Jen Yang-Wong

Anna-Sofia Lesiv

James Hennessy

Eric Tarczynski

Kyle Harrison

Jessica Retrum

Contrary HQ

Jason Chen

Will Robbins

Contrary’s goal is to identify and invest in the world’s top talent. With this approach, we’ve been early investors in iconic companies like Ramp, Anduril, Zepto, and many more.

Our Venture Partners are a critical part of that mission, helping us meet the next generation of exceptional founders and companies coming out of universities across the US and Canada.

Each year, we run a rigorous recruitment and selection process to identify a small number of VPs to join our community. This year, we received nearly 1300 applications, of which we ultimately accepted 25.

They are a diverse group of exceptional builders, founders, researchers, investors, writers, engineers, and everything in-between, and we are thrilled today to welcome them to the Contrary family.

In addition, we select one exceptional Venture Partner each year to join our investment team as Chief of Staff. This year, we’re excited to announce that Josh Pacini from BYU is taking on that role. A veteran of two early-stage startups, as well as a stint with Battery Ventures, Josh will be instrumental in helping us continue to build the very best venture and builder community in the world.

Welcome Josh, and welcome to our newest cohort of Venture Partners!

And without further ado, welcome to our 8th cohort of Venture Partners!

## Northeast

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### Claire Wang - MIT

Hey! I’m Claire, a first-year undergrad at MIT studying computer science and neuroscience with a possible minor in public policy. I’m interested in biotech/neurotech as well as creative solutions for anything within these deep tech pipelines. Before Contrary, I’ve was deeply involved in Hack Club and similar hacking/hackathon/startup circles, and fell in love with building and creating things at all times. I’ve also done academic research in the fields of computer science, neuroscience, and math, which motivates my interest in deeper tech startups! I’m a Spotify fanatic with >200 playlists, am addicted to all forms of caffeine, and will always be down for any adventure!

### Ethan Zou - MIT

Hi! I’m Ethan, a first-year MBA student at MIT Sloan. Prior to business school, I developed AI applications for strategic enterprise customers at C3 AI and empowered customers to build apps at the speed of thought at Retool. Before that, I studied computer science and statistics at Harvard. Outside of school, I’m a tennis player at heart, but am a recently converted pickleball enthusiast and an aspiring crossword constructor!

### Tanner Johnston - MIT

Hey there! I’m a first-year MBA student at MIT Sloan where I’m attempting to narrow down my interest in mobility, defense, climate tech, and healthcare. Prior to MIT I worked at Lucid Software leading integration partnerships and building out a corporate development function, and at Vivint Smart Home on a strategic innovation team incubating new IoT products and services. I graduated from BYU with a degree in mechanical engineering. When I’m not on campus you’ll find me riding bikes around Cambridge, lifting weights, watching The Little Mermaid with my daughter, or looking at mid-century modern homes on Zillow.

### Annabel Strauss- Harvard

Hi! I’m Annabel, a first-year MBA student at Harvard Business School. Prior to HBS I was a Product Manager at Instagram working on real-time communication features, and then a PM at Uniswap leading the web application. I’m passionate about supporting founders and have done this throughout my career, from co-founding Envision Accelerator (the first equity-free accelerator for underrepresented founders) to investing as a BCV scout. Outside of work I love skiing, gallerying hopping, and traveling.

### Kabir Sial - Harvard

Hey! I’m currently a first-year MBA student at Harvard Business School. Previously, I spent almost 5 years in engineering and product roles at Palantir in New York and London, as well as a few years investing in early-stage software founders. True to my Palantir roots, I’m passionate about building and investing across data, AI and pretty much all things software, especially at the early stage. In my free time, I enjoy weightlifting, playing golf, trying new Thai restaurants, and listening to podcasts (my favorite one is Acquired!).

### Nina Prabhu - Harvard

Hi! I'm currently a first year MBA student at HBS. Prior to starting business school, I worked as a Product Manager at MasterClass and in Product Operations at Instagram. These experiences provided me with valuable insights into scaling growth within consumer-oriented enterprises and harnessing machine learning to enhance recommendations and content discovery. I'm eager to continue exploring the application of AI in the edtech and wellness industries. In my free time I enjoy hiking, boutique fitness classes, cooking, and traveling.

### Jonathan Lei - Harvard

Hey, I’m Jonathan, a student at Harvard. Since 11th grade, I’ve been running TensorDock, a cloud GPU marketplace. Here, I help build software that orchestrates and audits distributed infrastructure. On the side, I collect airline miles (go Alaska MileagePlan!) and dabble with angel investing. From semiconductor design or outbound sales, I’m interested in learning about pretty much anything, so feel free to reach out anytime—I’m sure there’s a lot I can learn from you.

### Rohit Datta - Columbia

Hi! I’m Rohit, a 1st year MBA candidate at Columbia Business School. Prior to Columbia, I was the cofounder of Formspree, a dev tools API startup to submit forms on your website. Prior to working on Formspree, I was a software engineer at Apple, working on cloud infrastructure. I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a double major in computer science and finance. In my free time, I love cooking, running, skiing, traveling, and anything in the outdoors!

### Ethan Wei - Brown

Hello! I’m Ethan — a first year at Brown studying Computer Science and Design Engineering. I’m broadly interested in human computer interactions and consumer software. Prior to joining Contrary, I was a Research Fellow at Chapter One Ventures and interned for EV charging, civic-tech, and web3 startups. I’m currently relaunching my weekly newsletter and tackling side quests in random skills such as CAD and sushi-making. In my free time, I watch furniture-making videos, play and watch basketball, and bakery-hop.

### Jack Zhang - Princeton

Hey all! I’m Jack, a sophomore at Princeton studying computer science and math (also super interested in policy and behavioral economics). Prior to joining Contrary, I worked as an ML engineer at [Hydrus.ai](http://hydrus.ai/), a climate intelligence startup automating a lot of the ESG workflow and providing insights to reduce emissions. I’m particularly passionate about deep tech and fintech startups, and I also love reading NLP and interpretability papers. In my free time, you can catch me missing serves in spikeball, burning roux’s, and overdosing on sparkling water.

### Diego Pasini - Penn

Hi! I’m Diego, and I’m a new VP at Penn studying computer science and economics. I love building things, and am excited about the future of robotics and hard tech startups. I am especially interested in potential applications in agrotech and transportation. At Penn, I am involved in research with the Agricultural Robotics group in the GRASP lab. Previously, I have worked on UAV wildfire hotspot surveillance. In my free time, I love exploring the outdoors with friends, running, doing taekwondo, and am a huge history buff.

### June Zhang - Penn

Hi! I'm a first-year MBA student at Wharton. Prior to Wharton, I spent my career building customer success and support functions at early-stage startups in Austin and Philadelphia. Most recently, I was the Head of Customer Success at UserEvidence, a seed-stage company building a better way for marketing teams to capture social proof. Before that, I was the first support hire at Guru, an AI-powered knowledge management platform. I'm excited about how software can change our working worlds, especially with the rise of AI and remote work. As a Venture for America alum, I'm especially interested in founders building companies in non-traditional tech hubs. Outside of work and school, I love spending my time going to concerts, dinking on the pickleball courts, and attempting the NYT crossword.

### Emily Li - Carnegie Mellon

Hey, I’m Emily, an undergrad at Carnegie Mellon studying Computer Science and Robotics. I am passionate about bridging academia and consumer products in the AI industry and am currently doing multimodal deep-learning research at the CMU Robotics Institute. Before joining Contrary, I drove the development of critical SOTA multimodal sensor fusion algorithms at Modern Intelligence, and redesigned computer vision / pose estimation systems to be 5x faster and more accurate at Evolution Devices. Before that, I spent a few years founding and working on my nonprofit which provided opportunities for high school students to be more involved in scientific research. I love meeting new people, building side projects, cooking, and exploring the outdoors!

