Meet Isla Porter, the design-forward, AI-powered kitchen cabinetry startup

27:07So they'll pick a beautiful chandelier that I wouldn't have expected with a particular cabinet or like just how they're mixing the tile and the backsplash and having for a homeowner that's working with someone, an interior designer, they're really getting that full handheld experience that we can't do remotely for them. So it's someone there to help them understand what's the best location for the hardware to be placed on this cabinet and really helping them through these decisions of, oh, well, your home has this beautiful tile in another part of the house that we can echo that here in this space.

27:41So having a full service partner like that to really help the homeowner make comfortable decisions that they're happy with is just a benefit to us. But it also makes it really fun for us to see when we see the renderings, it's like, oh my God, look, look what they're doing. It's just like so exciting to see what all these interior designers are coming up with. To that point, do you end up wanting to incorporate some of what you've, some of what you've seen from these projects into, into what you're doing? And has that been part of the process along the way? I think what we found is it gives it, we get like more excited about certain design trends that we're seeing.

28:19And then we get more validation when certain interior designers will pick those things. Like we think that purple is really trending, but then all of a sudden we get all these calls and they're like, oh my God, we're developing that color already. Look at us. So yeah, I think it's validating because we are, you know, Sharon and I just like love to consume beautiful interior design images. And so it's just, it's exciting to kind of be part of it and be on the inside with these great designers? We do get a lot of custom requests. We are, at the end of the day, a fully custom brand. And Emma's a product designer.

28:54We have a staff of product designers and engineers behind us. So we frequently will get designers coming to us with the back of a napkin sketch. And sometimes those things defy physics and what would you think can do and all of that. But what is really different about what we're bringing to the tables, we're collaborative, where a mill worker might just say, yes, I can do that. They can. They can do a version of it. But they're not always as well-versed as we are and definitely don't take as collaborative of approach to say, like, I can do it, but here's the things we might need to change. And by the way, here's the running of what this is actually going to look like.

29:30So you know ahead of install day what exactly to expect. And we're very respectful of our design partners. We have enough of our own design ideas that we're working on. We're not going to try and take your vision and bring that into our own line, that's certainly not something we're doing. We're just here to be that custom support for you. This month, I'm catching up with Amber Lewis about her new rug collection for Leloy. But I wonder in your design practice, if you have rug guidelines, if you have certain things that are just an absolute and what some of those are. Color, tone, texture, size.

30:12I mean, that's how quick I can rattle that off. You can't have too small of a rug. Scale is important. So I love that we offer some really beautiful sizes and a lot of really large room size rugs. I mean, ultimately houses are big. They're not small anymore. Majority of homes are larger. We've really tapped into the bigger room size rugs, which I love. Color, tone, texture, nothing too scratchy underfoot. Nothing is worse than feeling like it feels fake under your foot. I don't know. If it is a poly blend, it's great, so long as it's soft and doesn't feel plasticky. And I think that this is exactly how all these rugs feel underfoot.

30:52Color, the tone, all of those things are really gorgeous. Like I said, they're neutral enough that they could be in any space. They could go with any myriad of colors. Getting back to size, and this is an area where I do think people feel like they don't fully understand or this is where people seem to make a mistake. I may have made that mistake myself in the past. Just getting a rug that's too small for the space. And what were you, what was I thinking? And why did I do that? And what was I worried about when really, to your point, more rug, the better, right? Yeah. When in doubt, rug it out.

31:26I don't know. Go big. Get all your furniture on it. Gosh darn it. To learn more, visit LolloyRugs.com. That's L-O-L-O-Y Rugs.com. And now, back to the show. So there's a whole level of designer that is very used to doing custom millwork, right? And they've got their people and they've been doing that. And that's just how they roll, right? For somebody who is thinking about this as an option, what's the difference in terms of the process? What do you tell them is going to be a different experience versus doing custom mill work from a timing standpoint, from a cost standpoint, sort of all of that?

32:11Help me understand. Well, the easiest one to start with is cost. So we're roughly 15 % to 60 % less than our branded counterparts. We've taken the one kitchen that was kind of pretty standard, about a 30-linear-foot kitchen when we've gone and we've priced that with all of our competitors. just for our own gut check to understand where we're falling in the market. And that's where we're sitting. We have a really great value proposition. In terms of the process, I really think it comes down to that collaboration piece, where if you have custom ideas, our team, led by Emily, is going to sit down and really help you work through what that could look like.

