Founder's Story - From Garage Startup to Iconic Luxury: How House of Pontovi Became the Go-To Designer for Celebrities, Yachts, and Landmark Projects | S2 Ep. 78

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

In this episode of Founder's Story, Daniel Robbins sits down with Constance, the founder and director of House of Pontovi, and Samantha Sidley, a designer at the company. Together, they dive into high-end furniture design and manufacturing, sharing stories of craftsmanship, business longevity, and the emotional ties people form with well-crafted furniture.Key Takeaways:From Garage Startup to Global Success: Constance shares how she founded House of Pontovi out of frustration with the furniture industry, starting with a sofa made on top of a bathtub crate. Over 30 years later, the company has evolved into a jewel-like furniture manufacturing house serving top-tier clients globally.Personalized Design Process: Samantha discusses the company’s collaborative approach, taking clients' ideas—from sketches on napkins to full-scale, beautifully finished furniture. Every process step is tailored, including CADs and renderings, ensuring the final product exceeds client expectations.Quality and Longevity: Constance emphasizes the company’s commitment to building furniture that lasts generations, in contrast to the disposable nature of today’s furniture. The team often sees pieces they created decades ago return for reupholstery, showcasing the lasting craftsmanship.Relationship-Driven Business: Both Constance and Samantha highlight the importance of relationships in their business. Their first client, for whom they made a sofa, is still with them today. These strong bonds, along with their dedication to quality and value, have been key to the company's success.Memorable Projects: From creating furniture for iconic buildings like the Transamerica Pyramid to working on high-profile projects like the Playboy Mansion, House of Pontovi has left its mark on some of the world’s most prestigious spaces. Samantha recalls some of the challenges and fun experiences they’ve had, including working around tight deadlines and coordinating mariachi bands for in-house celebrations.Sustainability and Energy: Constance and Samantha speak to the importance of respecting the materials they work with. Wood, they say, has its own energy, and they strive to bring out its natural beauty in every piece they create. This philosophy, combined with the family-like environment of their team, is what has helped them sustain their business for over three decades.A One-Stop Shop: House of Pontovi prides itself on keeping all its trades under one roof, ensuring seamless communication and collaboration between craftsmen. This unique setup allows them to offer unparalleled quality and efficiency.Notable Quotes:“You could have all the degrees in the world, but the most fundamental principle in business is relationships.” - Constance“Wood is energy, and we respect that energy as we create.” - Constance“We don’t just build furniture—we build pieces that become a part of people’s lives, carrying memories and emotions.” - SamanthaHow to Connect:Email: [e-mail]://www.pontovi.com/Closing Thoughts:Constance and Samantha’s passion for creating lasting, high-quality furniture is evident in every aspect of House of Pontovi’s business. Their commitment to excellence, relationships, and sustainable practices sets them apart in an industry that often prioritizes speed over substance. For anyone looking to transform their spaces with unique, handcrafted pieces, House of Pontovi is the go-to destination.Our Sponsors:* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.com* Check out Vanta: https://vanta.com/FOUNDERSAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hey everyone, welcome back to Founder's Story. Today we have the incredible Constance, who is the director of the House of Pantovi and the amazing designer Samantha Sidley. And we're going to talk all things furniture because I have the worst taste in furniture and I need to understand how I could be better. My wife used to make fun of me on the choices that I would make. So I'm hoping that you both can help me out today and fully understand because your designs are incredible. I mean, there you've helped celebrities to yachts to amazing styles that I think are so unique and different. And so let's start off and understand how did you come up with the idea and why did you create the House of Pontovi?

Well, my background was in furniture and it actually came out of frustration. And I decided to start my own business in the garage. And so I call called and made my first sofa on top of a bathtub crate. And the rest is kind of history. We built a great reputation for quality and turning people's visions and creativity and all that chaos that goes with it into beautiful pieces of furniture. And so from the house, it evolved. And 30 years ago, I still have the same employees that were in the playroom sewing and upholstering and we've evolved into a full-blown furniture manufacturing company here in Los Angeles and we're a jewel-like box manufacturer where we work with the most

incredible interior designers around the world, making their furniture creations and designs come to life. We have our own clients that are around the world that we work for and create designs for them and install. So we're so blessed and grateful to be able to create amazing, beautiful pieces of furniture for the most amazing people on the planet. Oh, I was going to say, I come from my family are in design and they knew Constance. I've known Constance since I was a baby and that's how I came to work at Constance. And so I've

been shadowing her for quite a while now, and it's just been really fun. And I love this company so much because we're a one-stop shop. I can imagine the intricacies that go along with taking somebody's idea to fruition and then the product actualized. What's that process like? Well, it can be very stressful. And believe it or not, there's a lot of emotions involved in furniture and a lot of personalities.

