About Refinement House

Growing up, my parents owned a café. I remember asking why they stored the coffee cups in the crammed space above the espresso machine instead of the many abundant cabinets. My mom told me, "Coffee tastes better when the ceramic cup it's served in is already warm."

That's the kind of detail people feel but can't quite articulate. The reason they keep coming back to you instead of the three other cafés on the same street. I've spent years working in consumer insights and the experience side of some of the largest brands in the world — Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Macy's, Swatch, SK-II, Olay, Gillette, and many others — and more recently in technology, focused on how brands evolve their experiences in a digitally enabled world.

My real specialty sits at the intersection of two worlds: the meticulous, intuitive eye of a family-run business, and the operational discipline of the largest brands. That's what Refinement House is built on.

— Iris