32:46What have you found? So you identify this opportunity, and fortunately you go and you get this investment, and you find this great partner. And is this great partner still your partner? and still your manufacturing partner? And are they feeling good about this whole thing? Are they excited about the growth and all of that? And do they want to play a bigger role? Or do, I mean, do you need more funding? Is there more money that you need? I mean, now's the time to tell us. We can get the word out. Yeah. Any founder that starts a successful business, it's both a combination of skill and yes, luck.

33:23And we took our time and made some really smart, calculated decisions with our, you know, who was our investor, who was our manufacturer. Ultimately, those ended up being the same thing. So we have a strategic investment partner that is a publicly traded company that has manufactured product overseas for years. So we have this amazing world where we are the startup company that is doing things in a new, fresh way, and they give us a lot of leeway to operate on our own. But we do, at the end of the day, have a really strong backbone and a lot of support, both from a financial perspective and operationally.

33:57I'm really proud to say that in 2026, we're headed to a point of profitability next year. And that's really amazing for a product business that's really been selling at market for a year and a half, two years. We really prioritized operational efficiencies and scaling responsibly that's led to this. And we wanna be around for the long haul. We have a lot of really exciting brand extensions that we're looking at in this coming year, really exciting retail partnerships that are going to layer on all of that. So not necessarily looking to raise. We have a really happy kind of status with the partners that we have already, but always open to new conversations.

34:39I think we get asked a lot about the domestic production piece, right? Because we do proudly manufacture overseas in Cambodia. And I'm surprised you haven't asked me about tariffs yet. I know, I was waiting for that. Well, I'm saving it. I'm saving it, but because I wanted to hear more. I wanted to hear more about this entrepreneurial experience for you. And I really want to, I mean, because you had so much experience in the industry. So you're super savvy and you're thoughtful and you've really, and you've been getting together and talking this through, right? So, I mean, this wasn't off the cuff, on the fly or on an impulse.

35:16You've got all this data that you've been able to look at over the years. but still regardless you start a business and there are right and there are things that surprise you or you didn't realize this was going to be as challenging or so what tell me tell me some of that i mean i think sharon and i use this phrase all the time the startup conundrum what do you plan for do you plan for the next six months or do you plan for two years from now where your business is going to be so it's really like the things that we didn't expect to be challenging are just how to scale responsibly in the right time to meet the demand, which is, you know, just any startups thing.

35:57But when you're working in corporate and you're working on designs and season over season, you get into a routine of that part you don't have to think about. But yeah, I mean, we've learned a lot about, you know, who our customer is, what they want to hear from us. They really are interested in hearing about us as people, which is always surprising that we're two women or two mothers doing a startup and a pretty complicated one, I'll say. And we don't have that traditional entrepreneurial background, right? Like we didn't go to some top B school. We didn't get VC funding. That wasn't our path.

36:35And I think it happens differently for everyone. And what's really interesting is kind of what I'm saying. People are responding to our story because so many interior designers are just middle-aged women like us with a really great creative vision, and we've found a way to make it happen. And so often people are coming to us kind of asking like how we've done it. And I'm here to say we're figuring it out just like everyone else. We have amazing resources behind us to help us do that. And we're also trying to find new ways to do that with our clients. For example, we have a few strategic partners like Jordan Fairchild.

37:10She's an amazing designer in High Point, North Carolina. We just did this great marketing event and antiques crawl with a crew of interior designers in High Point. And we were just kind of spitballing with her talking about new ways to shape her business and refine her business and evolve that. And she just launched virtual design kind of as a part of that conversation. And we're just trying to find ways to even offer our team services out to the interior design community. There's a lot of coaches out there, but I've got amazing finance people. I've got amazing product designers. And that's something we've been toying around with is actually offering almost like office hours to chat with us because we learn so much from the interior design community when we hear their challenges.

37:49And then we have information that we can kind of share with them as well from our experience. Yeah, we hear a lot of people that are like, we want to launch a product line or things like that. And it's like, okay, well, that's very different than be an interior designer. So let us take you through that. So this is how long it takes from start to finish to plan a product line. Let me tell you something about inventory management. Oh, let's talk about logistics. You want to ship that? Okay. Right. So designers, I mean, they were inundated by those challenges, the logistic challenges during COVID and everybody was suddenly a truck driver and everything was showing up damaged, Right.