And so our job is to just kind of, we leave our egos at the door and just set everything aside. And our mission is just to create incredible furniture. You could just give us a sketch on a napkin and we're able to turn it into a dining chair. And so from that process, we would, you know, we'll take you through it, but it's a journey. And so it's a journey where we stop along the island

of drawings and the island of renderings and then we like sail on to prototypes and then we kind of move over and climb a mountain of furniture and finishes and then we like get to the final destination and we get to sit in or touch something or feel your own incredible piece of furniture? We collaborate from the beginning with our clients. And sometimes our clients are designers and architects. And we provide sketches and renderings. And that ultimately leads to CADs. We like to let our clients know that the finished product

in reality is even more beautiful than our vision. But in order for our clients to be able to see that vision, that's why we provide the renderings, which are so beautiful. We have such an amazing rendering team. And like you said in the beginning, you said you had no taste in furniture. I bet you that's not true.

And it's really not about, you know, our taste and telling you what good taste is. It's about what works for you and what you need for your environment and us providing that for you and to help you find the most functional elements to live in or to work in or whatever you're using your space for and to make that as comfortable and easy and beautiful as possible within your taste range. We help you explore that. And I'd like to add something which I feel is quite important. We build furniture that's going to last. So it's not going to, so much right now is immediate

gratification with furniture and it makes me so sad when I'm walking along a sidewalk and I see, you know, the sofas, the beds, and they're just filling up landfills. And I'm old school, and we make our furniture old school. And I love it. I've been in business 30 years and we have sofas and pieces that come in for reupholstery or refinishing that we made. 20 years ago, I'll tell you a neat story. We train everyone in our company and we're very much a family and it was neat seeing our lead upholsterer's son work on a sofa that his father made 20 years ago.

And because it had come in for reupholstery. And like that's a god shot. That's amazing. And, but that's the, what the point is I'm trying to make is that it's quality that we're using. But that's the point is I'm trying to make is that it's quality that we're using and that's what we're giving you value and quality. And that's something that's lacking in today's market. And we're also giving you what we're trying to, well not trying, we give you in all that

chaos and all that we commit to our deadlines. And we're very much, we're very, very strict about your deadline in the furniture business. We're very transparent. We have weekly meetings with every project. We have project managers that call and email every we have a database that takes you know the client can check into that can see what's happening so there's no hidden surprises because as I mentioned the furniture business can be very very stressful there's a lead time with custom furniture and a lot of places the lead times right now

are like 50 weeks up to a year sometimes and because what makes me unique in the business is all of our trades are under one roof so it's not like we're farming it out and importing it from here and then going to this vendor and then taking it to this vendor. We're actually all these vendors. We've created a family-like environment where we love coming to work, we love doing what we do,

and all these different trades can communicate with one another, which is amazing to get those different mindsets under the same area of space. And that's what is so unique about House of Ponte Ville. Wow, what an incredible story and the things that you're doing to differentiate yourselves. I can imagine furniture that lasts a lifetime has an extreme amount of emotions

attached to it because of the memories. So that, you know, that furniture that was reupholstered by the son of the person who did it originally has gone through so many memories. So people have an extreme amount of attachments to this furniture. So it's a really big deal. You've been a business for over 30 years. From a business perspective, what do you think has allowed you to survive that long?

Because we know a lot of businesses don't even last two years or three years, right? To thrive for 30 years says a lot about you and the organization that you built. So what do you think has really helped you continue that long? You could have all the degrees in the world in business and the most fundamental principle in business is relationships. And so that has what allowed me to cultivate and we still, the very first person I made that sofa for 30 years ago, we're actually making his dining table today. So we're about relationships and we're about quality and value and I've never in all the fluctuations of the economies I've never once skimmed on quality of our materials and

that has been a statement and then of Integrity and in quality and it's just it's what's held us up this whole time amongst making incredible, beautiful things that just attention to detail and dressmaker details and our finishes. And as you said, just briefly to point on the memories and the emotions in the furniture, you know, wood is energy and it has, it absorbs people's and when we get a piece of wood, there's an energy to it. And so we respect that as well as we're creating pieces and we're always, and this is again, part of why we've stayed in business for so long.

I'm always trying to bring out in the wood pieces the energy of the wood. And so there's a lot, there's some stuff we get, I have to say, where maybe the client isn't the nicest person and the piece doesn't want to go there. Like the movers will drop it and it has to come back or like, you know, we call them the bad karma pieces. But like, and it's like there's an energy or something, you know, or like the fabric comes in in the wrong dial-up. But for the most part, we put so much love and good energy into what we do. And I feel that's also what is a part of what makes us stay in business for so long. Oh, I've just piggyback on what she said.

