We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jake Szymanski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jake, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you find your key vendor or vendors? Maybe you can share the backstory and share some context and the relevant details to help us understand why you chose them, why they chose you, etc.

Our studio has been located in the Bronx, NY for over 5 years. The Bronx is perhaps the most overlooked and under considered borough on the NYC region. It happens to have some of the most skilled craftsmen, and the area is an incredible source for materials. It is important to us to give back to the community around us, so we have committed to working with local vendors. We do not outsource to foreign or out of state sources. Instead, we work directedly with the community around us. These small businesses are usually family run. This means that the money that we spend goes back into our community and helps to support the families that we now call our friends.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Living in Northern Idaho, I was a C and D student with no idea what I wanted to do. I hated school but I loved my summer jobs. These jobs ranged from lawn mowing, bussing tables at Chilies, and painting fences. I would even sell my schoolbooks on eBay and then ask my teachers for another book. After high school, I took my savings and toured Europe for 2 months. I found a job teaching English in Madrid and stayed for another 10 months. I was making 28 Euros an hour at 19 years old with no college degree.

When I came back the USA, I enrolled into community college to get my grades up. Europe undoubtably influenced my decision to explore the arts as a career. After two years at community college, I applied to The Fashion Institute of Technology to study Interior Design. I moved here 12 years ago to study at FIT and now I run a successful luxury furniture company.

After school, I worked for the legendary architect, William Sofield. I may have learned more working for him then all my years at school. On the side, as a hobby, I would build furniture in a basement metal shop in Chelsea. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I quit my job to focus on building a furniture company.

In 5 years, we have grown to a team of 6 people and selling over a million dollars a year in luxury home goods. We sell to the interior design and architecture trade all over the world. I am proud to say that we have our product in the most exclusive and luxurious addresses in the world.

Our product has soul, personality, and a specific point of view. It is our point of view and no can replicate that. It is not flat, homogonous, or trendy. Our product is different because of the unique proportions, interesting textures, and the uncommon shapes. Our client comes to us for a very specific look and they know that our work is very thoughtfully considered.

We have a 10 piece collection coming out in May that I think will catapult us into the front of the luxury furniture market. The collection is my personal exercise to challenge my idea of what is unique, luxurious, exclusive, and special.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Living in Northern Idaho, I was a C and D student with no idea what I wanted to do. I hated school but I loved my summer jobs. These jobs ranged from lawn mowing, bussing tables at Chilies, and painting fences. I would even sell my schoolbooks on eBay and then ask my teachers for another book. After high school, I took my savings and toured Europe for 2 months. I found a job teaching English in Madrid and stayed for another 10 months. I was making 28 Euros an hour at 19 years old with no college degree.

When I came back the USA, I enrolled into community college to get my grades up. Europe undoubtably influenced my decision to explore the arts as a career. After two years at community college, I applied to The Fashion Institute of Technology to study Interior Design. I moved here 12 years ago to study at FIT and now I run a successful luxury furniture company.

After school, I worked for the legendary architect, William Sofield. I may have learned more working for him then all my years at school. On the side, as a hobby, I would build furniture in a basement metal shop in Chelsea. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I quit my job to focus on building a furniture company.

In 5 years, we have grown to a team of 6 people and selling over a million dollars a year in luxury home goods. We sell to the interior design and architecture trade all over the world. I am proud to say that we have our product in the most exclusive and luxurious addresses in the world.

Our product has soul, personality, and a specific point of view. It is our point of view and no can replicate that. It is not flat, homogonous, or trendy. Our product is different because of the unique proportions, interesting textures, and the uncommon shapes. Our client comes to us for a very specific look and they know that our work is very thoughtfully considered.

We have a 10 piece collection coming out in May that I think will catapult us into the front of the luxury furniture market. The collection is my personal exercise to challenge my idea of what is unique, luxurious, exclusive, and special. We do not have investors and fortunately we have no debt. I started the company with no family money and 8k in credit card debt. I worked a full-time job while I built my first furniture collection on the side. I presented the collection at the Architectural Digest Furniture Fair in 2017 and I waited to gauge the industries response. It was a success! In the first few weeks after the show, I had enough orders to quick my job and focus on building a new company. I would build the furniture in a basement metal shop in Chelsea. I would bring the frames back to my studio apartment and patina them in my bathtub and then rent a uhaul to do my own deliveries.

The only way that I was able to achieve this was to be extremely scrapy with my resources. I was my own lean, mean, hardworking machine. I was not afraid to get dirty, tired, or rejected. It was not comfortable or easy, but I knew it was because I was working toward something bigger. Whatever it was going to be, it was going to be mine and on my own terms. Today, the company is 100% mine and 100% on my own terms.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

I do not have a business partner or cofounder. However, the company was built with the help of my incredible team. Early on, I learned that I could not scale a company by myself. I would have to hire people. When hiring, someone gave me this advice. “Hire smarter, more talentedly people than you” My role is not to be the one with the best ideas or to have the smartest solutions. My role is to lead my team in an environment where they can bring their best ideas and smartest solutions to the table.

Contact Info:

• Website: jmszymanski.com
• Instagram: jm_szymanski
• Other: Email: [email protected]

Image Credits
PORTRAIT : OR HARPAZ FURNITURE: STUDIO ENDS