38:31And that was and that was a nightmare. And I think everyone is still figuring all of that out. Oh, absolutely. Because I think damages and shipping is a nightmarish issue. And then it got wildly expensive on top of it all. I mean, inflation in the home industry has been so beyond what we see in the CPI numbers, whether it's the shipping part of it or the materials part of it. And then wait for it. Here it comes. So in the middle of all those challenges, wait a second. tariffs. So Liberation Day comes back in April. And I don't know, those companies that were having product made in Asia, I hear that they were particularly hard hit.

39:14And then there was this whole, oh, kitchen cabinets. So we're going to put, I mean, so tell me how you received the news and what happened to both of you. And how are you holding up in light of all of that? Most fun news you get through like a tweet late at night or something. And you're like, oh, I just was trying to make my dinner and get my kids to bed. But here we go. Let's call sharing. Here we go. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the current tariffs on Cambodia, on cabinetry, that's certainly had a huge impact on our business. But I think we've kind of just relied on the business that we've built. We made a smart decision in getting together with our manufacturing partner, our investment partner.

40:02They've been navigating these tariff challenges for years. This isn't the first time we've had this, right? And certainly even Em and I, in our background in corporate home furnishings, this is not the first tariff round that we've had to weather as well. So what we won't do is increase our prices until we need to. I have not passed the cost increases that I've seen on to our customers. they're getting it from so many different places as a new brand i'm trying so hard to gain market share and build trust that's just not something i'm going to do right now so we've continued to invest in our service levels we've continued to invest in our product quality we have not downspec'd our cabinetry or anything like that what we have done is pulled back on our marketing and as much as that kills me i i run them i i run the marketing team here with uh uh with all with Basically everyone who works here.

40:54We have so many amazing creative ideas and ways we want to reach the community. And we're having to take it a little bit slower. It's a priority to maintain the product and quality levels, service levels. But slow growth is okay sometimes. So we're just really relying on traditional relationship building techniques, delivering really beautiful assets, having dinners with designers and connecting with them one-on-one has been amazing rather than just dumping money into digital ad spend. That's something we're actually pulling back on. In part because it sounded like you got a pretty strong response early on, yes?

41:33Yes. I mean, it took you a while to come on this show, right? Because you were already getting such a response. You thought, oh no, if we go on Dennis's show and everyone hears about it, then who knows how much business we'll get. And we're not ready for it. I get it. I get it. Sure. Well, and in terms of so. OK, so you mentioned tariffs and they are what they are. It sounds like is your feeling and going to hold on pricing for as best you can. And hopefully hopefully they'll be dialed back in some way or I don't know. We'll see. The Supreme Court seems like they're they're talking about it. So we'll see what happens there.

42:17But I get the sense just coming back from High Point and even being at BDNY yesterday, a lot of companies are just thinking in one way or another, this seems like it's going to need to be built in to the business for a while. Several companies just talked to me, we're just building into the price of stuff going forward. And if it gets rolled back, we can look at that. But we just have to acknowledge that this is the new reality and we just keep moving along. I'm sensing that's how you're feeling a little bit. Yeah, certainly. I mean, the tariffs aren't going away. We would be open to looking at other production sources.

42:55And certainly we have talked to some folks. It's not just a price equation, right? It's really finding someone who will come to the table as a partner. We have a great partnership with our manufacturing and investment partner today. And someone that also believes in product development. What we do is really hard. Em and her team have their work cut out for them and we need someone that really, right, Em believes in what you're doing. I mean, that's another learning, Dennis. Oh my gosh. Tell me, Emily. Product development, which, you know, Sharon and I was on like autopilot when we were in our corporate experience.

43:33But when you get into the kitchen cabinetry space, there's a blur between what's custom for a client and what's truly like foundational product development, something that you're going to test and test and test and figure out just the perfect, you know, I use the analogy of a knife block, but that's one of those things like really getting it right and then putting it into your product line, into your spec book and making it the right way every time. So having that in the kitchen cabinetry space is what we learned was just kind of obsolete. A lot of these manufactured cabinetry lines, we're relying on updating maybe one new door style or a color or something like that.

