment and processes being used today, we hope to stimulate thought on how we can innovate on the means of production for the future.
Taub: Cutting out the middleman and selling direct to consumers is a popular thing to do for physical products. But it isn't easy to go directly to consumers - why does Greycork work?
Humphrey: Greycork works because we’re taking an antiquated, furniture buying and assembling experience that has not changed much since the 1950s and modernizing it to make the experience better for today’s consumer.
The idea sounded ridiculous at first to plenty of people, especially since there are tons of furniture companies in today’s world. But the staggering fact is that under 4% of furniture is bought online today, which is very low for a consumer vertical. We’re optimistic that there is room for a refreshing brand like Greycork to grow a decent business.
Taub: Tell me about your co-founders, Bruce and Alec.
Humphrey: Bruce, Alec, and I were three strangers who almost never met. Literally. We got extremely lucky, but that’s a story for another time.
Bruce and Alec came from Rhode Island School of Design, or RISD. Bruce graduated from the Furniture Design program, and Alec from the Industrial Design program. I’m so impressed by each of them. Bruce has this tendency to present Alec and I with brilliant production methods that he seemingly creates (and instantly CAD’s) out of thin air. Aside from Alec being the best graphic designer I’ve seen, he is hands-down the most thoughtful person I’ve encountered when it comes to designing processes. Together, they have taught me more than they could know. I have a very high regard for RISD - maybe they’ll let me take a course there some day!
Taub: Any big plans for 2015?
Humphrey: Absolutely. We’re currently developing our next product, building the team, adding a few advisors, and working on securing some financial partners. With the next product rollout, we’ll launch other activities like the factory tours I mentioned earlier, plus some other exciting ones. We’re on a great trajectory, and working hard to make 2015 a breakout year for Greycork.
