A Tale of Circular Furnishing: Interview with Live Light CEO Prisca d’Oultremont — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hi Priska. Super nice to meet you.
2. 0:01Thanks for taking the time for chatting
3. 0:03with us. Um and we're going to talk all
4. 0:05about Livin' Light, what you do, and how
5. 0:07you use Ryan within your organization.
6. 0:10Um so I'll start by just saying that
7. 0:11you're Priska, the CEO of Livin' Light,
8. 0:14and I'll let you take it from there.
9. 0:15Introduce yourself and Livin' Light.
10. 0:17Hi Shera. Thanks for having me today.
11. 0:19Um so I'm the co-founder and CEO of
12. 0:23Livin' Lights. Livin' Light, we offer
13. 0:24refurbished furniture for rent or
14. 0:26rent-to-own.
15. 0:28And so we work within the principles of
16. 0:30the circular economy. That's the big
17. 0:32idea behind Livin' Lights.
18. 0:34We're based in Antwerp, and our service
19. 0:37region covers um
20. 0:39the whole Benelux area, actually.
21. 0:41Mission as a company is really to reduce
22. 0:45furniture waste
23. 0:46and to show that sustainable or circular
24. 0:50products and interiors can be both
25. 0:51beautiful and affordable.
26. 0:54Mhm. So I really invite everyone
27. 0:56watching this to go to your website and
28. 0:58see the furniture that you're actually
29. 1:00offering friends because it's simply
30. 1:01beautiful. Uh really love love your
31. 1:04style. Also the idea, I mean,
32. 1:06um there's no doubt that the way that we
33. 1:08purchase and procure furniture should
34. 1:10definitely have a twist to it. Maybe you
35. 1:11can tell us a little bit about what the
36. 1:13process would be. Uh someone is looking
37. 1:15into renting your furniture. Is it
38. 1:17normally housing? Is it a commercial
39. 1:19office?
40. 1:20Our clients are both end consumers
41. 1:23who are refurnishing their house or
42. 1:26apartment.
43. 1:27But we do more and more professional
44. 1:30office spaces, hotels, restaurants. Um
45. 1:34staging in real estate, also.
46. 1:36Mhm.
47. 1:37And we receive a lot of design
48. 1:39questions actually from our clients.
49. 1:41Like which furniture should I use? Um
50. 1:43which pieces would fit in my interior?
51. 1:46They're really looking to us to guide
52. 1:49them in the whole process. That's really
53. 1:52And it's evolving more and more towards
54. 1:54this um
55. 1:56There was this kind of sales process for
56. 1:57us.
57. 1:58Though you created Livinlight, you
58. 1:59didn't anticipate your users would be
59. 2:01asking for help with actual creating
60. 2:03layouts and placing furniture on floor
61. 2:05plans.
62. 2:06No, exactly. No, that's something we
63. 2:08didn't even think of when we started
64. 2:10Livinlight.
65. 2:11So you're pursuing it and you have on
66. 2:12your team different people that are
67. 2:14taking care of this. Are these
68. 2:16architects, uh interior designers? What
69. 2:18is your team built like?
70. 2:19Within the Livinlight team, we mostly
71. 2:21have a a team of more operations, um
72. 2:25five to six guys working in the workshop
73. 2:27all day. So that's really the core of
74. 2:29our business is repairing furniture.
75. 2:32But then we have a couple of people in
76. 2:34sales, an interior designer,
77. 2:36um and then some marketeers.
78. 2:39Cool.
79. 2:39And so it's really the
80. 2:41the interior designer, but also the
81. 2:42sales managers using Rayon.
82. 2:46Mhm. Awesome. So maybe let's talk about
83. 2:48that. When did you start using Rayon?
84. 2:50How did you realize you needed a tool to
85. 2:53manage floor plans with? Um and you've
86. 2:55been using Rayon for a while now. So
87. 2:57maybe a little bit about the experience
88. 2:59of how the tool helps you on your daily
89. 3:01workflow.
90. 3:03We started using Rayon I think 2 years
91. 3:06ago now. I think it's
92. 3:08It's been a while at least. Um and we
93. 3:10were looking for a tool that would help
94. 3:12us make professional-looking floor plans
95. 3:16that we could share with clients.
96. 3:18So on the one hand to for us to to help
97. 3:21select the right products and see which
98. 3:23ones would fit within a specified area.
