Ken Tomita, Grovemade: Failing Without Fear – Well Made E32

In the last eight years, Grovemade carved out a place in the workplace and everyday essentials genre with their modern wood accessories. They started off making iPhone cases, but they’ve evolved several times since then. Their flexibility and ambition has made for a substantial, product line, complete with everything from pocket knives to wireless chargers.

At the helm is co-founder and CEO, Ken Tomita, whose credo of making things the hard way is pivotal to the success of Grovemade. He leans into it, taking a bold, experimental approach to new products, without a fear of making mistakes.

In this episode, Ken talks about risks he took to invest in products, three-minute meetings, on-site customer research, and knowing when to outsource manufacturing.

For product updates, stay up-to-date with Grovemade on Twitter and Instagram.

“We’re built to fail. That’s why we feel a lot of freedom. My team doesn’t feel [that] fear.”

Also mentioned on the show:

Header photo via Grovemade

You can find this and all future episodes on iTunes, Google Play, and here on the Lumi blog. This episode was edited by Evan Goodchild.