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

0:05Hey everyone, welcome back to Founder Story. Today we have the incredible Constance Constance who is the director of the House of Pontovi and the amazing designer, Samantha Sidley. And we're gonna 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, 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 Pantobi?

0:56Well, 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 called, 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.

1:55And 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 have 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.

2:44And 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 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 um we would you know we will 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 um 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?

4:03We collaborate from the beginning with our clients. And, you know, 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.

4:45it'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.

5:36And 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 upholster'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 um but that's the what the point is i'm trying to make is that it's quality that we're using and and that's what we where 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 um well not trying we give you um in all that chaos and and all that we we commit to our deadlines and we're um very much we're very very strict about your deadline in the furniture business.

6:52We're very transparent. We have weekly meetings with every project. We have project managers that call and email. We have a database that the client can check into that can see what's happening. So there's no hidden surprises because 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.

7:45and 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 and that's what is is so unique unique about about house of pontivy 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 originally has gone through so many memories.

8:40So people have an extreme amount of attachments to this furniture. So it's a really big deal. You've been in 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.

9:24and 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 um that has been a statement and then of 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.

10:21You 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 um there's a lot there's a you know there's some stuff we get i have to say where maybe the client isn't the nicest person and the and the piece doesn't want to go there like like the movers will drop 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 dialogue.

11:11But 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 piggybacked 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. We are, our environments are everything. And because it, it, they are with us as we age, then why wouldn't you just keep going to the same spot?

11:58And like I said before with, because, 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 lounger not that you do i'm just making this up i want the eames lounger and zebra we can provide that for you because there's nothing we can't create and um 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 fulfill on the promises that you make.

12:41So what is the most outlandish, iconic, wild, whatever, you know, 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, you know, the sofa not fitting when you get to the New York skyscraper. um but i think one of um one of my favorite stories in decorating is um is we just delivered a most beautiful desk um with gilt and trim and it was just beautiful we set it into the client's house and the um owner you know sat down and she admired the desk and it was beautiful and she was so happy and um 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 you know memorable to me and funny and um you know we do fun things like um we had 31 days to make 67 pieces of furniture and drive it across the country.

14:05That was, you know, fun. And, you know, we just finished up at the Transamerica Pyramid working till three in the morning. And that was pretty fun. And then the fun, other fun things are that mariachi bands that we have on Fridays and our barbecues. me constant says some of the most iconic projects that are imaginable in my personal opinion and i'm somebody who when you realize you need to hire it's usually already too late i've been there wasting weeks waiting for decent candidates if i had used indeed i could have hired way faster so when it comes to hiring indeed is all you need stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites indeed sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire fast with sponsored jobs your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people you want faster and it makes a huge difference according to indeed data sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed have 45 more applications than non-sponsored jobs one thing i love about indeed it makes hiring fast because it puts you right in front of the right people without wasting time plus there are no monthly subscriptions no long-term contracts you only pay for results and while i've been talking 23 hires were made on indeed worldwide there's no need to wait any longer speed up your hiring right now with indeed and listeners of this show will get a 75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash founders story just go to indeed.com slash founders story right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast indeed.com slash founders story terms and conditions apply hiring indeed is all you need 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 constants made all the furniture for them that they designed and we helped them design it by suggesting materials and what things size 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 seeing it's just like you have to pinch yourself and also the playboy mansion just it's just so much beautiful beautiful beautiful furniture that we got to create because of Constance.

16:49And 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?

17:31You can email us. And you can also, we have an Instagram where you can reach out to us um our email is well you can look us up we have house info info at ponte v yes.com and um 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 so i hope people check it 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.

18:12So hopefully I can come to you and you can design 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.