### Shagun Maheshwari - Carnegie Mellon

Hi there! I’m a student at Carnegie Mellon majoring in Material Science Engineering and CS. I am also a machine learning developer working on accelerating new materials discovery with data driven methods for applications within climate change. I’m currently doing machine learning research in collaboration with Meta AI as part of The Kitchin Group at Carnegie Mellon. Prior to CMU, I was the CEO and co-founder of Voltx, a machine learning platform that utilized ML + physics based models to accelerate battery testing and materials discovery. Most recently, I applied my machine learning and battery modeling skills at SpaceX where I was the responsible engineer for software/modeling on the battery & solar team. I love meeting new people and jamming out about the future, goals, and dreams! Please feel free to reach out to me to chat.


## West

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### Aislin Roth - Stanford

Hey! I'm Aislin, a first-year MBA student at Stanford GSB. Prior to Stanford, I completed a pre-MBA internship in growth equity at Georgian, one of Canada's largest growth equity funds investing primarily in growth-stage B2B SaaS companies. I started my professional career as a consultant at BCG, and I also spent a year working at a venture-backed hoteltech start-up called Life House - a vertically-integrated hotel software and management platform dedicated to making independent hotels operationally autonomous. I grew up in Canada and I have an undergraduate degree in business from Queen's University. In my free time, I love to travel (50+ countries), hike, ski, and cook.

### Shrinandan Narayanan - Berkeley

Hey, I'm Shrinandan! I'm a sophomore at UC Berkeley in the M.E.T. program studying Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Business Administration. I’m currently exploring consumer tech with a focus on LLMs. Prior to Contrary, I interned as a software engineer at Whatnot (YC W20), where I focused on automating and optimizing their seller outreach and onboarding processes. Recently, I co-founded [usechameleon.com](http://usechameleon.com/), an intelligent resume repository designed to uniquely organize and tailor your resume for every job application. On campus, I’m a venture associate at Free Ventures (zero-equity startup accelerator), project manager at Venture Strategy Solutions (startup consulting org), and am excited to be a part of the AI Entrepreneurs Fall 2023 batch. In my free time, I enjoy watching football, cooking good food, playing pickup games, and settling down for a good chat!

### Andre Xiong - Stanford

Hello! I'm a first-year MBA candidate at Stanford GSB and I'm passionate about the future of consumer technology. Prior to Stanford, I led personalization and monetization initiatives as a Senior Product Manager at Hulu and Disney+. I studied Computer Science at Princeton, where I published research in Human-Computer Interaction and was a founding member of the IgniteSTEM EdTech conference. In my free time, I enjoy playing Super Smash Bros, following the Warriors, and listening to true crime podcasts.

### Arnuv Tandon - Stanford

I am a sophomore @ Stanford studying CS. Prior to Stanford, I founded a seed-stage pet-tech company. Didn’t work out - our original hypotheses about the market were incorrect - but learned a lot. I now work at the intersection of AI and the physical/life sciences. I’ve done work with soft-matter — using deep learning to predict the thickness of any dynamic thin film from interference patterns — and am currently working on projects in the single-cell foundation model domain. I was born and raised in the Bay Area, and love cars.

### Andrew Gao - Stanford

Hi! I’m studying Computer Science and Bio at Stanford and am interested in generative AI and health. I’m from San Diego and love sunsets. Previously I was a hacker in residence at LangChain and a ML research intern at UCSD’s Supercomputer Center.

### Jacob Wright - BYU

Hey! I'm Jacob, a third-year at BYU studying computer science and math. I'm a builder at heart. My founder story first started at age 12, with a service-based power washing company with two of my brothers. Currently, I am a co-founder of Proxy--a clean energy product marketplace. I'm passionate about health & fitness, biohacking, AI, and energy. In my free time I enjoy weightlifting; my current PRs are 305 lb Bench, 405 lb Squat, and a 455 lb Deadlift.


## Midwest

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### Cooper Saye - Michigan

Hey there! I'm Cooper Saye, a sophomore at the University of Michigan studying computer science and mathematics. I’m currently a software engineer at Ramp, where I've built a SaaS pricing intelligence platform for 15,000+ businesses, a vendor credits system for their multi-billion dollar Bill Pay product, and a procurement custom forms solution for customers with more than 10,000 employees. I'm passionate about all things entrepreneurship, with specific interests in fintech, applied artificial intelligence, and productivity. On campus, you can find me helping out at Michigan Hackers, Michigan's largest tech club, or V1 Michigan, our premier community for student builders. In my spare time, I love to build web experiments, collect domain names, and listen to lo-fi music.

### Gillen Heisler - University of Chicago

Hey there! I'm a first-year at Chicago Booth. I came to Booth from Uber, where I led electric vehicle (EV) growth and created “Comfort Electric,” the largest EV rideshare product in the world outside of China. I previously worked at a climate-focused venture fund, Commonweal Ventures, Deloitte, and started my career as an Obama White House intern focused on innovation policy. A native of Atlanta, I attended Georgia Tech where I studied business and Mandarin Chinese. In my free time, you can find me planning my next travel adventure or cooking with my fiance, Kevin.


## South

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### Conner Aldrich - Duke

Hey all! I'm Conner and I'm a first-year at Duke studying computer science and philosophy. I've been interested in tech and software for a while, starting an open source project and community in my freshman year of high school. I'm fascinated with modernizing enterprise and government technology, so I've spent the past several years building and operating a govtech company, and recently started an AI consultancy firm. Here at Duke, I'm excited to grow future startup culture and cement Contrary as the face of that. In my free time, I'm obsessed with all things in the realm of nutrition, health, cooking, or agriculture, so follow me on socials for more of that!

### Ayush Jain - Duke

Hi! I’m Ayush, a sophomore at Duke University studying Pharmaceutical AI and Pharmacoeconomics. I conduct AI for drug discovery and repurposing research at the Broad Institute in the Eric & Wendy Schmidt Center under Dr. Anthony Phillippakis. I’m always building in biotech and always down to chat about ML!

### Varoon Kodithala - Georgia Tech

Hey! I'm Varoon Kodithala, and I'm a second-year studying Computer Science at Georgia Tech. I'm very interested in LLM-powered automations, especially in the edtech and communications spaces. At Georgia Tech, I help run Startup Exchange, the largest student-run entrepreneurship incubator in the Southeast. In my spare time, you'll likely find me at the gym, watching football, or reading titles in behavioral psychology.


Announcing Contrary's Class of 2024 Venture Partners

Class of 2024

How We Work is an interview and essay series by Contrary dedicated to surfacing insights about important parts of the economy that have gone unnoticed or under-explored by the startup ecosystem. It profiles the people who power the modern world and the tools, systems, and processes they interact with every day.

Supply chains are the lifeblood of the global economy, connecting producers and consumers across vast distances. The T-shirts we wear, the phones we use, and the food we eat navigate complex routes from origin to destination thanks to intricate systems of manufacturing, storage, and transportation.

Today, these systems operate through the sophisticated interaction of technology, infrastructure, and human talent. Innovations in shipping containers, automation, and information systems enable the rapid flow of goods worldwide, but supply chains also rely on experienced professionals across logistics and operations to navigate the intricacies of global trade. This choreographed movement of goods across oceans and land did not happen overnight. This story will explore how supply chains came to function the way that they do – and the opportunities that still exist to make them better, faster, and more resilient.

The supply chains that deliver the products we rely on today operate as highly complex, globally interconnected systems. Advanced logistics technologies and management strategies tie together numerous entities involved in moving goods from raw materials to the end consumer.

Most consumer goods are now manufactured internationally – predominantly in Asia – to reduce labor costs. Raw materials and component parts are sourced globally based on availability, quality, and price. A consumer electronics product like a smartphone may have silicon chips made in Taiwan, camera modules from Japan, batteries from South Korea, and be assembled in China.

