Richard Shirtcliffe | Noho

July 26, 2021 What I Found

What Is Noho? Tell Us About Your Brand, Mission, And What Makes Your Products Unique.

Born in Aotearoa New Zealand, noho sprang from 20 years of groundbreaking performance furniture design, so in its simplest terms noho is a modern, direct-to-customer furniture company. But we do think very differently, about furniture, about design, and about the role of a company in improving the planet. We think furniture should look and feel good while doing good for our planet, so we've set out to help people 'sit healthier', by creating Life Enriching Furniture™: beautiful, versatile, and built to last a lifetime.

What Is Your Background? What Led You To Starting Your Own Company, And How Did You End Up In This Space.

I’ve had a wonderfully varied career, traversing roles, categories, sectors, and countries! But the broad connecting fibre has been that I love to build powerful stories, turn them into growth businesses and export them around the world. Noho is just the latest, but it is special because it’s the first in what I hope will be a series of businesses devoted to tackling waste plastic by disrupting highly polluting sectors.

Noho itself was born out of two epiphanies. The first was a design insight. Namely, after decades pioneering performance ergonomic seating for the office, our designers at Formway spotted the need to bake dynamic ergonomic comfort into beautiful residential furniture. Essentially we’re all born to move, but typical home furniture is static and doesn’t permit us to. The designers saw the opportunity to remedy that.

The second was my experience of surfing with my wife and small children in Bali and witnessing the unchecked sea plastic. The opportunity that presented was to bring together these origin moments into a brand that creates ‘life enriching furniture’ designed to enrich homes, bodies and planet. The first of those products is the revolutionary noho move chair.

What Have Been Both Your Favorite And Least-liked Parts Of Your Entrepreneurial Journey? What Have Been Your Most Challenging And Most Exciting Moments For You And The Company?

Starting businesses isn’t for the faint of heart! If you fear uncertainty and ambiguity, then don’t do it!! Whilst I’m human in feeling stress and pressure, almost constantly, I do tend to keep sharp focus on the mantra ‘what if it goes right?’. All too often we focus on the downside and not the potential. Starting a company, with immensely talented people, that’s designed from the ground up to leave a positive imprint on people & planet, certainly helps keep the energy up! But launching it just as the world collapses into a global pandemic isn’t something I’d willingly do again….! But we’ve come through 2020 intact and we’re now flying, which is gratifying.

I guess that I’m a bit of a sucker for all of this, because later this year I’m launching another ocean plastic fighting business : WILDClean!

Tell Us About The Early Days At Noho. How Did You Go From Concept To Launch? Did You Bootstrap Or Fundraise?

Noho is all funded off balance sheet by our parent company, Formway. So whilst we’ve had resources, we’ve also had to be extremely lean. Anyone who’s started a company with lean resources will relate to the reality of being ‘always on’, of covering multiple roles, and having to learn new disciplines at lightning speed. But lean also means innovative - great ideas typically develop where resources are scarce, not abundant. Just ask Lord Earnest Rutherford, the first person to split an atom (beating out the wildly better funded teams at MIT and Oxford).

The driving design insight that led to us creating noho, was the development of what became the noho move chair. That product took 4 years and thousands of hours of prototyping to complete. Wrapping the brand and business around that concept was a relatively swift 18 months!

Who Are Your Co-Founders Or People Who You Work Very Closely With? How Do Their Skills Supplement Yours?

It’s really been a team effort, in which I’ve played only one small part. The award winning designers at Formway - Kent Parker and Paul Wilkinson - made this all possible through world changing design. The directors of Formway made it possible by backing the creation of noho; Richard Cutfield (Formway director) championed the opportunity; and the noho team of Richard C, Dan Gentry, Jennifer Pfeifer and Sarah Shirtcliffe have birthed the business through sheer grit and determination!

How Has COVID-19 Impacted Your Growth And Operation Over The Last Year? Did You See More Or Less Demand? Any Issues With Manufacturing, Shipping, Or Logistics?

It’s been brutal. Our launch was timed for April 2020, so all launch activity, media, and most of the digital marketing was cancelled in the face of COVID. But we had some things flow our way too. The urgent demand for ergonomic chairs for WFH spurred demand for noho move chair and helped spread the word, while New Zealand (where we manufacture the chairs) knocked out COVID in 6 weeks so manufacturing and freight weren’t seriously impacted. It’s fair to say that 2021 is presenting all new supply chain issues driven by excess demand…

How Do You Think Your Industry Will Change Post-COVID?