44:18And that's what they talk about year over year. You know, the door styles are of course important and so is color, but there's more to it. People in, you know, since the nineties, when a lot of these product catalogs were created, kitchens and how people want them to look is very different beyond door styles, beyond color. So, you know, just how these things get programmed, having columns on the end, finish and panels, all these different details that we see in millwork have kind of been lost in this space. So having product development has been really important to our brand to be able to establish all of these components that we're missing so that we can really figure out all the ways we can make them.

44:59So when a customer comes in the door, we've kind have done the math. And if they want a 50-inch long island with one big center panel, we know exactly how they're going to need that to be made. And we can advise them and show them all these different diagrams that we're creating. So yeah, product development and having a partner that agrees with some of these processes and can understand them and work with us and really collaborate is key. So when you're talking about coming to the domestic market, we'd be looking for a partner that wanted to try new things or wanted to work with us on those things.

45:35Of course, there's our established product catalog, which has to be studied, learned, adapted to, but then also what do we do when we are innovating and adding new products to the assortment? How does that look? I think what we found is the domestic cabinetry business is really stuck in 1990, just to be totally blunt and totally honest, which in some ways is coming back. Yes, I was going to say that is going to swing back to the 90s. Oh, my gosh. Those cabinet makers are right there. It's hilarious. Yeah, some of these product catalogs I open with these like corbels and stuff. You can find the rope molding, all these things.

46:13I'm like, oh, what's old is new, but in a totally different way than this product catalog. Well, so I mean, it sounds as though you're open to domestic partners. They've got to be willing to kind of step outside of what has been their comfort zone up until now. Absolutely. And, you know, Sharon and I talk about our background is doing a lot of product development in Asia, but we also did it domestically, too. I worked with a lot of upholstery manufacturers domestically. But, you know, it's just it's a matter of the right fit in order to have all of these things line up from a logistics and operational standpoint.

46:49In kitchens gets a little more complicated because you don't really just work on the product development of product once and then just go and place orders. This is a relationship that's lasting. So if anyone wants to meet me at Cabus, I'll be there. Happy to talk to you. I'll be wearing my Isla Porter hat as well, Sharon. So yeah. Well, I think you might get some people coming up to you. Because I do feel like people are, this ultimately could lead to more domestic manufacturing to be sure. That process takes a long time and people have to feel as if this landscape isn't going to dramatically change and all of this is just going to be rolled back.

47:30People have to feel like this is really worth making the investment and spending that kind of time, right? Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's true for anyone that's doing product, whether it's custom or otherwise. Moving manufacturing is not simple. It takes time and it takes a lot of coordination. So it's not a one size fits all. We're all, you know, in the same boat figuring it out. To be sure. And coming back as we wrap up, coming back to the AI part of this, right? So, I mean, as you said earlier, Sharon, okay, so maybe we didn't need to lean so heavily into the AI in the beginning because so many people heard that and latched onto it and whatever they thought about AI is right is how they felt and I think people's feelings about AI from 2023 to almost the end of 2025 has evolved quite a quite a bit and some people are leaning into it and finding all sorts of efficiencies and and fooling around with all sorts of visual capabilities and others are skeptical and nervous and worried that robots are coming to take our jobs and our lives and then the truth is probably somewhere in the middle there.

48:35But the question is with AI, is it turning out to be a really helpful tool back of house and other ways that you might not have even imagined beyond what you thought in the beginning when you were rolling out the company? Yeah, certainly. We use AI here every day, mostly for those operational pieces. So just like everyone else, we're writing our marketing company with it. We've built a really cheeky GPT that has some snappy copy for us. Almost too snappy sometimes. Ooh, okay. Yeah, we have to tone it down sometimes. And certainly, I use it for my scheduling and my email drafting, as does many of our team members.

49:21And we are using Skip AI to support us with some of that rendering and backend technical piece. But at the end of the day, we are a premium product sold to the creative community. We have to continue to be creative. We're never going to rely on it to create our design ideas. We're never going to rely on it to deliver wholly our visuals. Even the renderings that you do see on our site, those are manually done by Emily. So much time. I'm sorry to bring that up, Emily. Oh, my God. they're rewarding at the end but the process yes you know trends they can come and go but really understanding holistically where you want to go with your brand and directing it artistically is not something you can leave up to the robots or ai or whatever there's no magic it needs a director so yeah we are primarily just just really focused on you know using ai as a tool but not so much using it creatively as the the dictator of our designs sometimes we have fun and we throw um stuff into chat gpt just to see stuff for marketing and stuff even our renders that we get back like oh change the floor and we get stuff back but it's you know it's we are always testing and trying new things we don't want to just sit here and be like oh you know it is helpful or it's not helpful like every three months it's it should be tried and see what what is advanced and how it's going but yeah i mean i would say if if we just abandon ai it wouldn't work either you know there's great programs coming out all the time there's so much out there to be learning and the interior design trade has adopted it and has found ways to make it really useful.

