I’m going to make this process easy. You know it’s hard; I can make it easy.
Frank Eybsen, Buildlane Founder
In describing the origins of BuildLane, Frank says:
I went to a lot of the factories around South LA. I had a lot of good contacts with fabric companies that pointed me in the right direction to people who were doing good work, and just kind of pitched them the idea that, “Hey, I need you to make furniture for interior designers that I’m going to bring you, and I am going to organize it all and it’s going to be fantastic”. And then I’d go back home, and I’d go in my garage and I’d put a headset on and I’d cold call interior designers and tell them the opposite. “I’m going to make this process easy. You know it’s hard; I can make it easy.”
While Scully notes that the home industry has been slower to adopt technology than many other sectors, there are a growing number of software companies that are empowering interior designers and saving them time. From productivity suites like MyDoma, Ivy, and Studio Designer to online textile and sample ordering companies, 3d rendering firms, and more, the stage has been set for a moment that may have seemed impossible just a handful of years ago: cloud-based software which can allow interior designers and workrooms to collaborate online to create truly custom furniture. We’re proud to be the team that is making it a reality.
We still have plenty of work to do. Every day we talk to the designers on our platform, gather feedback, identify problems that we can help solve, and experiment with software features and workflows to solve those problems.
Heather, who joined us after using BuildLane as a customer, described her experience of working directly with factories in her previous position at a boutique design firm in Telluride, CO:
“We had 1 or 2 workrooms within the region. Telluride is pretty remote. Although their capabilities and the quality was there, the communication […] was really difficult. We never knew for sure when a project was going to start, and when it was going to be completed by, and we often saw product show up not being built correctly.I remember having conversations internally where we were saying, “This process is so difficult and so stressful, and it really strains our relationship with our clients. Like, why do we do this?”
We never knew for sure when a project was going to start, and when it was going to be completed by, and we often saw product show up not being built correctly.
Former Buildlane client, Heather Zeilman is now Buildlane COO
Our mission continues. We are excited to create what we’ve planned in 2021 to make the custom process even easier than it already is.
We loved chatting with Dennis and this was a fun peek into our culture and thinking at BuildLane. We hope you enjoy it!
Listen to the podcast below, or subscribe to the Business of Home podcast here.
