Home furnishings and decor isn’t a conventional space in which to launch a tech startup, but one group of entrepreneurs in Detroit thinks it has a lot of potential.
Amber Engine has created a software platform that streamlines the sales process for home furnishings and decor. The idea is to capitalize on the inefficiencies in the market, which is worth $275 billion.
"It's unusually under-penetrated online," says Morgan Woodruff, president and CEO of
Amber Engine. "There is a lot of headway for growth."
Rock Ventures, the umbrella entity for Dan Gilbert's business and real estate portfolio, launched the company in January. The business-to-business, cloud-based platform provides an online portal for manufacturers and online retailers that handles data management and keeps the availability of product offerings up to date.
"If you're looking for bar stools we want to show you every sort of bar stool available around the world," Woodruff says.
Amber Engine, which is based in the basement of the Chrysler House in downtown Detroit, currently employs a team of 15 people. It currently has a handful of openings, which Woodruff doesn’t expect to go away anytime soon.
"We expect to hire a person every other month for the rest of the year," Woodruff says.
Source: Morgan Woodruff, president & CEO of Amber Engine
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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