It's a very personal process that we have with our clients, and it leads to trust with our clients, and that if you know that you can get exactly what you want and you're going to really use it, and it's going to be something that's so beneficial to your environment, which is everything. Our environments are everything. And because they are with us as we age, then why wouldn't you just keep going to the same spot? And like I said before, because we don't need to outsource. We're a one-stop shop We have like if you have like, oh, I love the Eames lounge or not that you do. I'm just making this up I want the Eames lounge or in zebra we can provide that for you because there's nothing we can't create and

I think that just leads to so much trust within our clients whether they are architects designers or you know private Residential clients. Thank you for sharing that. I can tell that you really, you do what you say, and you say what you do, and that means a lot in business, and you know, wild, whatever those things that you want to say, what is something that was really, really stood out in memory in the last 30 years that you were tasked to design or maybe that you did design? Well, there's a few things. One, of course, is always the story of the sofa not fitting when you get to the New York skyscraper. But I think one of my favorite stories in decorating is we just delivered a most beautiful desk with gilt and trim.

And it was just beautiful. We set it into the client's house and the owner, you know, sat down and she admired the desk and it was beautiful and she was so happy. And you know, she had to call her decorator, find out which side of the desk to put her waste paper basket on.

So things like that are memorable to me and funny. And we do fun things like we had 31 days to make 67 pieces of furniture and drive it across the country. That was, you know, fun. And, you know, we just finished up at the Transamerica pyramid working till 3 in the morning, and that was pretty fun. And then the fun other fun things are the mariachi bands that we have on Fridays in our barbecues

The Constance has some of the most iconic projects that are imaginable in my personal opinion And I'm somebody who whether you're starting or scaling your company's security program demonstrating top-notch security practices and Establishing trust is more important than ever. Vanta automates compliance for ISO 27001, SOC, GDPR and more, saving you time and money while helping you build customer trust. Plus, you can streamline security reviews by automating questionnaires and demonstrating your security posture with a customer-facing trust center all powered by Vanta AI.

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And you deserve a government that inspires you, too. You deserve a leader, period. It's MART. It's MART. It's MART. Find out why it's MART.ca, authorized by the CFO for the Ontario NDP. Breaking news coming in from Bet365 where every nail biting overtime win, breakaway, pick six, three-point shot, underdog win,

buzzer beater, shootout, walk off, and absolutely every play in between is amazing. From football to basketball and hockey to baseball, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 or older, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling, visit connectsontario.ca. I grew up in the design world. I mean just the Trans America building in general itself is just one of the most iconic buildings in the world and then to work for

Fosters and partners who refurbished the building Constance made all the furniture for them that they designed and we helped them design it by suggesting materials and what things You know so many things that we can do that maybe architects don't focus on, but they see like a big picture. And so that was one of the most thrilling things in my life to work on. And I just, we came through, it was just so beautiful. I love anytime we get to go visit that building and see it, it's just like you have to pinch yourself and also the Playboy Mansion, it's just so much beautiful, beautiful, beautiful furniture that we got to create because of Constance.

And she's just a master. She's a master creator. And she has an incredible team. And I love working for her. And our whole team does. That's why we're like family. And everything we create is just so memorable. I can only imagine the feeling when you go to these places

later on, maybe a few years later, 10 years later, 15 years later, and then you sit down in the thing that you created, or you get to use the thing that you created that somebody else has made these memories with, I can only imagine the feeling is overwhelming. But if people want to get in touch with you, let's say they need some manufacturing done, they want to find out more information about the organization, how can they do so? You can email us and you can also, we have an Instagram where you can reach out to us.

Our email is, well, you can look us up. We have house info at Ponto V. Yes, and Direct message us on direct message us on on Instagram Well Constance the organization that you built sounds incredible and Samantha Thank you for the amazing designs that you do. You seem like you are the best in the business I hope people check it up check you out. They want some iconic, incredible furniture. Sounds like the best place. I feel like you've given me some confidence that I might have an eye for something good. So hopefully I can come to you and you can design, you know, what is in my mind because I know that's

always hard to do. But thank you so much for being here and thank you so much for all the impact you've done for the last 30 plus years. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you. My dream is to be able to afford a home in the city I love. The last thing that's free these days is walking and breathing. I want a premier who gives a damn. You deserve a good life. Every day all across this province, I'm inspired by people. And you deserve a government that inspires you too. You deserve a leader, period.

It's MART. It's MART. It's MART. Find out whyitsmart.ca, authorized by the CFO for the Ontario NDP. Breaking news coming in from Bet365, where every nail biting overtime win, for the Ontario NDP. Whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 or older, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling, visit connectsontario.ca.