The furniture industry is exceptionally wasteful and polluting, as a rule. My hope is that the global shock caused by COVID may cause customers to demand better of all companies. But speaking frankly my hopes of that aren’t high! Meanwhile I think COVID will directly affect the preparedness of Gen Z and millennials to rent rather than purchase furniture, to reduce consumption and their commitments to material assets.

Can You Tell Us About Some Of Your Numbers? How Has Growth Been Over The Past Couple Of Years? What Do You Anticipate Will Growth Will Be Like This Next Year?

We don’t disclose our numbers, sorry. However I can tell you that 2021 is proving a signal year! Sales have grown about 50% month-on-month since Feb, and we anticipate that continuing through this year so long as we can stay in stock!

Anything Exciting That Will Be Launching Soon?

Yes - we’re launching some accessories soon, and a new platform product later in the year.

What Was The Inspiration Behind The Company Name?

We’re from Aotearoa (New Zealand). The indigenous language is Te Reo Maori, in which ‘noho’ means ‘to sit, to stay, to dwell, to live’, which encapsulates what we’re about in such a perfect way. We’re passionate about taking the best of New Zealand design to the world and doing so on a foundation of Maori values.

Tell Us About Your Daily Routine.

5.30 alarm (uurghhh). 6am gym (uurghhh).

7am cup of tea #1. 7.05 cup of tea #2.

7.15 wake the kids and accede to their dizzying array of breakfast requests and gobble some myself.

7.45 help my wife make the kids’ lunches. 8.00 emails (uurrggh).

8.30am massive pot of coffee and first round of zoomageddon (team call).

9.00/9.15 zoom 2 (agency call).

10-12 varies by day, but always involves a small percentage of admin, a bigger percentage of tactical work (usually marketing related), and a disturbingly small percentage of strategic work.

12pm- mountain bike ride, or occasionally a surf.

1/1.30 lunch. 2-5 team zooms and more project work.

5-8 family time: kids after school activities/sports, dinner, bedtime routine and books.

8.30 clearing email backlog (usually just hitting delete…). 9pm decompress time.

10pm wake up on the couch and crawl to bed.

What Are The Top Qualities or Skills You Believe Entrepreneurs Need In Order To Be Successful? Also, What Advice Do You Have For Entrepreneurs Who Are Just Starting Out?

Resilient. Empathic. Excellent communicators. (oh, also curious. And lucky…)

My advice would be to ignore 99% of the advice you didn’t request, listen to all the advice you did request. Then do it anyway. Also, if you’re young enough to not have financial dependents or debt then embrace risk, because the downside isn’t huge and you’ll learn plenty.

Tell Us About Something That Makes You Laugh.

I get all of my philosophies (in life and business) from comedians. Notably Billy Connolly and Jerry Seinfeld. So the list of things that make me laugh is too long to note here!

If You Can Have A One-Hour Meeting With Someone Famous Who Is Alive, Who Would It Be?

Excellent question and tough to answer. Greta Thunberg would be right up there. She’s unceasingly focused, and has demonstrated the extraordinarily positive impact just one person can have on the world.

What Do You Do In Your Free Time?

I’m largely an active relaxer, as is my wife. So we tend to take any small opportunity - between kid commitments - to mountain bike or kite surf. I love reading books but I’m hopeless at making time to get through the ever increasing pile.

What Is Your Favorite Quote And Why Does It Resonate With You?

Dalai Lama: ‘If you think that you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito’.

I think it’s self explanatory!!

Who is Your Role Model?

My Dad. Renowned geo-physicist and phenomenal dad. Also my mum: a true female pioneer as the first producer, director and presenter on television in New Zealand (obliterating a glass ceiling of the time) and devoted mum.

And, if pushed, Leonardo DaVinci - how did that dude do so much in one lifetime???!

Any Thoughts You Want To Share Relating To Current Events?

As a New Zealander my thoughts regarding the socio political climate in the US possibly aren’t especially valuable! But living in the US through COVID and Trumpageddon I did form the view that the US is facing some extremely tough times, and the need to resolve internal issues that have been left unresolved for generations, along with urgent modern challenges like plastic waste and climate change. The country is a beacon of possibility for many around the world and I truly hope that it can chart a path away from broken partisanship and entrenched positions. It will be to the betterment of both the US and the world. The inverse also applies.