99. 3:27Um also for example to be sure that if
100. 3:29we deliver someplace, we don't have to
101. 3:31deliver three times because we chose the
102. 3:32wrong products. Super important. That's
103. 3:34a big cost in our industry.
104. 3:37Um but then also just visually to share
105. 3:39with the clients. It's a really It's a
106. 3:42really great tool. Um
107. 3:44and it's an easy one also because anyone
108. 3:48can learn to use it. It's really
109. 3:50intuitive, um user-friendly.
110. 3:53So, it's actually mostly our sales
111. 3:55managers who use it on a daily basis.
112. 3:59Um,
113. 4:00yeah, and that was really a fast
114. 4:02learning process.
115. 4:03I have to hear that. Um, do you remember
116. 4:06which tool you were using before you
117. 4:07discovered Rayon?
118. 4:08Of it actually was a whole mix of
119. 4:11um, platforms. So, the our interior
120. 4:13designer is using SketchUp, for example,
121. 4:16but then the sales, if they had to do
122. 4:18something quickly, it was more in
123. 4:20PowerPoint or in Room Arranger, which is
124. 4:22a much smaller program.
125. 4:24Um, it was a mix of uh, mix of things.
126. 4:27And now your interior designer is using
127. 4:29Rayon as well with the sales?
128. 4:31Yes, she's also using Rayon, but
129. 4:33sometimes if she really needs to make a
130. 4:353D plan, that's really for our big, big
131. 4:38projects. It's not for all of them, then
132. 4:40she will go back to SketchUp.
133. 4:42Cool. Yeah, that makes sense because
134. 4:44Rayon is a 2D tool only. So, uh, the
135. 4:46workflow is would always be exporting to
136. 4:49make 3D somewhere else or at least for
137. 4:50now. So, what would be the estimate of
138. 4:52time it would take from when you import
139. 4:55a floor plan of a client in Rayon till
140. 4:56the time that your team has set the
141. 4:59sale, you know, the sale process in
142. 5:01place?
143. 5:02Well, let's say we have to design a
144. 5:04two-bedroom apartment. We typically
145. 5:06receive the floor plan in a PDF format.
146. 5:10That's also a really nice feature that
147. 5:12we can we don't need to ask for complex
148. 5:14formats.
149. 5:15Um, so we upload it, it takes a few
150. 5:17minutes, and then, um, our whole library
151. 5:20of Livspace furniture is already in our,
152. 5:23um, platform
153. 5:25in Rayon, and so we just have to drag
154. 5:27and drop the furniture in there. So, it
155. 5:29can take from
156. 5:3010 to 30 minutes
157. 5:32depending on how much time we want to
158. 5:34think about it. Yeah.
159. 5:35That's cool. Super cool. So, actually,
160. 5:38when you started using Rayon, you
161. 5:40imported all your custom Livspace
162. 5:42furniture, created blocks out of them,
163. 5:44and then you can use them across all
164. 5:46your projects, which is, I'm guessing
165. 5:48one of the things that help you work
166. 5:49faster.
167. 5:50Yes. Yeah, it was super important for us
168. 5:52to be able to upload all of our
169. 5:54furniture library in there to be able to
170. 5:57reuse it um
171. 5:59really fast. And that's what's nice is
172. 6:01when we show the plan to a client, it's
173. 6:03really our furniture that's on the plan,
174. 6:05not somebody else's.
175. 6:07Super.
176. 6:08Um so, do you have any example or do you
177. 6:11remember any project that you were
178. 6:13working with with Ryan
179. 6:14um
180. 6:16that you can like give an example about?
181. 6:18Ah, sure.
182. 6:19Actually, the latest project we made in
183. 6:22Rayon just recently
184. 6:24was for a um
185. 6:27like a 20-people office.
186. 6:29Mhm.
187. 6:30Um for an HR agency in Antwerp.
188. 6:34And we made a couple iterations. Um we
189. 6:38used the
190. 6:39the online comments also to exchange
191. 6:41with the clients, and they were really
192. 6:43happy with the results.
193. 6:45So, actually, we really use it in a wide
194. 6:48variety of projects from
195. 6:50a studio apartment for staging for for
196. 6:53you know, selling a real estate project
197. 6:55to
198. 6:56private practice, like a dentist
199. 6:58practice, or an office, or hotel. So,
200. 7:03it's really um
201. 7:04It sounds pretty wide.
