John Gabbert walked away from his family's furniture business in 1980 to build Room & Board, a design-focused American furniture brand inspired by IKEA's vertically integrated model. His decision to defy his father's vision cost him a decade-long family estrangement but created a company that grew to hundreds of millions in annual sales without outside investors or private equity. Seeing IKEA's designer-controlled manufacturing process in Sweden fundamentally changed John's vision for furniture retail, showing him that controlling product design upstream was more efficient than being dependent on traditional manufacturers.