New Online Service Designed to Help Interior Designers

During ICFF we had the pleasure to meet numerous brands, many of which were new to us. One such company that we had the opportunity to learn more about was Ivy. Dubbed as an "interior designers new best friend," Ivy, an online interface, functions as community and business management tool built for interior designers, by interior designers. This includes ways to submit billing, templates for proposals, a community connection and more. Read on to learn more about this innovative online service: 

How did the idea for Ivy come about? Why was this product important for the founders to create?

Ivy co-founders Alexandra Schinasi and Lee A. Rotenberg were working together on a workflow solution for vendors. After observing and researching the usage of their software, they noticed that interior designers faced unique challenges in the purchase process: orders were more complex than with other buyers, involving a lot of back and forth between the vendor, the designer, and their client. Alex and Lee started meeting with dozens of firms in the San Francisco Bay Area and identified other issues interior designers faced in their daily operations that had not yet been addressed by technology. This led them to focus on a solution for this industry, and to develop Ivy to help interior designers with their entire workflow, including sourcing products and managing vendor purchases.

How can Ivy help interior designers?

Ivy’s platform enables interior designers to run their entire business more efficiently. With Ivy, designers can create proposals for digital approval, generate beautiful tear sheets, track and bill for hours, invoice clients, send purchase orders to vendors, manage payment and furniture schedules, and more. This reduces the amount of time designers spend on administrative tasks so they can focus more on design and growing their business.

Tell us more about how it works.

Ivy members can purchase one of two annual Ivy Memberships, either billed monthly or annually, which gives designers access to the software that will help them run their business more efficiently. Each firm is also assigned a dedicated Customer Support Manager to ensure they get the most out of the platform.

How can Ivy help elevate brands?

The Ivy software allows designers to save hours they’ve traditionally spent on administrative tasks, so that they have more time to focus on design, FaceTime with clients, and growing their business. Ivy also enables designers to provide an even better experience to their client with digital proposal approvals and invoicing. This speeds up the pace of the project and reduces the redundancy of back and forth communication. Ivy also partners with various industry experts and vendors in the space, such as Abbyson Living, to host educational webinars and panels on the topics designers care about most, from how to manage client expectations to building a profitable business model. Any designer interested in learning more about how Ivy can transform their design business can schedule a one-on-one demo with an Ivy team member who will show how Ivy can help with time tracking, billing, purchasing, and more.