Managing these international supply webs requires a freight forwarder to coordinate the end-to-end shipment. They arrange customs documentation, consolidate cargo from various suppliers, book ocean freight transport, manage warehousing, and handle final delivery. The rise of digitized global trade and logistics data enables real-time tracking of purchase orders, inventory, and shipments across multiple countries and entities.

Ocean container vessels transport finished goods and bulk raw materials between ports on different continents. The ships are operated by liner companies that schedule regular routes. At the port, cranes rapidly load and unload containers under tight schedules seeking to minimize ship turnaround times. Materials then flow by truck and rail to inland distribution hubs.

Warehouses and distribution centers provide critical nodes to consolidate, store, and redistribute goods. Sophisticated automated storage systems, picking robots, and inventory management software optimize their operations, and packages are sorted into pallets or individual orders for final delivery. Trucks transport orders from distribution centers to retail stores, where inventory management integrates with point-of-sale systems to replenish stock. Sophisticated analytics allow retailers to sense demand shifts and adapt their supply and pricing accordingly.

The rise of e-commerce required modifying retail supply chains to support direct-to-consumer delivery. Regional e-commerce fulfillment centers hold inventory closer to consumers to enable fast order turnaround. Robots assemble orders while delivery services pick up shipments for last-mile drop-off.

To enable seamless flow, companies and their supply chain managers leverage digitized systems to coordinate activities. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software integrates procurement, manufacturing, inventory, and financial data to synchronize actions between departments, facilities, and geographies. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems track interactions and demands.

Technologies continue advancing supply chain capabilities. Internet of Things (IoT) sensors allow remote monitoring of inventory levels, equipment performance, and transport conditions. Artificial intelligence identifies inefficiencies and optimizes planning. Autonomous robots help automate warehousing and container transport.

While sophisticated technology powers the modern supply chain at various points, there are still many manual processes that fill gaps and coordinate processes. For example, freight forwarders still routinely email spreadsheets, PDFs, and scanned documents to share data between companies. The myriad providers in global logistics means phone calls and emails are heavily used to check shipment statuses, provide instructions, and resolve problems across time zones. New solutions are emerging to digitize end-to-end flows, but much progress is still needed to transition supply chain communication into the digital age.

A new generation of digital-first freight forwarding and logistics companies is emerging, led by startups like Flexport. These companies are attempting to combine logistics expertise with modern tech stacks to simplify global trade and improve supply chain visibility. They provide digital platforms that centralize procurement, documentation, tracking, and freight booking in one portal.

The last mile of delivery – getting a product from a transportation hub to the final destination – remains one of the biggest pain points in supply chains. New disruptive approaches are emerging to improve last-mile efficiency, speed, and sustainability. Retailers are offering buy online, pick up in-store, and curbside pickup options to give customers delivery flexibility. Micro-fulfillment centers located closer to urban areas allow faster order turnaround, while predictive analytics tools improve delivery route optimization. Such innovations provide faster, cheaper, lower emission alternatives to traditional parcel delivery. However, scaling these solutions faces ongoing hurdles around everything from costs and labor availability to public acceptance.

For most of human history, supply chains transporting goods and manufactured products between distant points of the globe simply did not exist. Production was largely local, raw materials were sourced nearby, and products were made, distributed, and sold to meet the needs of the immediate community. The notion of coordinating systems and processes to deliver goods across vast distances emerged slowly over centuries of technological change.

The roots of the modern supply chain stretch back thousands of years to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Trade routes spanning Europe, Asia, and Africa connected distant cultures and enabled the exchange of goods. The Mediterranean region, in particular, became a nexus of trade and commerce, with civilizations like the Greeks, Romans, and Phoenicians playing pivotal roles. Olive oil, wine, and pottery were among the key exports of the Greek world, for example, and these goods found their way to markets as distant as India and Spain.

Roman road networks helped expand overland trade reach, and The Silk Road connected Rome with distant producers in China. Shipping capabilities slowly advanced to support Rome’s maritime ambitions and helped spur larger networks of trade. But supply chains still lacked any real integration, with fragmented coordination between producers, traders, and distributors occurring across vast geographies and time lags. Information flow was poor, and only somewhat improved by the rise of a powerful mediating class of merchants and traders, who could provide a degree of connectivity between distant markets.

In the medieval era, most economic activity was at the local level. Craftsmen procured resources and inputs from the surrounding area and sold their wares at market. Some luxury goods like silk and spices were traded internationally by merchants traveling along the aforementioned ancient routes. The establishment of guilds and market towns helped to standardize production and trade practices, creating the simple foundations for later industrial systems. Key trade cities emerged – like Venice, which served as an intermediary between Eastern and Western markets. But supply chains remained largely regionalized, with long-distance trade hampered by transportation and communication challenges.

The onset of colonialism opened up more regular long-distance trade. Chartered companies like the Dutch East India Company and British East India Company established trading posts and ports across Africa and Asia, importing luxury goods like spices, textiles, tea and tobacco to Europe. Complex commodity trade routes developed between distant ports, connecting various continents in a more intricate network than before. Insurance markets and financial instruments like bills of exchange emerged to mitigate the risks of long-distance trade, giving rise to an early form of globalized commerce – albeit one that was usually highly extractive and imbalanced.

Modern supply chain management represents a coming together of these time-tested trade practices with logistics, a field that arose from the need for the planning and coordination of complex military maneuvers and transportation. Logistics, which has been practiced both formally and informally for millennia, was developed scientifically in the 19th and early 20th centuries alongside innovations in transportation, communication, and manufacturing.

The Industrial Revolution marked a pivotal shift. Mechanization increased manufacturing output exponentially, while the rise of the railroad made overland transport faster and more reliable. Factories could produce far more than what was demanded locally, and a nascent consumer class began to expect access to both commodities and manufactured goods regardless of geography. 

World War I and II necessitated major leaps in logistics, paving the way for the development of sophisticated methods to mobilize, track, and transport vast quantities of resources across continents, under tough conditions and often against tight timelines. These innovations trickled down into postwar commercial applications and changed the way goods were manufactured, stored, and transported. This helped lay the groundwork for modern supply chains. 

The development of the shipping container in the 1950s and 1960s radically transformed global trade. Rather than loading goods individually onto ships, standardized steel container units allowed for intermodal freight transport based on a global understanding of volumes. Containers could be moved seamlessly between ships, trucks, and trains, eliminating repeated handling of cargo and saving costs and time. This process of ‘containerization’ also introduced unified measurement of cargo – which not only systematized global trade but democratized it and helped it scale, providing access to smaller market players.

Other innovations were happening in parallel. Toyota’s “just-in-time” manufacturing system demonstrated the efficacy of closely coordinated, efficient supply chains and became hugely influential in future mass production. Pioneered by the Japanese carmaker in the 1950s, the system relied on close relationships with local suppliers to deliver components as they were needed on the production line rather than stockpiling inventory. This eliminated waste, lowered costs, and enabled flexible responses to demand changes. 

The development of information technology in the 1960s and 70s automated invoicing, tracking, and planning. By the 1980s, advances in personal computing allowed supply chain management to become a standalone operational function focused on integrating and optimizing the flow of products, information, and finances. Supply chain data standardization and enterprise resource planning platforms further enabled end-to-end coordination. These innovations – supercharged by the arrival of the internet – helped unlock one of the most enduring obstacles to globalized trade: rapid, efficient communication. 

Globalization accelerated in the 1990s as trade barriers fell and emerging economies like China became manufacturing powerhouses. As the United States and other developed nations continued long transitions into service economies, global corporations looked overseas to reduce production costs, enabled by trade deals like NAFTA and China’s membership in the WTO. Multinational supply chains spread across continents, creating complex, worldwide networks that required sophisticated coordination between suppliers, warehouses, transportation, retailers, and customers. In this brave new world, velocity was key – with even relatively simple manufactured goods and commodities needing to flow quickly across substantial distances.

