Vinterior Secondhand Furnishings Business Built From a Vintage Chair

Interior may not have any showrooms, but the home of founder and chief executive Sandrine Zhang Ferron has plenty of finds from the classy secondhand furnishings site - from quirky vases to a vintage drinks cabinet.

- Sarah Butler

Zhang Ferron, who was born in China but grew up in France, admits she created the site for herself, ditching her well-paid job in finance after struggling to find interesting pieces to furnish her London home after moving there.

"I realised I don't want to do that for the rest of my life, you know, helping rich people getting richer," she said, speaking at her home with her cat Misifu mooching around.

"I spent literally three months finding my yellow Poul Volther chair, which I eventually bought in a small shop in Hackney. You know, it can be fun, but also, if you've got to buy a lot, it can be like, I just don't have time for this."

After talking over the idea of creating an online marketplace for vintage furniture with a few well-placed friends, Zhang Ferron said:

"I went to my boss and said, okay, I'm going to quit because I'm going to learn to code."

One former colleague told her at the time: "It's never going to work."

And potential investors, most of whom were men, felt the idea was "so niche" that the market would be tiny. But she went all in anyway.

"I wanted to be fully committed to it. I never really thought about it as doing a side hustle."

Zhang Ferron signed up for a three-month course with Makers Academy, the training scheme that promises to help "the best people in Britain pivot into tech" as she felt this would give her the skills, contacts and understanding to build a digital business - even if she was going to bring in more experienced tech experts later.

She then began approaching people she knew who might want to sell expensive pieces of furniture they no longer wanted. "It was a big flop," she admitted.