Shae Hong and the color he thought would never sell

Shae Hong did not think sage green was going to sell. Drew Barrymore did. This was an awkward disagreement to have when the object of the exercise was to put a new kitchenware brand into people’s homes. Hong knew the business. Barrymore knew the color she wanted. He agreed to go ahead. Later, describing the launch, he recalled a sellout in 72 hours.

There are less expensive ways to discover that a business partner has good taste. But the episode captures something useful about Hong, the founder, chairman and CEO of Made By Gather. He has spent years developing judgment about everyday objects. He has also learned to work with people who bring a different judgment to the table.

A toaster is a modest stage for a drama about trust. That is part of the attraction. The appliances Hong’s company makes occupy an intimate, unceremonious place in daily life: beside the coffee, under the cupboard, in the corner that somebody keeps meaning to clear. His career has become an extended argument that these objects deserve more thought.

An education in starting again

Hong arrived in kitchenware after an earlier ambition came apart. His first startup, ePods, pursued internet-connected appliances. Salton, the housewares company associated with the George Foreman grill, was an investor. When the market crashed in 2000, the venture could no longer raise the money it needed.

His next effort involved countertop appliances carrying the Amana name under license. That business folded in 2002 after the licensing agreement was terminated. Two ventures had exposed two different vulnerabilities: dependence on funding, then dependence on permission to use somebody else’s brand.

Looking back, Hong has described an early critique of ePods that stayed with him. The operation was attempting several demanding businesses at once, combining hardware, internet service, content and commerce. The lesson he took was focus. A long list of things a company might become can make the thing it needs to do today surprisingly hard to see.

His first investor’s background helped point him toward the kitchen. When Hong examined the category, he saw appliances that did not feel designed for him. The black finishes, stainless steel and familiar shapes left him thinking there was room to do something differently. He has described his motivation with disarming economy: “I could do it better.”

That is a useful founding conviction, provided it eventually meets a factory, a price and a customer. The business now known as Made By Gather dates its founding to 2003. Its earlier life as Sensio gave Hong years of practice turning product ideas into goods that retailers could actually sell.

An item becomes a name

For a supplier, success can arrive anonymously. A shopper takes home the object; another name receives the credit. Hong’s company built a business supplying major retailers, but selling a collection of items created a different kind of enterprise from owning a brand that customers might seek out again.

In 2010, advice about the value of developing its own brands prompted a rethink. Bella launched the following year. The change gave the company an identity it could develop across products, rather than starting the conversation anew with each item.

Consider what that asks of a toaster. It must still toast. But it also has to look as though it belongs with the other things carrying the same name. Its shape, packaging and price become parts of a longer conversation with the buyer. The morning bagel remains gloriously indifferent to brand strategy. The person paying for the toaster may care.

Hong’s work also kept him close to physical retail. During the enthusiasm for direct-to-consumer businesses, he continued to value the big retailers his company knew. A product on those shelves has to make its case amid competing boxes, price labels and the rest of a shopping list. Accessible design has to survive that encounter.

Today, Made By Gather lists $5 billion in sales since inception and 15 million units shipped annually. Those are company-wide figures across many years and products. They give scale to the practical work behind the founder’s story: getting ordinary objects into homes, repeatedly.

The work between meetings

Beautiful by Drew Barrymore arrived in 2021, sold exclusively at Walmart. Its premise was visible in the products: soft matte finishes, gold-colored details and appliances that could contribute to a room’s appearance. A touchscreen could remain discreet until needed. A handle could receive the same attention as a silhouette.

The brand’s own origin story asks why kitchen appliances so often come in black or stainless steel. It describes working with designers and engineers to make countertop essentials more attractive while retaining their performance. The questions are simple enough to sound obvious. Answering them means making choices about materials, controls, comfort and cost.

Hong’s expression for the approach is a “human at the helm.” A person gives a brand a point of view and a voice. That brings a practical responsibility: the collaborator needs something to say about the object beyond announcing its existence.

When Hong explains how he evaluates prospective partners, he talks about their behavior between scheduled meetings. Do ideas keep arriving? Is there feedback? Has somebody been thinking about the product since the last conversation? An engaged partner leaves evidence in the work before the cameras arrive.

The sage-green disagreement makes that standard tangible. Hong’s experience gave him reasons to doubt the choice. Barrymore’s confidence supplied a reason to try it. A partnership that allows both positions has room for an actual decision. Agreement is easier when nobody has anything at stake; this was stock that would have to sell.

The resulting 72-hour sellout became an example Hong could carry into later discussions of trust. It also makes a pleasing complication in a founder’s story. Having spent years learning what works, he could still benefit from backing an idea his own instincts resisted.

“It’s not going to sell.”

Shae Hong, recalling his doubts about sage green

A toaster meets the internet

The company’s approach to people extends beyond celebrity partners. In 2023, Hong discussed the arrival of Sophie “Lightning” Jamison as Chief TikTok Officer. She had previously held that title at Nerf. Toy blasters and kitchen appliances have different instruction manuals, but both can benefit from someone who understands how an audience pays attention.

Jamison described developing distinct personalities for Made By Gather’s brands on the platform. Hong, meanwhile, recognized that TikTok required a different process. A company capable of designing an appliance still has to learn how that appliance belongs in somebody’s feed.

There is a family resemblance between this hire and the Barrymore partnership. Both put a particular person’s expertise inside the business. The contribution has to become part of how the company works: what it makes, how it looks and how it speaks.

There is quieter expertise behind those public-facing decisions. Data Operations Manager Emma Todd helped build the company’s retail reporting around Crisp and Snowflake. A weekly process that had taken more than six hours of extracting point-of-sale data fell to under an hour to refresh reports. More than 35 people gained access to the information across sales, planning and leadership.

This is a different kind of attention from the attention a celebrity brings. It tells a company what is moving through stores and helps teams plan what happens next. A pleasing product needs that less glamorous work around it. Nobody comes home from shopping to admire the reporting system, but the purchase depends on a product being there.

Design can also address a less photogenic frustration: storage. Bella’s Fits Anywhere products include a griddle that folds and stores upright. The idea answers a familiar domestic negotiation. A new appliance may be welcome; the loss of another section of counter space receives a cooler reception.

It is tempting to treat color as the interesting part and storage as the dull part. A kitchen refuses that distinction. The beautiful object still has to fit. Hong’s work returns to the same place where his early dissatisfaction began: the encounter between a person and the things arranged around them.

Room for another chapter

Beautiful eventually moved into furniture, including the Drew Chair. The oversized swivel seat took the partnership beyond the kitchen and tested whether its design sensibility could travel. At their NRF appearance in 2024, Barrymore and Hong discussed that expansion alongside the experience of building the brand together.

In May 2026, Made By Gather announced refinancing led by TCW Private Credit Group and MidCap Financial. The stated purposes included continued innovation and expanding retail partnerships. For Hong, the company’s next phase includes products for the kitchen and other rooms of the home.

That ambition retains the original constraint: design needs to reach people at attainable prices. Moving into another room expands the work. A chair must earn its place differently from a coffee maker. The larger idea still depends on a sequence of small decisions that customers will live with.

Hong’s advice to entrepreneurs emphasizes endurance. He has urged them to think in terms of a marathon and build for the adversity that comes with it. After early ventures, a supplier business and years of brand development, the advice has a fairly literal basis.

The green appliances make a tidy anecdote. The years around them give it weight. Here is a founder who wanted to make something better, learned how much practical work that required, and eventually found himself considering a shade he did not trust. He let it onto the counter. Somebody else took it home.