The rise of the internet and e-commerce brought with them new distribution and delivery challenges. Traditionally, retail supply chains were designed to move pallets and cases to stores – not individual items to homes. Home delivery capabilities became critical, and regional distribution centers were supplemented with smaller local fulfillment centers to get closer to customers. As a result, inventory deployment, picking processes, packaging, and reverse logistics had to be reconfigured to support new, faster supply chains. Consumers began to demand more rapid delivery, with same-day service becoming an expectation thanks to a new generation of online retailers such as Amazon. 

The 2010s and 2020s saw a new focus on building agility, flexibility, and resilience into supply chains. Events like the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragilities in globalized, interconnected supply chains, with just-in-time manufacturing and lean inventories putting many companies along the supply chain in a difficult position. Lockdowns and border closures disrupted flows of raw materials and finished goods worldwide, and it became clear many companies had concentrated too much manufacturing in China without backups in place. For example, shortages of semiconductors, production of which was clustered in Asia, had widespread ripple effects including crippling auto production.

In the pandemic's wake, more are increasing regional supplier diversity, expanding safety stocks, and stress testing for widespread disruptions. COVID demonstrated that cost-focused networks must balance efficiency with flexibility, redundancy, and localization options to withstand systemic shocks.

While technology drives much of the advanced coordination required for modern supply chains to function, they ultimately rely on people. Human labor and accumulated knowledge have become key to ensuring the continued function of global trade and logistics. The size of the industry is immense and includes a range of people working in numerous capacities. In the US alone, more than 3.5 million people work as truck drivers – to say nothing of the millions more working in other jobs at various points in the supply chain.

Some of the key roles include the following:

Supply chain managers oversee the strategy, planning, and execution of end-to-end supply chain operations. They manage relationships with vendors and logistics partners. Supply chain managers require strong analytical and communication skills to coordinate complex global networks.

Logistics managers are responsible for the daily warehousing and transportation activities that move goods through the supply chain. They manage route planning, freight rates, fleet maintenance, inventory control systems, and distribution center operations. Logistics managers optimize efficiencies in the physical flow of materials.

Procurement managers source and procure the raw materials, components, equipment, and services required for manufacturing and operations. They identify suppliers through market research, evaluate proposals, negotiate contracts, and develop supplier relationships to balance cost, quality, and reliability.

Customs brokers, who navigate the complexities of international trade and import/export regulations. They ensure proper documentation is filed and duties are paid to smoothly move cargo across borders.

Production and factory workers, who produce finished goods on assembly lines and at workstations using mechanical equipment, robots, and their hands. They follow repeatable procedures and processes under the guidance of engineers and supervisors.

Warehouse workers pick, pack, and ship orders in warehouses and distribution centers. They replenish inventories, follow inventory management system directions, and ensure the right products are efficiently routed to customers.

Cargo ship crews, who operate merchant vessels transporting containerized cargo around the world. Deck crews load and unload ships in port cooperating with longshoremen. Engine crews maintain propulsion systems keeping ships on schedule across vast oceans.

Truck drivers transport goods over land by driving heavy-duty tractor-trailers. They move raw materials from suppliers to factories, deliver finished products to warehouses and distribution centers, and ship orders from fulfillment centers directly to customers. 

While technologies like AI, robotics, and automation have changed and will continue to change the way we work, people still power global supply chains.

There are several key reasons for this enduring human contribution. Global supply chains involve highly complex networks with numerous stakeholders, all of whom are trying to reconcile trades, assets, and irregularities. This makes end-to-end automation a difficult problem.  Freight forwarding, for example, requires flexible arrangements of customs documentation, overseas shipping, insurance, tracking, and final delivery across changing situations. Humans excel at pattern recognition to identify anomalies and handle exceptions. 

Relationships between shippers, carriers, regulators, and suppliers also rely on nuanced communication and trust difficult to program. Activities like loading containers require spatial reasoning and manipulation dexterity hard to replicate in robots. While AI and automation are gaining ground in supply chains, many tasks still benefit from human judgment, adaptability, and skills.

Supply chains are evolving from linear models to dynamic networks able to rapidly adapt to disruptions and shifts in demand. New technologies will enable resilience, sustainability, and customization.

Innovations in IoT and digital ledger technology will provide end-to-end transparency from raw materials to the consumer. Every product, package, and transport vehicle will become intelligent through sensors and connectivity. This will allow real-time tracking and condition monitoring to quickly identify issues. Artificial intelligence and advanced analytics will move supply chains towards predictive capabilities as opposed to reactive ones. Machine learning will help identify weaknesses and inefficiencies for correction. It will also allow optimization and autonomous decision-making without the need for human input.

Robotics and automation will transform warehouses into highly automated environments needing minimal human intervention. Fleets of driverless vehicles will enhance short-haul freight delivery while drones may manage last-mile distribution in some cases. Autonomous cargo ships could move goods across oceans. 

With human roles shifting towards oversight, problem-solving, and relationship management, supply chain training will emphasize leadership, critical thinking, analytics, and communication skills. Cross-disciplinary collaboration and risk management will be increasingly vital. Meanwhile, consumer expectations and preferences will drive greater personalization. People will continue to demand product customization, same-day delivery, and new purchasing experiences.

Another trend gaining momentum is reshoring – in other words, bringing manufacturing back closer to domestic markets. Many companies are re-evaluating the risks of long overseas supply lines. Reshoring allows closer oversight for quality control and intellectual property protection. It also insulates from trade wars, tariffs, and shipping disruptions. Technologies like robotics and 3D printing may help make local automated production costs competitive.

Overall, the future points towards supply chains that behave intelligently in real time. They will self-orchestrate across a digital mesh of providers, customers, and physical infrastructure. Efficiency, sustainability, and resilience will merge through technology, innovation, and human ingenuity. Supply chains will become robust, self-sustaining networks transporting goods and services across the globe.

Driving towards this future, supply chains present major unresolved problems and opportunities founders can view as opportunities to disrupt established players. 

Legacy supply chains built around forecasting often lack visibility and responsiveness when confronted with unexpected disruptions like global pandemics, resulting in shortages and stockouts. Startups could leverage AI and machine learning to create dynamic optimization and rerouting, building agility and demand-driven adaptability into systems.

The transportation of goods contributes significantly to emissions, waste, and pollution. Packaging clogs landfills while freight transport drives climate change. Freight alone contributes 8% to global greenhouse gas emissions, and as much as 11% if warehouses and ports are included. Opportunities exist to develop smart sustainable packaging and enable circular flows capturing used materials for recycling or upcycling. Startups could provide green tech solutions for container shipping, ports, and freight transportation such as renewable energy sources, electrification of fleets, and fuel efficiency tech.

Inefficient logistics remain a problem for supply chains, with empty backhauls, uneven asset utilization, bad routing, and poorly optimized mode and carrier selection leading to inflated costs. Startups might apply predictive analytics and optimization algorithms to reduce miles traveled, improve load factors, consolidate shipments, and select cheaper, faster modes.

Complex global networks involve numerous suppliers and vendors, but a lack of visibility exposes companies to risks of unethical labor, quality issues, IP theft, and counterfeiting. Founders could consider better solutions supply chain mapping, risk assessment, supplier auditing and vetting, and production monitoring to improve integrity.

As described earlier, many supply chains rely on fragmented legacy systems and manual processes that introduce errors, lags, and lack of coordination. True end-to-end visibility is hampered by siloed data and incompatible systems. Startups have an opportunity to develop platforms that integrate procurement, manufacturing, inventory, transportation, and delivery on a common architecture. Though many supply chain tech startups have pursued this north star, it remains an unsolved problem on the whole.

The evolution of supply chains has been driven by human ingenuity, advancing technology, and the demands of an interconnected global economy. As consumer expectations continue to rise and new disruptions emerge, supply chains must become even more agile, sustainable, and transparent. 

