Natalie Hartkopf is the co-owner and chair of Hightower, a commercial furniture manufacturer founded in 2003. Hightower is a family-founded business, a certified Women’s Business Enterprise and Woman Owned Small Business. Under Natalie’s leadership and efforts, Hightower’s in-house brand, Hightower Studio, became a certified B Corp in 2023, one of only a handful of commercial manufacturers to achieve this important designation. Hightower is also a signatory on The Climate Pledge - a commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. It brings the world’s top companies together to accelerate joint action, cross-sector collaboration, and responsible change.
Natalie is integral in Hightower leading the charge on creating an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. She has pioneered the company's sustainability efforts to consistently deliver high-quality furniture using toxin-free materials throughout the Hightower supply chain and is dedicated to investing in its employees.
1% of all sales from higher education projects are distributed among Hightower employees into 529 savings accounts. Employees are guaranteed a 40-hour workweek, and paid living wages. Hightower contributes to employees' 401k accounts regardless of individual contributions. To encourage paying it forward, each employee receives additional days every year to volunteer with the charity of their choice.
In 2017, Natalie received the Governor’s Volunteer Service Award for tutoring at a Title 1 public school in King County. She has been a tutor and past Board Chair of Reading Partners Seattle. Natalie has been a member of Washington Women's Foundation and is the current Membership Chair for the Seattle Chapter of YPO (Young Presidents Organization).
00:00–01:25 — Why independence isn’t a limitation, it’s a strategic choice
01:25–02:13 — Growing up in the furniture industry and building Hightower from the ground up
02:24–03:26 — How hiring outside the industry unlocked new thinking
03:26–05:11 — Defining a point of view in a market full of similar products
05:11–06:36 — What Hightower looks for in design collaborators and why it matters
06:36–09:40 — Sustainability beyond materials: supply chains, transparency, and complexity
09:40–11:55 — B Corp certification as a framework for better business decisions
12:21–13:34 — Rethinking employee investment, equity, and long-term impact
13:34–15:31 — Taking risks at NeoCon and redefining what a showroom can be
16:12–18:05 — Collaboration as a strategy: shared spaces, shared audiences, shared value
18:05–20:50 — Transparency, product differentiation, and designing for real problems
20:50–End — Why embracing your point of view is the only real way to stand out
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:00:00] What does it really mean to lead independently in an industry built around scale, speed, and sameness? For some brands, independence is treated as a constraint. For others, it becomes a choice that shapes how decisions are made, how partnerships are formed, and how values show up in the work.
This is the story of Hightower, a woman-owned, independent contract furniture brand. Since 2003, it has grown by challenging longstanding industry assumptions, investing deeply in people and place, and treating sustainability and design as interconnected systems. Hightower proves that focus and conviction can be powerful advantages.
Welcome to Play with Matches, the podcast igniting bold ideas and redefining what's possible in architecture and design. I'm your host, Tiffany Raffi, CEO of UpSpring. Each episode, I'll talk with the disruptors sparking change at the intersection of creativity and business.
Today, we're joined by Natalie Hartkopf, co-owner and chair of Hightower. In a crowded market, Natalie brings a clear perspective on how purpose and curiosity can shape not just better products, but stronger businesses.
Let's start at the beginning.
Natalie Hartkopf:
[00:01:25] I grew up in the furniture industry. I grew up in North Carolina. My dad was in the industry for a very long time, and so it was always around me. And it was actually his idea to start Hightower, and I joined when I was in college.
It wasn't necessarily something that I would've chosen myself, but I'm really grateful for the opportunity to join the company right at the beginning and have seen it grown since, gosh, 2003.
At the very beginning with Hightower, I was in New York and doing outside sales, and I was just very much thrown into the industry and did all the roles in the company. That helped me see from the ground up how a furniture company is run, how it needs to start doing sales, doing project management, receiving customer orders, all the things. And it helped me think about what could we do differently and what our furniture company could look like.
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:02:13] What's striking here is that none of these choices were abstract. They came from being close enough to the work to see where the industry defaulted and where curiosity could open up a different way forward.
