And he's right.
Buying a new sofa or any piece of furniture should be fun. It's generally tied to a special moment in your life — perhaps moving home, redesigning your living space, or just making a big purchase with your partner. But very quickly, furniture shopping becomes immensely frustrating.
"Say I'm on Wayfair, there are 9 million options — I'm not really sure how to pick," says Tishman on the troubles of furniture shopping. "And why do I need to wait three, four, five, six months to get products?"
So Tishman founded Allform to change the way we shop for sofas, to bring joy back to the experience, and to ensure you're not left waiting months and months for your new sofa to arrive.
Allform is the sister company of Helix Sleep, a mattress brand launched to provide a more customized sleep solution to consumers.
After years of growing Helix and learning from customers about their needs around the home, it became clear to Tishman that the same types of problems Helix was founded to solve in the sleep category existed in many furniture categories. "This led us to believe there was an opportunity to move outside of the bedroom into the living room by providing sort of this same type of opportunity around really high-quality products or furniture, helping with configuration, etc."
What Tishman and his team found was that there are plenty of great sofas out there, and whatever you're looking for, you can usually find these days. "There are great sofas in the world," he says. "The problem is actually buying the sofa and then all the miniature steps that happen between buying, getting it in your home, and post-purchase experience."
With Allform, they made the sofa buying process more straightforward, customizable, and enjoyable.
Allform sofas are modular, making it easy to design a piece that fits perfectly in your home. "Each sofa can be designed to fit your specific space and not force you to retrofit your space to preexisting models sizes," explains Tishman. "Customization and modularity let you get what you want your space."
And on Allform's website, customers have the option to customize their sofas — from configuration and upholstery to leg finish and even adding complimentary throw pillows, blankets, and ottomans. "The goal is to make buying a sofa online as easy, if not easier, and less frustrating than the other options," he adds.
By allowing customers to take a proactive part in designing their furniture, Tishman believes it makes people feel like they have a more significant hand in developing the aesthetic of their home. "It just feels good to be able to pick your color combo your size. You feel ownership over your decision."
Allform also offers fast shipping and aims to get all products to you within one to four weeks. It also ships sofas in easy-to-move boxes so getting your sofa into your home is an easy experience, and you won't have to worry about wrestling your sofa around any tight corners and hallways.
Watch: Get an expert opinion on Allform's sofa with interior designer Bri Ussery:
The experience of building Helix has helped Tishman and his team develop a sofa that meets the demands of modern consumers.
"We come from a comfort background. We are not a group of high-end, trained interior designers or industrial furniture designers," says Tishman. "We're people that obsess over what makes things comfortable, and you sort of see that in the product features that we decided to put into the Allform products."
After years of designing mattresses for their Helix brand, the Allform team understands the importance of foam. "We know foam better than any company," explains Tishman. "We realize that to make mattresses and sofa cushions comfortable, and honestly, more importantly, durable, you need high-grade foam in there that exceeds a certain density."
Allform seat cushions use a high-grade polyfoam designed to provide comfort and avoid sagging. "A lot of foam is comfortable, but it's comfortable when you sit on it day one," says Tishman. "In three years, you don't really know. So we made sure that the quality or the density of the foam that we use hit the right level of durability."
"We want to create furniture tat you actually live on this. An Allform piece isn't the sofa you put in your fancy living room, and no one ever sits on it. This is the sofa that you're supposed to live on and actually use."
"We want to create furniture that you actually live on this. An Allform piece isn't the sofa you put in your fancy living room, and no one ever sits on it. This is the sofa that you're supposed to live on and actually use."
The Helix experience has also helped the team understand how valuable things like free shipping, 100-day free trials, and extended warranties are when buying an expensive product online. "These are real cues that help customers feel comfortable and confident in buying products that they've never bought from you before," adds Tishman.
Allform has a strong focus on doing things the right way. Its wood is sourced domestically from Sustainable Forest Initiative certified sources. It recycles the vast majority of materials used in its manufacturing processes, and some of the materials used in the sofa itself are recycled. Every Allform sofa is also made in the US.
And the business exists for a simple reason, to try and make life at home a little bit better.
"The real mission of our brand is to provide awesome products, and we like to say create a better place for people to be lazy, watch a movie, hang with loved ones and take a quick nap."
"The real mission of our brand is to provide awesome products, and we like to say create a better place for people to be lazy, watch a movie, hang with loved ones and take a quick nap," says Tishman.
"People always want to push corporate missions out there into the world. I just believe it's enough for your mission to make people's homes more enjoyable and lovely. When you get home from a long day of work, you fall onto one of our sofas, and that helps you relax — that's enough for me."