A dive into the history of the supply chain, and unsolved problems for its future.

The Past & Future of the Supply Chain

Industrial design, as a discipline, emerged in response to the newly mechanized production processes of the Industrial Revolution.

Prior to industrialization, manufacturing was mostly done by craftsmen and artisans who worked by hand and would take a highly individualized approach to their work. While overarching design principles did exist, they tended to be bound by local tradition and heavily contingent on best practices passed down from master to apprentice. Craftsmen would build tools and objects for their customers and local community based on their individual needs and preferences, often incorporating unique embellishments or modifications. The line between design and production was non-existent.

The advent of the Industrial Revolution radically changed this process. Mass production became the norm, with factories churning out standardized products at a mass scale. An increasingly urbanized population — which was being drawn into cities to work in factories — led to increased demand for consumer products, and an emergent consumer class began to take shape. With it grew the need for a new kind of professional who could design products for mass production and consumption.

Enter the industrial designer. This new profession was tasked with creating designs that could be efficiently produced on a large scale while still incorporating aesthetics, functionality, and user experience. The first industrial designers were often engineers or architects who had an understanding of manufacturing processes. They applied this knowledge to create designs that were efficient to produce while being broadly fit for purpose. It was not until the early 20th century that the role of the industrial designer came to be understood as a discrete job of its own, with its own skills and expertise.

On a systemic level, this was an unprecedented division of labor that better served the scale of the industrial economy. Design and production were now two disciplines instead of one. Instead of individual craftsmen accounting for their local customers' needs and personal preferences, industrial designers had to anticipate the needs and preferences of a much larger consumer market. Design decisions were no longer made based on the skills and sensibilities of an object’s creator alone, but also had to take into account factors such as cost-effectiveness and production efficiency. This helped pave the way for scientific management of production.

This balancing act wasn’t always successful, and it had its discontents. The soullessness of early industrial designs in 19th-century Britain gave birth to the Arts and Crafts movement, which rejected mass-produced objects and called for a return to traditional craftsmanship, functionality, and comfort. Ironically, the preoccupations of Arts and Crafts thinkers like English polymath William Morris eventually fed into later industrial design approaches, which valued human-centric, functional considerations.

The 20th century saw further evolution and refinement of industrial design as a discipline. The Bauhaus movement, founded in Germany in 1919, revolutionized design by promoting the integration of art, craft, and technology. Whereas earlier mechanized production often neglected aesthetics and user experience, industrial designers like Raymond Loewy and Dieter Rams emphasized a more thoughtful balance of form and function which blended aesthetics with practicality. After World War 2, a surge in economic growth spurred the emergence of modern consumerism. This led to a design boom, expanding the role of the industrial designer beyond the physical and into the realm of branding and identity creation.

As technology advanced, so too did the role of the industrial designer. The latter half of the 20th century saw a shift from physical products to software and digital interfaces. Industrial designers adapted, contributing to the design of computers, smartphones, and other digital devices, as well as the user interfaces that define our interaction with them.

Today, industrial designers play a role in the creation of virtually every product we interact with on a daily basis. From the ergonomics of a computer mouse to the aesthetics of a car interior, industrial designers dictate the terms of our interaction with the physical, built world. They work in collaboration with engineers, market researchers, and manufacturers to ensure that a product meets both the company's goals and the needs of the end user.

The modern industrial designer plays a key (albeit under-appreciated) role in the economy. This includes:

Value addition: Industrial designers add significant value to products, not just in terms of aesthetics but also functionality and user experience. This value addition can command higher market prices and lead to brand differentiation.

Influencing consumer behavior: By focusing on user-centered design, industrial designers influence consumer purchasing decisions. They can drive consumer preference and loyalty, which in turn impacts market demand and economic consumption patterns.

Supply chain integration: Designers help optimize the supply chain by targeting ease of manufacturing, reducing costs and making production processes more efficient and sustainable. 

Innovation: Industrial designers often work in R&D departments, pushing technological and design boundaries. Their work can result in patents and intellectual property, contributing to a firm's competitive advantage and even spawning new industries.

Globalization: In a global economy, products often need to meet the needs and tastes of diverse markets. Industrial designers help firms navigate this complexity, creating adaptable or specialized designs for different cultural or regulatory contexts.

Sustainability: With an increasing focus on environmental responsibility, designers are now pivotal in turning developments in materials science and green design into marketable products.

David Sutton, an industrial designer with 20+ years of experience in the field who we interviewed for this piece, described his craft this way:

“Design is a business tool. As a designer, there's a part of my heart which is romantic — like, let's design beautiful things to create a more beautiful world where products work better, more efficiently and they're less harmful to the environment. But really, the products that we develop have to serve the business first. Otherwise, they don't exist. If the products that we develop aren't sustainable from an environmental perspective, from a cost perspective, from a manufacturing perspective, there are no products, at the end of the day.”

The dynamic David points to, that industrial design is both an artistic discipline and a business function, is what makes the modern industrial designer such an interesting job in the modern economy. Industrial designers must balance personal interests and creative instincts with the business demands of the product they are creating. They need to think laterally and creatively, while also acknowledging that the objects they are creating must be built efficiently at scale if they are to be successful.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 32,400 industrial designers working in the United States in 2022. They worked across a variety of operational and employment arrangements — from working in-house at a company to working as freelance designers, to contracting out with design agencies.

Industrial designers today are expected to have a broad skill set, including proficiency in computer-aided (CAD) software, an understanding of materials and manufacturing processes, and knowledge of brand marketing and business strategy. They are often involved in the entire product development process, from initial concept to final production.

Their work is no longer confined to physical products. The digital realm has opened up new avenues for industrial design, with the discipline expanding to include software user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. Designing for digital products and interfaces like apps and websites requires an understanding of how users interact with technology, and a keen ability to predict future trends and user behaviors. This shift has led to a blurring of lines between industrial design and other fields like graphic design and software engineering – particularly as more and more physical products demonstrate internet connectivity and screen interfaces.

Some industrial designers have chosen to specialize in niche markets such as medical devices or sustainable products, reflecting the diversification of the field. In addition, globalization has expanded the scope of industrial design, often requiring designers to consider a broader, more diverse user base and to collaborate with international teams and manufacturers. 

New principles of design thinking, which focus on empathy and iterative problem-solving, are now widely employed in the industrial design process. Today's industrial designers are increasingly expected to collaborate with professionals from other disciplines such as engineering, psychology, anthropology, and data science to create more holistic products that better serve their intended users. 

The industrial design process can vary significantly depending on the specificities of the project, the particular demands of the client, and the nature of the business or organization the industrial designer works in. However, a standard process looks like this:

Research and Analysis. The first phase involves understanding the problem, the market, the users, and the competition. The designer will often conduct user interviews, observe user behavior, analyze market trends, and study competing products.

Concept Generation. Once they have a thorough understanding of the problem and the user's needs, the designer will begin generating ideas for potential solutions. This phase often involves a lot of sketching, brainstorming, and iterative concept development.

Concept Development. The designer will then select the most promising concepts and further develop them. This might involve creating detailed sketches, building CAD models, or developing physical prototypes.

Prototyping and Testing. The designer will then create physical or digital prototypes of the product and conduct user tests to gather feedback. This phase is essential for identifying any potential issues or areas for improvement in the design.

Refinement and Production. Based on the feedback from the testing phase, the designer will make necessary refinements to the design. Once the design is finalized, it is ready for production. This phase may also involve working closely with manufacturers to ensure the product can be produced efficiently and cost-effectively. 

Evaluation and Iteration. After the product has been launched, the designer will continue to monitor its performance, gather user feedback, and make improvements as necessary. This is an ongoing process that helps ensure the product continues to meet the needs and expectations of users.

