Room & Board: John Gabbert. A Broken Deal, a Family Rift, and the Birth of a Furniture Giant

John Gabbert built a massive furniture brand. But in order to do it, he had to defy his family.

John grew up working at his dad’s furniture store in the suburbs of Minneapolis. It sold classic, American-made furniture, with flowery prints and curved legs. But in 1972, John took a life-changing trip to Sweden, where he discovered an obscure store called IKEA. It was selling an entirely different type of furniture: simple, modern, and inexpensive, with a manufacturing process they controlled. To John, it looked like the future of furniture. The only problem, his dad didn’t agree.

That disagreement led to a 10-year family rift—but also a new business.

In 1980—zafter a deal to buy out his dad broke down—John spun out his own furniture brand, Room & Board. Today, it sells hundreds of millions of dollars of furniture in its own classic designs, mostly made by small American manufacturers.

This is the story of how John did it, without outside investors, and without chasing growth for growth’s sake.

What You’ll Learn

Why the right thing for your business might be the hardest thing for your family

How John connected with young boomers—not their parents

The key to long-term success: growing slow and saying “no”

Why John refused private equity money

Why Room & Board transitioned to employee ownership

Timestamps:

00:06:10 - Gabberts: flowery furniture in a fake living room

00:09:41 - Becoming president of the family business at age 23

00:13:33 - A fateful trip to IKEA in Sweden: “That's what the future needed to be”

00:18:36 - John tries to buy out the family business… until his dad backs out

00:35:47 - Design inspiration from modern art—and steel frames

00:46:38 - Why making furniture in America makes sense

00:55:27 - Investors come to call… and John says no

01:01:48 - The decision that transferred ownership to employees

This episode was produced by Chris Maccini with music composed by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Rommel Wood. Our engineers were Patrick Murray and Kwesi Lee.

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