Megan Offner: New York Heartwood

"Finding the right people. You can find people that are capable and talented, but finding people that are passionate and loyal, especially with woodworking, that's why we have a cooperative model."

• Megan Offner

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve sits down with Megan Offner from New York Heartwoods! Megan was one of the first ten podcast guests ever and the first female Woodpreneur to join the podcast guest list. 

When the Woodpreneur Podcast was called the Sawmill Business Podcast, Megan was primarily a milling business. However, in the six years since her first appearance, her business has grown exponentially. She has diversified her company's focus, and an enormous amount of change has occurred. 

Who They are Today

"Today, we are a fabricator of sustainable wood furniture. As you know, we started off milling and selling lumber and slabs, and very early on, people started asking for furniture. So initially, I was subbing that out and then gradually put a team together. Now it's more of a cooperative or collective business at this point; all women. 

We do a lot of furniture made from local wood and our clients' trees. Because of the milling and drying background, I work with clients who are either doing new construction or have removed trees because they are dying or diseased, or they're afraid they're going to fall on their house. Still, they want to have that material incorporated into their home. 

So I now just project manage the milling and drying process, work with the client on the designs with my team, and we return the wood from that tree to the client in the form of primarily furniture, but we do all sorts of surfaces."

• Megan Offner



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