Greg O’Neal, CCO (Chief Collaboration Officer) + Co-Founder of CUR8, has been curating, designing, and licensing products for the national and international home furnishings industry for over  24 years.  His scope of work ranges from residential to commercial interior design and includes product design collaborations with some of the largest manufacturers and retailers in the global marketplace. In the home furnishings industry O’Neal was the key design and visual merchandiser that launched and established Austin, TX based mega wholesaler Four Hands Imports into a three-time winner of Inc. Magazines “Top 500 Fastest Growing Companies”.  Since 2004 O’Neal has independently owned his design firm Philosophy Design, touting the most important “philosophy” behind the design firm is that of “choosing to do good business with good people”. Philosophy Design has shared its design goodness in the senior care, restaurant, boutique hotel, and retail segments going on its 14th year, as well as designed home furnishings and lighting products for a multitude of wholesale brands and licensees. In the spring of 2013 O’Neal was hired to repurpose and design a tiny, early 1900’s home in the booming South Congress area of Austin, TX. The intent of the project was to carefully curate a unique and innovative home interior while at the same time repurpose and respect the esthetics of the original structure. The almost 2 year design experience gave the new home owners an understanding of the  logistics in working together remotely and time invested in selecting, sourcing, finding, reviewing, presenting, purchasing and installing all of the esthetic treasures that accumulate and ultimately became their DREAM home. This experience sparked an idea with the intent to help interior designer’s source innovative and custom design products more efficiently that meet the growing expectations and needs of tomorrows clientele. In 2016 O’Neal joined forces with his former client, CUR8 CEO+ Co-Founder Jasmine Jaco (a senior executive and lifelong consultant for some of the world’s largest retailers) to develop a marketplace that brings the best of “what’s next” to the professional interior design community. CUR8 provides interior designers a source for emerging products that are Smart, Healthy and Made Here (no matter where “here” may be).  “We believe good design is no longer good enough and that tomorrows design must be more than just beautiful. I know first-hand what interior designers need to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace and believe that CUR8 is a necessary designer resource for the next generation of innovative, inspirational and insightful products” Greg O’Neal. Check out Greg's Website here This episode has been sponsored by Dallas Market Center