51:13So it's great. Well, I think that's always reassuring. People like to hear that word humans. You can't pepper the conversation enough with that word. So wrapping up, I'm wondering, thinking again about people who are imagining taking this entrepreneurial leap. Has it been wildly helpful for the two of you to have this friendship and this collaboration in the way that you have? Would you recommend to people find a friend, find a partner, find something that you can do this with? It just seems doing it all on your own, I just imagine would be a million times harder. I mean, Sharon likes to say that this was like me pushing her, but I feel like we push each other.

51:57I would say Sharon and I are really good balance. We're also both creative. So I do find like having another creative partner thinking of how the brand is spoken about or all the marketing aspects. I like to call Sharon a marketing magician because she comes up with all these really clever ways to access the community that I was like, well, it's not just a party. It's ladies getting on a bus and going antiquing. So, you know, there's elements to that that are like, I wouldn't have thought that that's like a marketing opportunity, but she does and it's really fun. But then at the same time, like creatively in terms of the side of the product and the kitchens and the visuals and how everything looks on the site and all that, someone has to do that part too.

52:50But it is nice to have someone that you can call just be like, what are we doing? But I definitely find a partner, I would say. I don't know how designers do it alone. So many of them are just solely out on earth. I know. I don't understand it either. I don't know what I would do if I'm just the only one awake at 1, 2 in the morning thinking about our marketing or what's going on with this client order or our next hire. Like Sharon, how funny was that the other day when I was talking about the coffee card? And you were like, oh my God, I just wrote a whole plan. So, you know when you get those coffee cards and every 10 coffees you get a free coffee?

53:35Right, your rewards card, yeah. So I was like, Sharon, we need some sort of like kitchen coffee cart. And she's like, funny you should say. I just wrote this whole plan to join our kitchen club. What was it, Sharon? Oh, it's called the Cabinet Club debut. Cabinet Club. Sorry. Sorry. I'm killing it. I'm killing it. Okay. But no, it's like we're both seeing things and reacting to them in different ways and like collaborating off each other. But in terms of just like the parts about the job that you're like, oh, I never thought I'd have to figure out like who's going to clean the toilet in the showroom.

54:11And maybe that's me. Like, like you have another partner there that's like, I'm figuring out how to get this thing shipped to this random place. And I'm like, oh, I don't want to do that. I'll just clean this toilet. so yeah i mean having a partner to help you with both the fun creative bits but also the not so fun bits about running a business is really great and i think like no one understands how hard it is to start this company except for sharon um so we we laugh together and we cry together. And yeah, it's, um, it's a journey. It's a journey, but yeah, it's, I'm glad that I'm not alone. Yeah.

54:53So, so that, that's the, that's the big takeaway is, is, is find a partner and, and, and that might make a lot of things easier and, uh, and have someone to your point, uh, Emily, that you can both laugh and cry with. I hope there's not a lot of crying these days, but, uh, but, uh, but it, but it is, it does, it does take a lot out of you. And, and a startup is an intense environment. But I'm so glad to get caught up on all of this. And congratulations to you both for even getting this far. Look at you, right? I mean, it's a big accomplishment. And as you referenced earlier, profitability not too far away as well, which is impressive in such a short period of time.

55:35Some never get there. So you've done it. So well done you. And thank you both for making the time to talk with me about it all. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dennis. Thanks for listening. If you'd like to keep up with the latest design industry news, visit us online at businessofhome.com, where you can sign up for our newsletter, browse job listings, and join our BOH Insider community for access to online workshops, a free print subscription, and much more. If you have a note for the podcast, drop us a line at podcast at businessofhome.com. If you're enjoying these conversations, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

56:14It helps others to discover the show. This show was produced by Fred Nikolaos and edited by Michael Castaneda. I'm Dan of Scully. Thanks again for listening, and I'll see you next week.