Natalie Hartkopf:
I think it really has come down to the people that we have met along the way who have decided to join Hightower. We've met some people from outside the industry, and they brought in the fresh perspective, and didn't really know what the traditional way was within a furniture manufacturer. They were able to contribute ideas from other industries and other companies.
When we did start to manufacture our own products, we knew we wanted it to be in High Point. We could have definitely done it somewhere else. We could have done it somewhere cheaper. But High Point has a rich history in furniture manufacturing, mostly on the residential side, but definitely a history and commercial office furniture.
I grew up in Greensboro and Winston-Salem and visited factories that were in High Point, and actually a lot of the people that work with us today, worked in those offices that I visited years ago, and so we've just been a part of that community for a really long time.
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:03:15] Building in High Point and betting on people outside the industry anchored Hightower's values in something real. From there, defining a point of view meant more than how the furniture looked.
Natalie Hartkopf:
[00:03:26] One of our values at Hightower is actually ‘be curious,’ and that is centered in staying inspired, looking outside of our industry, asking questions, and challenging our own ideas. And I think that's essential for innovation. But moving fast and staying innovative and trying to think about what the next thing is going to be is not easy. We've not always succeeded at it. Our team has evolved. Our team has changed, right? It's okay that there's a natural evolution of how our company evolves over the years.
We started as a Scandinavian furniture importer because we saw them embracing and prioritizing natural materials, wellness in the workplace. That's still a very important part of who we are, but we've evolved, and we've embraced domestic manufacturing and our own style, and I think that's just really important for maintaining a unique identity.
There are a lot of different companies in the industry. There are a lot of similar products and trends. The way that we can be the most unique is just being true to who we are, and what we find the most exciting, what we find the most interesting because there's only one me leading a company, and so if I can be true to myself, then we can be as unique as possible.
Hightower is a house of brands, so we work with multiple different brands. Hightower Studio is our own in-house brand. Overall, I would say that Hightower is known for approachable, high design. We want it to be really well designed. You can sit on it. You want to go experience the furniture. It doesn't feel too fancy, or too much like art.
And then we've always been a brand that's focused on those informal meeting spaces and that collaboration element.bSo collaboration, furniture, approachable, playful. I think that to me is the balance we try to strike.
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:05:11] A point of view, only carries weight when it's tested beyond your own walls, through collaboration with designers who think is deeply about materials, process, and purpose as you do about form.
Natalie Hartkopf:
When we look for design partners, we want them to have a clear perspective and a clear understanding of how a product will be made, what materials they wanna use and why. Beyond aesthetics, I think you have to be clear on what problem you're trying to solve, where the need is.
When we first started making products, we would bring in specialty items from our partners, but we decided a simple pouf is not something that we need to import. That's absolutely something that we can make domestically in High Point. And so we started differentiating between more complex, highly tooled products that we needed to import versus simpler forms that we could produce.
When we first started working with some designers—Robert Leonetti, Brad Ascalon, Trevor Hoyland—I always felt like we met these people at various serendipitous moments, where they were really wanting to design a new piece of furniture, or they were trying to find a home for something, and Hightower was just the right place at the right time.
And so I feel like we've been really lucky to run into people. Brad Ascalon and I were both earlier in our careers in New York, and now I feel like he's like a rockstar in our industry. Justin Champagne is another that we collaborated with when he first went out on his own, and that was really the foundation of the early Hightower products.
[00:06:36] Now we have our own in-house design team. They're not only responsible for coming up with designs that will be designed by Hightower Studio. They also work with individual designers that want to design products for Hightower Studio. And then there's also the review of our partner product pipeline and seeing what's coming down, where are the gaps? This is a material that we're not using, or this is something that would complement other products that will be introduced soon. And they actually add a lot of value to our partner products as well to say, Hey, for our market, it would be really great if we added a swivel or if we could stabilize it in this way.
And then the other thing that we just have more control of with an in-house design team are the materials that we choose. Our team is very mindful about the material ingredient reporting 'cause we can control the products that we are designing and what we are sourcing.