For industrial designers like David, the research phase is particularly key to understanding everything from a project’s complexity to the way the intended end user will ultimately engage with the object in question. As he told Contrary in an interview: 

“We always start every project with a research phase. That may be a few hours to a few months, depending on the scale of the project, the type of project and the product complexity. For instance, we design pet products for some of our partners, like leashes and harnesses — simple objects, relatively speaking. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, we're designing kitchen appliances. And the needs of those two categories are vastly different.”

Depending on the product in question, there may be more complex regulatory requirements that an industrial designer must take into account. For example, a dog harness will not be subject to as many rules as a medical imaging device. An industrial designer must be cognizant of all these obligations from early in the research phase, as they will heavily influence the ultimate design.

David likened the overall industrial design process to a funnel, beginning with ambitious ideas informed by a robust research process, which are slowly refined over time into a final project. This refinement usually comes hand-in-hand with deep collaboration with other disciplines like engineering, depending on the nature of the project in question. David said that engineering is the most common secondary discipline which becomes involved in the design process, but that even the simplest objects usually require outside expertise.

Contributions to the industrial design process can come from these other disciplines. For example, engineers can provide valuable insights into the manufacturability of a design while a marketing team can offer advice on the product's appeal to its target customer. New advances in technology and manufacturing can open up opportunities at the design level that did not exist before.

“Take TVs. It's not necessarily an industrial designer who said, “Let's make the thinnest TV ever,” right? That comes from the people who are manufacturing the displays that go into the television. They say they can make it thinner, then that trickles all the way to the design team. Or the engineering team figures out they can make it thinner because we can manufacture it in this way and move these components around.”

The intended function of industrial design is to create products that are ultimately manufactured efficiently at scale. As such, the industrial designer must think about the manufacturing process alongside the needs of the end user. According to David, some industrial design firms — including his own — are more involved in the manufacturing side, while others require “more input from engineering” to bring products to life.

An industrial designer will also take different things into account depending on the ultimate scale of production. A startup building an experimental product with a limited initial run of a few dozen units will have vastly different needs to an established brand producing millions of units, and the industrial designer will approach their craft differently for each.

Industrial design is a heavily digitized industry, and designers work primarily with a wide range of computer tools. These tools include CAD software for developing and refining designs, 3D rendering software for creating realistic visualizations, and prototyping tools to test and refine the functionality of designs. Stress tests and fluid dynamics simulations can also be done digitally before a prototype is made. Additionally, design teams use project management and collaboration tools to effectively work with multidisciplinary teams.

“As for tools, we start with the digital. We use CAD modeling software, we use lots of image generation tools, like all the typical CAD packages, KeyShot, and other rendering tools. Adobe products. A lot of these tools have become better over the years for working collaboratively. For instance, the CAD package we use is a product called Onshape, which is web-based. It’s amazing. Everything is based in the cloud, meaning everyone in our office can look at files as someone else is working on them in real time. We use a bit of everything that you would imagine. We do 2D stuff, and we still have sketchbooks we draw in.”

A typical industrial design studio will likely have a mix of traditional and modern tools, from calipers and drafting tables to CNC machines and 3D printers. This combination of both analog and digital tools allows designers to iterate between different stages of the design process, from initial sketches and concept development to detailed 3D modeling and prototyping.

Despite the increased digitization of the industry and the widespread use of computerized tooling, there is still a strong hands-on element. Though there has been a significant amount of hype around VR and AR solutions which allow a designer to visualize a product in 3D space, David said that these methods are not widely used yet. A prototype can be anything from a simple cardboard cutout which establishes the size of the object being designed to a fully or partially functional product.

“We design physical things for a living, so as part of that, we like to make lots of physical things. So we have a small workshop in our office. We also have some fairly rudimentary 3D printing capabilities in-house. We like to make things as often as possible because nothing will tell you more about an object than seeing it in real space in the real world. Even if it's a paper mockup mashed together with masking tape and paper clips. You'll learn a lot of stuff by just bringing something to life. The most basic form of that might be printing a two-dimensional image of a picture of an object at scale. You might print it out and just put it on the table and say, “Does this feel big or small?” That might be our first step of bringing something into the physical.”

Industrial design firms will often maintain a collection of various materials they can use for their designs, which is called a materials library. It's not uncommon for a team to have samples of various textiles, metals, plastics, and composites on hand. They might also keep samples of different finishes and colors, allowing them to quickly visualize how a design might look in different configurations. A wide range of third-party materials libraries and databases also exist online for reference.

Designers will also engage in user testing to understand how an intended audience for a product will engage with it. They observe how users handle the product, where they encounter problems, and how intuitive the design is. This direct interaction can reveal unforeseen issues, from ergonomic problems to functionality challenges. This can involve everything from focus group testing to more contemporary digital tools and analytics. ​​For example, heat maps can show where users most frequently touch or interact with a product or eye-tracking software can reveal what parts of a product draw the most attention.

Reshoring is an increasingly relevant movement that would have implications for industrial designers. Since the late 20th century, global production has largely shifted away from the United States and other advanced service economies and toward countries like China, which have become manufacturing superpowers with a deep labor pool and local expertise. As countries like the US look to reinforce their supply chains in an increasingly unstable world, designers may be obliged to take into account production realities in reindustrialized economies, where skills and materials may be different. 

Here, David describes the current state of play with securing manufacturing partners in China:

“People who manufacture kitchen appliances typically continue to manufacture kitchen appliances, because they understand that world and what's required to get it done. And they leverage their experience to become attractive to people who need to make that sort of product. So, as an industrial designer, you search for manufacturing partners who have general experience that is suitable for the type of product that you're trying to manufacture because they will help you to an unbelievably huge degree.”

With increasing consumer awareness about environmental issues, designers are under pressure to create products that are sustainable. This means using materials that are recyclable or biodegradable, minimizing waste, and ensuring a product's longevity. There's a challenge in sourcing sustainable materials that don't compromise on product quality or significantly increase production costs. Similarly, many companies are thinking about circular economy solutions, where products are designed for reuse, refurbishment, and recycling.

There are also opportunities in the tooling industrial designers use. Advanced prototyping techniques like 3D printing are still relatively expensive, which can be a barrier for independent designers or small firms. Small production runs are expensive, making it hard for designers to bring unique or niche products to the market. As David said, much-hyped technologies like virtual and augmented reality are not yet sufficiently advanced to be reliably introduced into the design process.

According to David, one of the major challenges he deals with as a designer is client expectations. The rise of ecommerce, the refinement of consumer supply chains, and the increasing importance of digital goods like software has changed expectations on how fast things move in the world of product. As a result, there is a widespread lack of understanding on the part of newer clients as to how long it takes for a physical object to be effectively designed and put into production. 

As a thoroughly technologized industry, the future of industrial design will be highly driven by the development and adoption of new tools and processes.

VR and AR technologies, while still nascent, are being utilized for prototyping and design testing, which could significantly reduce the time and resources required in the design process. Sufficiently effective VR and AR integration into the design process could also help enable more remote work in the industry. David described the current challenge of working remotely in a job focused on building physical products, where it is necessary for multiple stakeholders to physically touch and interact with an object at various points in the design process.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) offer predictive insights, optimize designs, and automate routine tasks, suggesting a future where designers can focus on more complex and creative aspects of their projects. AI could play a role in less direct ways too, such as by assisting with knowledge management or the production of supplementary materials like pitch decks and imagery.

These labor-saving innovations raise the possibility of a future where industrial designers spend more of their time focusing on the creative, human-centric aspects of their job, while automation plays a larger role in the more systematic processes that currently absorb a substantial amount of focus. Additionally, the rise of consumer AI raises the prospect of a future where a range of consumer product interfaces will integrate these new technologies, and industrial designers will play a role in reimagining them. 

Industrial designers of the future will likely contend with deeper integration of internet connectivity and smart features. A growing consumer class in countries like India and China will compel global firms to further consider local tastes and user preferences in their product designs. The aforementioned shift towards reshoring, on the other hand, raises questions about where and how industrial designers can work with reoriented supply chains in countries like the United States. 

