Interview with Samuel Finn, Co-Founder and CEO of ergonofis, about Sit-Stand Desks

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by Mehmet Kaplan

Is it healthy for us to sit all day long while working? or should we stand all day long while working? How about doing both with the same desk? Samuel Finn and Kimberley Pontbriand have a solution for everybody who want to stay healthy while working. ergonofis Sit-Stand Desk could be arranged to the right height for both sitting and standing and it has a memory to keep this heights for you. In order to learn more about Sit-Stand Desk, I talked to Samuel Finn, Co-Founder and CEO of ergonofis. Stay healthy.

Kimberley Pontbriand and Samuel Finn

Samuel, before start talking about ergonofis, could you tell us about yourself? Who is Samuel Finn?

Great question, I’m always evolving and chasing new challenges. At the moment, I’m extremely focused on ergonofis so I have to admit that I’ve lost myself a little bit outside of work (I’m actively working on changing this). To answer your question, I’m a driven, resourceful self-taught individual looking to make his mark on the world. I’m passionate about anything related to business (especially startups), financial markets, health, and technology.

ergonofis Sway Desk Walnut

How did you come up with the Sit-stand desk idea, which problem triggered you?

It all started when I launched an online company that offered personal training plans. Knowing how terrible sitting all day is to our health, the first thing I did was to lodge my old car tires under my desk to build a fixed-height standing desk. I soon realized that standing all day isn’t ideal for our health either. Keeping the same objective, inspire people to live healthier lives, I decided to partner with Kim and focus all my efforts on building exceptional products and services for office workers. That’s when ergonofis was born, from a passion and a pain point that I had in my early twenties.

When did you meet with Kimberley?

I met Kim at the very beginning of the company’s story. She had just finished her bachelor’s degree and offered to help me for practically free. She fell in love right away with the work we were doing, and I immediately saw the incredible value she brought to the company. She became a co-founder from day one as she helped form the company from an idea into what we are today.

ergonofis Shift Desk

Could you tell us about ergonofis Sit-stand desk?

Our first model was the Sway Desk, a high-quality sit-stand desk with a solid wood top and a touchscreen with programmable heights. We worked extremely hard to launch a unique desk that was inspired by minimalism and Scandinavian design. The launch exceeded our expectations and we soon decided to work on a more affordable version while respecting our high-quality standards. Several months later, we introduced the Shift desk with a laminate top.

ergonofis Sway Desk Walnut Touchscreen

What are the features of ergonofis Sit-stand desks? How does it help to us for creating ergonomic working space?

We spend most of our lives at work, it’s crucial to adopt healthier habits. Healthy habits mean standing every so often in order to increase our blood flow, to reduce the pressure on our spine, and to be more productive. Our desks allow you to do just that, alternate between sitting and standing throughout your workday.

Working standing at a sit-stand desk is liberating, but having the freedom to adjust the height of our desks to our own unique bodies when sitting is also absolutely crucial for our long-term health. Pretty much every single desk that isn’t a sit-stand desk has a standard height of 30”. Some desk workers are 5 feet tall while other are 6 feet 6 inches tall! How can we expect both people with such a height difference to work at the exact same desk?

That’s why our desks help create ergonomic workspaces. They also have programmable heights, which means that once we find the right height for both sitting and standing, we can program them into the desk. We then only need to press one of the positions and the desk will adjust automatically to our desired height.

ergonofis Alive Sit-Stand Desk - Sitting

Why did you prefer the direct-to-consumer sale option?

For many reasons, to keep this short, here are the top three reasons why I prefer the direct-to-consumer model:
1. It allows us to offer higher quality products at a lower price point than if we went through the traditional retail chain.
2. It allows us to be in direct contact with our customers and to build deeper relationships with them, which is one of our core values.
3. We can react much quicker to the feedback we gather from the market. If we sold through retailers, we would lose that rapid feedback loop and so our product innovations would be slower.

ergonofis Alive Sit-Stand Desk - Stand

Could you tell us about your tree plantation partnership with One Planted Tree?

Absolutely! We sincerely believe that it’s the responsibility of every company to find a way to help our environment or get involved with a social cause that has a positive impact. Profit at all costs brought us to a time where our planet is seriously threatened and where depression rates are higher than ever. This needs to change. We want to be part of and lead that change.

ergonofis Computer Stand

What type of other products do you offer to your customers?

We offer multiple accessories to complement our sit-stand desks. Our bestsellers are our anti-fatigue mats (very comfortable to stand on and they relieve pressure on our knees and backs when standing), our computer stands (to elevate the screen to a proper height), and we also recently launched an affordable ergonomic chair.

Do you have any new designs on the drawing table?

We certainly do, keep an eye out or sign up to our mailing list, we’ll be sending out more information ;)!

How do you use social media for ergonofis? How can our readers follow ergonofis?

As I previously mentioned, building relationships are very important to us. Social media is great for that, it allows us to engage with our community and we hope to inspire them to live healthier lives at the office. We’re mostly active on Instagram (@ergonofis) and Facebook.

ergonofis Suar Live edge

How can our readers buy ergonofis products? Do you have a worldwide delivery option?

They can buy directly on our website (ergonofis.com for Canada and us.ergonofis.com for the USA). We deliver everywhere in North-America, but we don’t currently sell elsewhere.

What is next for you?

We’re launching new accessories in the fall and we’re investing heavily in our infrastructure at the moment to always improve our customers' experiences, which includes faster deliveries and a few fun touchpoints we’ll be announcing soon.

Thank you Samuel.

For more information, please visit website of ergonofis

This interview was conducted in a Question-and-Answer format. The answers were checked for grammar and punctuation and published without any additional editing. Monday, August 6, 2018. All photos are the property of their respective owners.