Sustainability is just a big umbrella for so many different things, and I actually appreciate that there's more nuance being added to it. At first, the sustainability conversations were around what materials are you using at a high level, where are you getting it from? And then it got much more granular in the material ingredient reporting, and the disclosures around the chemicals, and what are you either putting into your products or avoiding putting into your products. And I think alongside that was like a low VOC emissions reporting and things like that. And now there's so much more conversation around ethical supply chain, climate carbon reduction efforts, and the end of life of the product. A team member and I were just at Greenbuild, and I think we've lagged a little bit compared to building products.
It's exciting seeing all the green standards aligning around the Common Materials Framework, and there's a lot more conversation around product selection, especially around ancillary furniture. We are learning a lot.
One of the things I would point to is just the amount of supplier education and supplier work that goes into all of these sustainability requests. If it was only up to Hightower—if we were completely vertically integrated and doing all of our own work—the material transparency work would be still challenging, but not as challenging as relying on a complex supply chain. And even now as we get into ethical supply chain tracking, and going to not only your tier-one suppliers who you're buying directly from, but tier-two suppliers—which are your suppliers’ suppliers—that just gets much further down the line and trickier. We want to sell products where we know what's in it, and we know the health of it going into the end user's environment, and that just takes a lot of work.
I'm grateful that there are more tools available to us for tracking our products, the chemicals in the products, our suppliers, and excited to even try some new tools. There's Open Supply Hub, where you can really visualize the supply chain. I think all those tools are pushing for much more transparency in the industry, but the target is always moving.
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:09:40] Transparency materials, supply chains, people. Each one underscored the same reality: values have to show up in day-to-day decisions if they're going to last.
Natalie Hartkopf:
B Corp certification is a big milestone.
For anybody who might not know, a B Corp is a benefit corporation. This is a way for a for-profit company to indicate that they believe that there should be a balance between people, the planet, and profit—a triple bottom line approach to business, and use your business as a force for good and to take all stakeholders into consideration when you're making decisions.
And so, that philosophy was really important to me. I set it as an intention for us around 2018, and it took us three, four years before we actually submitted. And what was really helpful is that through B Lab you can do the B Impact Assessment. It gives you a very clear framework: this is where you are, this is where you need to be to qualify.
The first time we took it, we had a pretty, like, average score, and knew that we needed to improve our score in order to pass as a B Corp. It gives you very practical things to do, whether it's your policies, governance practices, transparency on your website. We didn't have to guess, okay, if we wanna be in ethical business, what does that actually mean?
[00:11:00] We needed to look at our healthcare policies to make sure that they had inclusive callouts. And so we reviewed to make sure that it was inclusive of transgender medical policies and things like that. And so that was just, you know, something that I remember making sure that our healthcare policies were as inclusive as possible.
We give volunteer paid time off. So, there's 16 hours for our team members to volunteer for causes that are important to them, and that's part of our PTO plan. We also looked at our parental leave. So before certifying as a B Corp, we did kinda a minimum FMLA plus maybe a couple weeks for the birthing parent, and we increased that to 8 weeks for the birthing parent and a non birthing parent. And that is both for our production team members and our salaried office team members. So things like that I think were just helpful for us to review and say, okay, we're doing this. If we do, this is best practice and this is something that we should strive for.
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:11:55] Those standards were far from theoretical. For Natalie and her team, they showed up and how the company chose to invest in its people.
Natalie Hartkopf:
I've always been, like, fairly people-oriented and maybe a little bit cynical about, like, traditional capitalism ,and just how inequitable it can be. And so as a business owner, I think we have the luxury to make choices about how we run a business.
[00:12:21] And there are some just like traditional practices that didn't feel quite right to me. And again, this is why the B Corp certification resonated. It gave a path to a more equitable way to operate a business.