As with many industries and jobs covered by the How We Work series, industrial design is facing a generational shift in knowledge and skill set. The incoming generation of designers is highly skilled in digital technologies, while broadly less well-versed in the hands-on skills which are still important to the industry today. As David puts it:

“It's a different way of thinking sometimes. Some of the junior designers that we've come across in the last few years feel to me to be maybe a bit more apprehensive about actually making physical things with their own hands. That's been an interesting change, and I don’t know if we’ve found the balance yet. We will get to a point where digital tools are so good — including 3D printing — where you won’t need to make anything with your hands.”

Deeper integration between digital and physical product design – led by a new generation of designers literate in both – could change the way the job operates. Soon, as David points out, it may not even be necessary to work in the physical realm at all, with digital designs being able to carry a product from conception to production.

As design moves towards the next frontier, and the industry faces further digitization, globalization, and disruption, the industrial designer will continue to play a key role in global commerce and bringing products to market.

An exploration of how industrial designers play a role in the creation of almost every product we interact with on a daily basis.

How Industrial Designers Bring Ideas to Life

Furniture has changed a lot throughout history. Among the oldest extant pieces of furniture in the world are a set of 5,000-year-old stone dressers in the Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae in Scotland. In ancient Egypt, chairs were a status symbol, and their design was often elaborate, utilizing materials like ebony, ivory, and gold for the affluent classes. In ancient Greece and Rome, furniture was often simple yet elegant, and their designs laid the foundation for much of Western furniture that would follow.

In the modern era, the Industrial Revolution had a significant influence on furniture design. Mass production made furniture more accessible to the general public and an emergent middle class, with simple, universal design forms supplanting handcrafted statement pieces. Innovative design movement styles emerged through the 20th century, as new industrial processes allowed for the broader use of materials like metals and plastics. Today, furniture design continues to evolve and encompasses a range of styles – from traditional handcrafted pieces built by artisans to mass-produced products that integrate technology like USB ports and power outlets.

The workers who build furniture draw upon both time-tested techniques and modern production processes, which include a range of tools with advanced capabilities. For example, CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machines allow for the automated cutting and shaping of materials based on digital designs, while innovations in 3D printing offer further possibilities for prototyping and the production of more intricate components. 

To understand the modern discipline of furniture making, we spoke to Nicholas Slaton, Production Manager at Skram Furniture. Nicholas learned to build furniture from his father and has been formally working in the industry for over a decade. He explained how a modern furniture workshop functions and the tools he uses, while also providing insight into how the industry works more broadly. 

1. Furniture makers use everything from handsaws to 3D printers

Furniture production is a practical discipline that draws upon a wide range of traditional wood, metalworking, and machinist skills. Furniture makers today still use a number of tools that would not look out of place in a workshop a hundred years ago. But the demands of modern production also necessitate the use of modern tools – from large pneumatic machinery to cutting-edge software-assisted tools like CNC controllers. In a modern furniture workshop, chisels and bandsaws coexist with laser cutters and 3D printers.

Nicholas jokes that his companies use both “machines with buttons and machines from before buttons”. The range of tooling in today’s furniture industry also necessitates workers with different skills from the master builders of decades ago. 

For example, a modern shop that uses CNC machines may employ an operator or programmer with a strong understanding of both carpentry and computer-aided design (CAD) software. They are responsible for translating design blueprints into a set of machine-readable instructions that will guide the CNC machine's movements for cutting, shaping, or assembling materials. But despite improvements in automation, there is still plenty of hands-on work in making furniture, whether it be producing individual parts or entire pieces.

2. Transferring knowledge to a new generation is a key challenge.

Nicholas says that it’s never been easier to learn basic woodworking skills thanks to the wide availability of content available on platforms like YouTube. However, the skills and intuition required to be considered a ‘master furniture maker’ – which he defines as “knowing when to stop before you mess up and what to do when bad things happen” – only come with experience, which is much harder to develop and teach.

Generational knowledge transfer is an emerging theme across industries we’ve covered in How We Work. In this case, Nicholas expressed concern about the future of the industry because the core skills required to become a master furniture maker may not be successfully transmitted to the next generation. As cheap imports and mass-produced furniture have reduced the demand for custom, handcrafted pieces, and modern technology simplifies the processes required to design and make furniture, there are commensurately fewer people looking to furniture as a vocation.

This also creates problems amid a general labor shortage in the US, where highly skilled workers can be particularly hard to find. Nicholas describes this as the main problem facing the industry, especially as it faces a downturn.

3. The number one challenge for furniture makers is supply chain management

Like many others, the furniture industry faced challenges during the pandemic when international freight and domestic shipping faced COVID-related delays. As many furniture pieces are considerably larger than most shipped consumer goods, the furniture industry was particularly hard hit.

The interconnectedness of modern production means that maintaining effective logistics is more key than ever. Nicholas describes how certain materials like bronze became more challenging to acquire during the pandemic due to supply interruptions, which could then delay the production of an entire order.

Post-pandemic, companies are looking to diversify their supply chains to mitigate risks. This involves multi-sourcing key components, decentralizing manufacturing, and setting up contingency plans to ensure continuous operations. As the customer expectation for rapid delivery has increased, so has the focus on last-mile delivery solutions. Companies are experimenting with local warehousing to decrease lead times and exploring partnerships with local delivery services.

Start by introducing yourself and how you got into this line of work.

My name is Nicholas Slaton. I learned about making furniture foremost from my father. I've been making furniture as a profession for 12 years and before that, I was in other lines of work. I was a musician, I did some winemaking. I didn't start working professionally until 2011 when I started an art gallery.

It was sort of a small beginning. It wasn't planned as it turned out, but as word got around the type of work I was doing, I received my first commission to build a kitchen, a larger interior job. I met with the client, and they wanted something that I thought I could produce and give to them, but I didn't exactly know how. And at the end of the meeting, they gave me their budget, and I just said yes before I really knew how to pull it off.

And so that inspired me to gather my materials and to make a plan. What they wanted was a reclaimed, modern rustic aesthetic. And so we disassembled a log cabin and used some of the lumber to put in a hardwood floor and to construct their kitchen cabinetry and a mantle. Everything worked, all the drawers closed and the customer was happy.

I started taking work in interiors more seriously. I continued in kitchen design mostly but also did some bathrooms and other interior work. That led me to furniture. I enjoy interiors, but the problem I ran into was that it was inside people's houses. It required me to travel to the location, unload my tools, do the work, put my tools back in, go back to the shop, and maybe unload again. After years of that, you get tired of all of that transporting your stuff around.

I thought I would enjoy this much more if I was in a central location, focusing on the skills that I do well. I can mail this to people or they can pick it up — but the work should be done in a controlled setting of the workshop where I feel the most comfortable producing the best product that I can.

I continued down that road. In about 2018, I shut that business and started working with my current company, Skram Furniture. I took an entry-level job there because I really liked the company and I thought that I was aligned with their core values. I liked the furniture, but having made my own way as a craftsman, I didn't know where I fit in and they didn't know where I fit in. I was kind of an outsider.

I ended up in their machine shop, which was new to me. I learned that trade over the years. And now I'm working more broadly in the business as a production supervisor, not only managing the metal shop, but the other departments too.

But my core, in my heart, I love making furniture hands-on.

What kind of furniture does Skram make in particular? Is there a particular style that you are associated with?

Heirloom Modern is what it says on our website. It is taking cues from modern movements and minimalism. The furniture for the most part is simple and austere, but it has a very definite proportion and weight and lightness in a pleasing way.

When you're making minimalist furniture, there's nowhere to hide. What I mean is mistakes. If we make mistakes, there's no way to cover them or blend it in. A lot of the beauty of the pieces comes from the execution being simple, but also absolutely perfect. That’s what’s expected of our product and our goal every time.

