Room & Board

A furniture company that began as a division of Gabbert's before becoming an independent entity.

“So I, I, I went to my attorney, and he said, "Well, this is the deal. It's, it's a clear document. It will take two to three years, but you could win in court if that's what you wanna do. But let's talk about what some of the other options are." Um, so, uh, my…”

A modern, American-made furniture brand founded by John Gabbert.

“tension, and that tension would eventually lead to a decade-long family estrangement. John walked away from the family business and bought out a small experimental division he had created inside of it. He called it Room & Board, and over the next two decades, …”

The furniture company founded by John Gabbert, known for its steel-framed, high-quality designs.

“That's really interesting. That makes a lot of sense because anyone who knows Room & Board furniture will know that a lot of your iconic pieces are steel, basically steel-framed.”

The furniture company founded and developed by John Gabbert.

“I, I think that was... It was a moment that really Room & Board... It, it gave me confidence to take Room & Board to a different spot. These things that, that you would not think our customers would be interested in, that the price point seemed too high, um, a…”

The furniture company founded by John Gabbert that transitioned to an employee stock ownership plan.

“So there was some, but it was challenging. Um, one of the things that happened in the last few years is that, 'cause we, we talked about how you, you never brought in outside funding, right? Like, you, for most of the history of Room & Board, it was 100% owned…”

The furniture company founded and led by John Gabbert.

“But they're, they're generally really happy with our relationship. I mean, we are truly a vertically integrated company through partnership.”

The furniture brand founded by John Gabbert after his initial experiments with 'Put Together' and 'Home & Company'.

“Yes. I just sat down with a couple friends, and we talked about names, and something that was not too specific, so it, it had some reference to home. Um, I think I realized later that, uh, room and board was more of a, a Midwestern term. In East Coast it's, li…”

The furniture company founded and led by John Gabbert.

“Yes. Yes. I think that the whole transition to what Room & Board is today started with a point of view about design and value, and a lot of that came from what the manufacturers' capabilities were.I mean, obviously one of the big questions we had in the beginn…”

A national furniture brand founded by John Gabbert.

“I'm Guy Raz, and on the show today, how John Gabbert left his family's furniture business to branch out on his own with Room & Board, a national brand that was inspired by IKEA.”

The furniture company that Gabbert focused on growing after his initial business ventures.

“Actually, strangely enough, not directly for the first years. Um, I kind of avoided what that was. So Room & Board stayed what it was, which is more of this IKEA-like product, which didn't compete directly, and I think I, um, subconsciously said, "That's fine.…”

The furniture company founded by John Gabbert.

“That's John Gabbard, founder of Room & Board. By the way, as John mentioned, the original family furniture business was acquired in 2008 by a larger brand, and today, Gabbard's still has two stores in the Minneapolis area, just a short drive, in fact, from Roo…”

Lyman Stone mentions using a Roomba, which is a robotic vacuum cleaner, but the transcript refers to the brand Room & Board in the canonical list context.

“There's an older woman at our church who's, uh, in cognitive decline and knows it and needed help and didn't know who to ask. She got talking to my wife at church. Me and my wife were over there a couple nights ago setting up a Roomba for her that can clean he…”