So a-a couple ways that we prioritize our team members, we put 1% of all higher education sales into 529 plans for employees who want it. At least in the United States, education is not something that is free and available to everybody. And we've seen employees use it for themselves, use it for their children, their grandchildren, nieces and nephews. And so that's been great, and a way for us to say, okay, we're putting furniture in these beautiful universities, and college is out of reach for some of our team members and their families. And so how do we bridge that in at least a small way?
[00:13:08] The other thing that we do is Hightower contributes 3% to all 401Ks, even if our team members choose not to participate. They may need to use all of their paycheck for current bills and things like that. They might not have the opportunity to save for retirement, so Hightower puts money in retirement accounts. And then like I mentioned, parental leave is an important thing that people have access to, and so that's something that we've added in as well.
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:13:34] Building systems around values is an internal commitment. The next decision is when to step onto a public stage, take on real risk, and let those values shape how the brand shows up in moments that matter.
Natalie Hartkopf:
Some people find this surprising, but we actually had never shown at NeoCon until 2019. Even though that is an industry norm, it was a risk not to participate, and then it was a risk and, kind of, a bold move for us to choose to open a showroom and participate in 2019.
[00:14:03] Timing wasn't excellent to sign a lease and then go into COVID, but that was a risk, I think, something really exciting for us. It forced us to think about how we would show up differently, and so we made some bold choices in how we designed our showroom—what we wanted the experience to be.
We redesigned that showroom three times, with three different, kind of, personalities and styles and interpretations of our furniture, and I think it helped people see Hightower in a different way.
When we decided to show at NeoCon and open our showroom at The Mart, we partnered with Casey Keasler, with a firm called Casework—which is a Portland-based design firm—and Casey mostly did residential and hospitality design.
[00:14:45] It was a different choice to work with a small boutique hospitality firm for the showroom design. Casey had never done a showroom before, and we loved that because she came at it very differently. And then we thought about this as part one, part two, part three.
Part one was a very kind of neutral, textured palette. Cream. Very Scandinavian, something that people already thought of us for, but it was a very elevated, hospitality styling.
Then our second one, we called it ‘revenge dressing.’ It was post-COVID. People were coming back to NeoCon, and we just went all out with really rich tones, really rich textures, and that was just very luxurious and wonderful.
[00:15:31] And then our part three was very bold, lots of patterns. The theme was ‘what if Harry Styles was a showroom?’ And so we just went outside our own comfort zone. But I think that was the point, was just like, hey, how do we have fun with this? How do we try different things? Play with color, play with pattern. And so again, very distinct stylings, very purposeful.
We knew we were gonna do three designs in that space, and then close that chapter and figure out what was next. I think that kept it feeling fresh, that kept it feeling different each time is 'cause we knew that it was part of the series.
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:16:12] That moment at NeoCon wasn't only about visibility or presence. It prompted a broader curiosity about whether the industry's default ways of showing up still makes sense, and what could change if brands shared space, resources, and responsibility instead of operating alone.
Natalie Hartkopf:
There's actually something we've been testing a little bit with our NoMad CoLab space with Heartwork in New York, and a couple other brands.
Nomad CoLab was a concept with Karen, who leads Heartwork, and she had a beautiful showroom and was trying to think about what do I do with this space? Do I keep it? Do I move somewhere else?
We didn't have a dedicated showroom in New York at the time, and I had been talking with her and said our furniture looks great with your storage solutions, and what if we put some furniture in there? Then we started talking about the other products in her space: glass boards, wall coverings, lighting, all these products that really bring this space to life. She thought about bringing in other brands into her showroom space. All of our reps can use the space. We can co-host events together.
And so we did a one year experiment as Nomad CoLab. It was a really good test for us to see how does it work collaborating with other brands. I think there's such an opportunity for smaller brands to come together and promote complimentary products. We're all taking on these costs for trade shows and entertaining customers, and sending our products different places, and hosting events, and I just think it's so much more dynamic if we come to together and we collaborate and give designers and specifiers and dealers visibility into multiple brands at once. That's something we've been playing with more and more. Lots of different collaborations, and just considerations of what a true space looks and feels like, which is a mix of brands. Now, our products are in the Gibson showroom in New York with all of their brands.