The pieces are meant to be a hundred-year piece. An Appalachian hardwood takes a hundred years to grow in North Carolina, and what we make should also last a hundred years.

Talk me through the process, from as early as you can speak to, all the way to when it's in a customer’s hands.

In our case, we work directly with interior designers. It’s a B2B model, which is common. It's rare that we actually sell to an end user. The interior designer would contact us, and they have the language and the skill set to communicate with our engineers and our designers to create what the customer is asking for.

Very rarely do we start from scratch. There are lines of furniture that are standard. Those designs can be modified by dimensions and some finish options. So if you have a table, you can have it be a certain size, but it's still going to have the same design elements and the same aesthetic as the original production piece. It might have a slightly different color or material. But the integrity of the design is maintained.

From time to time, a customer will call us with a bespoke request, completely fresh. We do entertain those clients and that's usually more rare and more expensive — and fun for us, intriguing for us, but not our core business.

So once the customer has talked to the designer, the designers talked to us, and we’ve all agreed on a design, I start thinking about making the furniture. I ask myself: what’s the best process to make this? Can I refine this from the last time we made it to make it quicker or better or whatever? We're working with a culture of continuous improvement.

Then, depending on the piece, I'll be working with one of a dozen people in different departments to execute the vision of our company and the original customer. Once it's made, we package it, we crate it up, and we ship it out and hope for the best. Once it leaves our floor, I can't control what happens at the warehouse or on the trucks. And so we package it with as much care as we can and we cross our fingers.

What does that production look like? Who is making it, and how automated are these processes? Is it still hands-on?

There's a wide range of skill sets in this industry, and we’re no different. It ranges from hand-tooled, traditional craftsmanship at a bench, all the way up to five-axis CNC machines that are run by computers and need a lot of attention.

We have a full metal shop, by which I mean a traditional metal shop with a lathe and a mill. We have a TIG welding bench and everything that comes out of our metal shop basically comes in as raw materials and it's machined into components, welded when necessary, and then either is finished in-house or goes to a local vendor for finish. If you're going to work in the metal shop, you need to have traditional machinist skills. It's not an entry-level job that someone walks in off the street and knows how to do.

It’s very similar in the handwork. We're dealing with very few available master furniture makers. This is a dying skill set, and we're definitely trying to pass that on to as many people as will listen. In the US, we're having a shortage of available workers in general, and then highly skilled workers are also high in demand. So that's a challenge.

When you're programming a CNC machine, it requires an engineer who has CAD skills and is able to use the computers not only to take a design and turn that into tool paths but to get that to the operator and to the machine and have it not crash. You also need an operator at the machine who knows what they're doing in order to place the parts on the machine, set the machine up correctly, run the program, and not fail or crash. Those jobs are every bit as challenging and stressful as using a chisel and a handplane.

When you talk about master furniture markers being a dying skill set — what exactly is being lost? What set of skills constitutes a master furniture maker?

So, I think most people could learn woodworking through practice. YouTube is a great resource. There's a lot of terrible content, but if you're picky, the answers are there.

The thing that a master knows is when to stop before they make a mistake and what to do to fix the mistakes that have already been made. You can only learn that through years and years of experience. I've been called a master furniture maker, and I still have to go and ask questions to these guys. I ask them, “Hey, what would you do in this situation?”, and they’re able to say, “I would do this.”

It may not be technically difficult, necessarily, but it’s the experience and intuition of knowing when to stop before you mess up and what to do when bad things happen. That's the difference. That's on top of the skillset of being a furniture maker — the detail-oriented nature of what we're looking at, the discipline of how you work through a process, and all of that.

What sort of tools are you using in your daily work? That can mean anything from physical tools to machines to software.

There're a lot of answers there. Let’s start with the computer stuff. We design in Rhino 3D for Mac. I'll export DXF files from Rhino and use AlphaCam to program tool paths.

That then goes to Andi CabMaxx, which is a moving bed router — a very typical tool for any sort of cabinet shop. If you're making kitchen cabinets or something like that, that's a tool you're going to have in your shop. We also have a Biesse Rover A, which is a new machine to us in the last two years. That's a five-axis machine, and Biesse has its own proprietary toolpath software called B_SOLID.

We have a program management software that would be competitive with any of the other program management software that is available. We use Revit a little bit, and Photoshop. There are some other programs that our engineers use that I don't have to deal with, but for the most part that's our computer setup.

In the metal shop, we have a Bridgeport Series 1 with the KMX two-axis CNC controller. We have a 15 by 30 Cincinnati tool room lathe, a Miller 350 TIG welder. A cold saw and a metal band saw from MEP. Angle grinders, an oxyacetylene torch. Just your standard metal shop stuff. We can make basically anything with that.

In the bench area, we have some Festool Domino cutters, biscuit joiners. Pneumatic non-directional sanders. Just the stuff you’d see in a regular shop. We have a really sweet Italian guillotine for cutting veneer. It can cut eight-foot straight line glue edge on veneers. It's just a beautiful tool. We have a Streebig panel saw, a vintage Oliver bandsaw. It's eight feet tall, at least.

So we have woodworking tools and industrial tools from like the 20s through the 40s, all the way through to the BSC I mentioned which we just bought last year. I like to tell the joke that we have machines with buttons and machines from before buttons.

So what I’m gathering is that you have a lot of traditional tools, but you’re also a pretty computerized shop.

How has the furniture industry changed since you started? It could be technologically, or in terms of the market.

The furniture industry fluctuates. In my relatively short time in the industry, there’s been a great amount of change in the world. In 2020, [during the pandemic] our experience was that we just continued to work.

The problems that we started to encounter as an industry were logistical: getting our product to a customer. Sales were going up, but we were having trouble with the change in material costs, the changes in the availability of material, and especially timeframes.

We offer an 8-12 week lead time on most of our furniture. Some of our suppliers went to 14 weeks just to get us their part of a piece, and some of them went to like six months. Getting certain steel or bronze — those types of things got to become difficult.

And then the ocean freight stuff started. I'm going into the office and someone's freaking out and I'm like, “What are you freaking out about?” And they tell me it’s some boat wherever. These are the problems that we have. We worked through and got through the worst of that, but we still are dealing with supply chain issues. We're still dealing with workforce development and labor market issues.

Residential furniture is kind of taking a hit right now. A lot of the larger companies specifically in the United States are going out of business. I don't have all the answers to why, but my guess is that the retail end of their business is so large that it's very costly. And if you have a dip in sales, like people stop buying, it's hard to maintain that, you know? I'm in a different segment of the industry. We haven't had those same problems, and selling to interior designers insulates you from a downturn in the broader furniture market.

For us, it’s all about tooling up our skill set and our people so that we can make the furniture that we want to make and that we love to make and have it be sustainable in both an environmental sense and a financial sense.

On sustainability – is that a big focus for the industry?

Yeah. Customers want to know that part of the story. Is the thing they're spending money on helping or hurting the environment? I've seen other companies pay money to advertise in magazines stating this percentage or that percentage of improvement in some metric as it relates to their production and the environment.

I don't have those numbers for us. But we do think about it. For instance, just now we're redesigning our crate, the way we ship our product. Traditionally it’s been made of oriented strand board (OSB), which is wood chips and glue compressed together into a sheet. You've seen it on the side of a house before the siding goes on. We would make our crates out of that. Very strong from a protection standpoint, but when it gets to its location it goes directly into the dumpster.

So we redesigned our crate to be based on cardboard. There's a cost savings for us to purchase cardboard as opposed to OSB by square foot. So we save money, but when our product arrives at its location and the installers take apart the crate, the cardboard gets recycled. We try to minimize our waste in the plant in any way we can, including human energy. Hopefully, there's a move in the broader economy to make decisions based on those ideas.

An interview with an experienced furniture maker about how he does his job.

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