Stop consuming, start creating.
“What we seek, at the deepest level, is inwardly to resemble, rather than physically to possess, the objects and places that touch us through their beauty.” — Alain de Botton
A beautiful space can empower and inspire. Warm interior design, carefully chosen colors, and graceful furniture can all blend together to fill us with awe, and while the thought that is poured into one of these beautiful environments can’t always be seen, it can always be felt.
These spaces all have the potential to be beautiful, but too many are filled with objects that have no soul.
We spend most of our lives inside spaces: homes and offices, classrooms and libraries, restaurants and cafes. These spaces all have the potential to be beautiful, but too many are filled with objects that have no soul; with desks and dining tables, designed by strangers in Sweden, and manufactured by factories in China; with coffee tables and bed frames that break after a few years of use; with furniture that isn’t imbued with stories from the past, and doesn’t inspire the stories of the future.
This is the problem that Saad & Vivek strive to solve with Naya.
Naya is a collaborative design platform built to bring unique furniture ideas to life, by matching clients that have creative ideas with skilled designers and makers.
85% of us have a creative idea, but only 15% of us have executed on making these ideas a reality. The founders have deeply researched the root causes of this gap, and designed Naya to help close it.
Saad & Vivek are ambitious designers who want to transform the furniture industry, and they are guided by three simple values: (1) enable creativity, (2) empower designers and makers, and (3) inspire meaning.
Enable Creativity:
From a young age, Saad dreamt of being an architect. He used to watch Art Attack religiously, drew detailed dream houses on notepads, and played The Sims, just to tinker with beautiful spaces.
In particular, he has a visceral memory of dreaming about a lamp. Its form was organic and made with modular wood panels, with light that would filter through a cone of rippled glass and a spine that could be adjusted to different heights. His mind had the ability to visualize the lamp, but he didn’t know how to build it or where to even begin.
The memory reminds him that each of us is capable of incredible acts of imagination, but it takes structure and discipline to harness raw creativity and convert it into a real product.
He was persuaded to study engineering instead of architecture, and it took Saad 10 years to finally muster the courage to build a portfolio and apply to design school. He eventually made a version of the lamp he imagined as a child for a project, but he continues to wonder: how much of our creativity is stifled at a young age, and continues to be stifled later on in life? How many of us have ideas in our minds? And can more of these ideas become real?
Through Naya, Saad wants to ensure that those with the courage to imagine bold ideas also have the tools to build them.
Empower Designers and Makers:
Some experiences last a few minutes in length, but leave an impact lasting a lifetime. Vivek grew up in a house filled with custom furniture, made from the surrounding trees of the village by a woodworker named Dev. When Vivek was around six and entering school, his dad knew he would need a study table and took him along to Dev’s workshop.
The workshop was tucked behind one of the quieter roads of the village. It looked like an ordinary house from the outside, but as Vivek walked closer, he could hear the thud of wood against the floor and the smack of a hammer against nail. He walked into the workshop with his dad.
Dev stood beside his workbench, hammer in hand, his eyes alight with excitement and purpose. Tiny droplets of sweat sparkled on his forehead like diamonds, while his hands were coated with glittering dust. The workshop was a beautiful mess; not the mess derived from sloppiness, but the mess of an artist creating work that matters.
There are ~400,000 makers and over ~200,000 trained designers in the US. Naya can help more of these talented artists find new markets for their work, express their creativity, and make their clients’ ideas real.
Dev put down his tools and welcomed them into a small room in the back of the workshop, where Vivek’s dad asked for the table. Dev looked towards Vivek.
“What do you want to study?” he asked.
Vivek had been asked that question before by adults, and he had always felt they didn’t actually listen to his answer. For some reason, he sensed that Dev would.
“I like to build things,” he replied, and looked down at the ground.
Dev considered him for a moment.
“I do too,” he replied, before returning to the workshop.
The study table that Dev built still stands in Vivek’s home, as sturdy and strong as it was on its first day, but he never found customers beyond the village.
For Vivek, Naya is a way to empower designers & makers like Dev.
There are ~400,000 makers and over ~200,000 trained designers in the US. Naya can help more of these talented artists find new markets for their work, express their creativity, and make their clients’ ideas real.
Inspire Meaning:
It’s difficult to develop meaningful connections these days. Our communication tools have made it easier to send an ephemeral message across the world, but harder to have a real conversation with a friend across the street, while a culture of instant gratification has resulted in clothes that don’t last beyond a year, and furniture that doesn’t last beyond a few.
In the US alone, over 12 million tons of furniture is discarded, contributing to the erosion of our relationships to the objects that we use everyday.
Saad & Vivek met at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and the idea for Naya was conceived and refined from dozens of afternoon walks around Harvard Yard. The conversation started with the vision of the change they want to see in the world through Naya. This progressed into conversations about market research, customer segmentation, product strategy, experience design, along with the numerous other nuts and bolts aspects of starting a business.
The founders believe there is magic in the co-creation process. Creative ideas are vulnerable in their infancy, and most are snuffed out by the need to conform to the status quo or because they seem too intimidating to implement.
The founders believe there is magic in the co-creation process. Creative ideas are vulnerable in their infancy, and most are snuffed out by the need to conform to the status quo or because they seem too intimidating to implement. Saad & Vivek believe that the co-creation process can make more of these vulnerable ideas real.
There are 4 steps to the process:
- Describe: Clients use Naya platform to describe their unique furniture idea.
- Match: The Naya algorithm matches clients with the right maker / designer for their idea.
- Collaborate: The platform facilitates collaboration with the help of sophisticated technology.
- Get it Delivered: The product is then made and delivered to the client’s space, with quality verified, at an affordable price, and in a timely manner.
Naya is starting with furniture, but the founders envision expanding the co-creation process to lighting, art, and other objects that can fill beautiful spaces across the world. They imagine clients with ideas in Boston, working with designers in Japan, and makers in Tanzania, or vice versa — a truly global network of creators. Vivek used to design and manufacture planes, and Saad designed and built buildings, and both believe that Naya has the potential to light a spark.
A spark in the mind of the client, whose creativity has been unleashed. A spark in the hands of the maker, whose talents have been applied. And most importantly, a spark in the connection forged between the client and the maker through the piece of furniture that will rest on the floor of a space.
Spaces that empower, and inspire.
To learn more about the Naya platform, click here.