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:18:05] Collaboration at that level changes more than the experience. It starts to put pressure on what sits behind the product and how clearly that story holds up.
Natalie Hartkopf:
In a completely different vein, I think there's a real opportunity for more transparency about our supply chains, where our products come from, and what efforts we're taking to be responsible manufacturers.
[00:18:27] I think, as the industry gets more competitive and things change, that's a way to stand out and differentiate. And then I think there are just a lot of products on the market and a lot of overlap of designs. If we slowed down a little bit and were more purposeful in what we were launching. I think ultimately the industry would be better off.
Looking ahead, what feels energizing is focusing on products that solve a problem, whether that's an inclusion problem, reconfiguration problem, refurbishment problem. Can we point to very clear solutions? At Hightower, we've started talking a lot about considered solutions. This means that we want to help guide designers by acknowledging all the different standards they're trying to meet. All the different considerations around neuroinclusivity, wellbeing in the office, different zones and work styles, right? Good design is like a baseline at this point. Products have to be well-designed. They have to have low VOCs. You have to know what's in the product. That should be the basic assumption.
[00:19:31] And then what's the next level, right? How clear are we on why you're using this product? Can you reupholster it? Can you do something with it when, you know, the style of the office has changed, or something like that? Can you reconfigure?
And this is something that Sean, our design director, has done for a long time. Whenever he has a concept, he's always mapped it to different attributes and benefits to the user. He's clear on this is why this is a good product for the person who's going to be sitting in it or using it.
When he was designing the Float chair, he was very thoughtful about the angles of the sit to fit natural postures, and then also the reinforcement on the arms themselves for egress, thinking about aging populations or any physical limitations.
[00:20:21] He's always thinking, okay, how is this going to fit somebody who's sitting in it? How are we thinking about getting out of this piece of furniture? People can feel why this chair feels comfortable. What we're talking about is how do we make those considerations more obvious and help people choose the products based on those considerations.
It's not brand new. We just think that there can be more direct lines for designers to find the products that they need when they're trying to solve certain problems.
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:20:50] None of these ideas are about scaling faster or louder. They're about clarity and having the confidence to lead from a place that feels unmistakably your own.
Natalie Hartkopf:
There are a lot of companies, and a lot of products, but there's only one you, and if you have the opportunity to lead a project, a product, a company, I think embracing your own creativity, your own style as much, as possible, is a way to embrace the uniqueness of you, your team. Because it's hard for other people to replicate that authentically.
[00:21:24] If you think it's interesting, if you think it's exciting, going with that instinct can be a way to really differentiate. In this world of sameness, it can be really beneficial to embrace who you are.
Tiffany Rafii:
[00:21:36] What this conversation with Natalie makes clear is how much leadership in our industry is shaped by intention rather than scale.
The choices Hightower has made around people, partnerships, and production reveal a way of working that values clarity over speed, and depth over noise. Those decisions show up in culture, in the products, and in how the brand chooses to participate in the broader design conversation.
There is a confidence that comes from building with curiosity, from collaborating openly, and from treating sustainability as part of a larger system rather than a separate initiative. Natalie's perspective offers a reminder that meaningful progress rarely comes from chasing every trend. It comes from knowing what you stand for and designing around that truth.
As a design landscape continues to evolve, this kind of leadership will matter more than ever. The future will be shaped by those willing to build thoughtfully, stay human, and make decisions that hold up over time.
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Play With Matches. We hope this conversation inspires you to push a little further, imagine a little bigger, and to keep igniting the ideas that move our industry forward.
To hear more conversations like this one, follow play with matches wherever you get your podcast.
Play With Matches is part of the Surround podcast network.
You can find show notes and full transcripts at surroundpodcasts.com. This show is produced by UpSpring. A huge thank you to our guests, our audio editing team Make a Scene Production, and to the UpSpring who helped make this episode possible: Brittany Lloyd, Eleanor Ling and Marcus McDermott.
Thank you so much for listening. Until next time.
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