202. 7:06You have such diverse projects. It's
203. 7:08really fascinating. It's really nice to
204. 7:09know that people are opening up to the
205. 7:11idea of
206. 7:12um you know, renting furniture because
207. 7:14it's very innovative. Um can you tell us
208. 7:16just you know, a bit more about the
209. 7:18Livby side? How do people react to it in
210. 7:20the first place? Do people um trust your
211. 7:23product cuz I would imagine that you
212. 7:25have some barriers before people are all
213. 7:27in, right?
214. 7:28Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's um one of our
215. 7:31biggest challenges, I guess, is just to
216. 7:33get the word out there that you can rent
217. 7:35furniture.
218. 7:36Not everyone Googles furniture for rent.
219. 7:39Right.
220. 7:40So, that that's the first hurdle, and
221. 7:41then the second one is that our products
222. 7:43are not new. They're refurbished. But,
223. 7:47they're refurbished that you don't even
224. 7:48see they're
225. 7:50they've been reused. They look as good
226. 7:51as new.
227. 7:52Um so, sometimes we don't even need to
228. 7:54mention it.
229. 7:56I saw on your website that
230. 7:57a quote that users were saying, you
231. 7:59know, I received Liv Light's um shipment
232. 8:01today and I don't even know if it's new
233. 8:03or old furniture. Uh so, I guess your
234. 8:06team is doing a really really great job
235. 8:07there.
236. 8:08Yeah, that's that's the most important
237. 8:09part for us. To see that our furniture
238. 8:11is reused again and again.
239. 8:14Um but, also means that we have to make
240. 8:16sure we have really timeless furniture
241. 8:18made from quality materials. Like, so
242. 8:21typically we use a lot of solid wood.
243. 8:24Um and this is interesting for me to
244. 8:26to also ask. So, your furniture design,
245. 8:29is this also something you do in-house
246. 8:31or do you collaborate with furniture
247. 8:33designers to create the Liv Light
248. 8:35collection?
249. 8:36It's not exactly Liv Light furniture. We
250. 8:38actually um buy our furniture from
251. 8:41Ethnicraft.
252. 8:43So, it's an
253. 8:44Ethnicraft is an Antwerp furniture brand
254. 8:47um that's more in the middle to high
255. 8:49segments.
256. 8:50Mhm.
257. 8:50And we buy furniture from them that we
258. 8:54then repair, refurbish, and then rent
259. 8:56out.
260. 8:57So, actually you're making
261. 9:00Ethnicraft furniture more accessible for
262. 9:02people who want to buy it but can't buy
263. 9:04it. Means they can rent it for a
264. 9:06specific amount of time.
265. 9:08Yes, exactly. Yeah.
266. 9:10making Ethnicraft furniture more
267. 9:11affordable. Most Proving that it can be
268. 9:13circular, that it can be sustainable in
269. 9:16the long run.
270. 9:17That's amazing. How long has Liv Light
271. 9:19been running?
272. 9:19Uh Liv Light has been running for 3
273. 9:21years now.
274. 9:23And what's your plans for the future for
275. 9:25Liv Light? How do you see
276. 9:28this company evolve?
277. 9:29Um for the future,
278. 9:31one of our main goals is to just keep
279. 9:33growing our impact. So, to have more
280. 9:35furniture being reused and refurbished.
281. 9:39So, I hope I I I I don't know by the end
282. 9:41of next year that we have around 10,000
283. 9:43products that have been reused and
284. 9:45refurbished.
285. 9:46Um and other than that, hopefully we can
286. 9:49keep expanding the range of products to
287. 9:52suit different um tastes and styles.
288. 9:56Um and who knows, maybe branch out to
289. 9:58other markets, too.
290. 10:00Super cool. I hope I'm sure that you
291. 10:02will make everything happen. Friska,
292. 10:04thank you so much for taking the time uh
293. 10:06for talking with us and for sharing your
294. 10:09experience about Ryan.
295. 10:11Um we're looking forward to continuing
296. 10:13to working together and to see Liv light
297. 10:15grow.
298. 10:16Look forward to it, too. Thank you.
299. 10:18Bye, Friska. Thank you.