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FORMER PELOTON CEO JOHN FOLEY IS LAUNCHING HIS CHARM OFFENSIVE. I'VE JUST BEEN USHERED INTO THE MANHATTAN OFFICE OF HIS NEW STARTUP, THE RUG COMPANY ERNESTA, WHEN FOLEY APPEARS WITH A CRINKLED SMILE, SUMMER TAN, TIGHT-FITTING NAVY POLO, AND FIRM HANDSHAKE. FOR AN ERSTWHILE BILLIONAIRE FORCED TO EXIT THE COMPANY HE BUILT AMID A SHAREHOLDER REVOLT AND A SEA OF NEGATIVE PRESS, THE 52-YEAR-OLD SEEMS REMARKABLY UPBEAT, AS IF HE HAS SOMEHOW BOTTLED THE SUNSHINE OF HIS TEENAGE YEARS, WHEN HIS FAMILY LIVED IN FLORIDA (ON INSTAGRAM, HE'S @KEYLARGOJOHN).
As we sit down, a picture-perfect August day unfolding outside a bank of windows, he insists that he's been a big rug guy for years. “I love this category. I love design. I love architecture,” he says. (His favorite book, he tells me, is The Fountainhead, which famously features an architect.) “It feels like interior design has been overlooked by a lot of innovative technology and operations.”
Ernesta launched in September after a year of quietly assembling a team and beta testing. Instead of making rugs in standard sizes, the company cuts them to order and ships directly to customers. As with Peloton, Ernesta will even send delivery crews to customers’ homes upon request, in this case to install the rugs and move furniture around, ensuring that customers achieve the look they envisioned. Styles lean classic, including “Bartleby,” a chunky wool that could double as a fisherman sweater, and “Eden King,” a flatweave stripe that looks particularly good in coastal blue. (Just as the name Ernesta is a nod to Ernest Hemingway, many of the rug styles—Cormac, Flannery, Truman—reference writers and literary works.) They are designed to suit a $1 million residence, not a postcollege rental, with the average order costing around $2,000.
PATTERN MATCHING
Foley tapped Peloton cofounders Hisao Kushi (top) and Yony Feng to create Ernesta with him.
With just weeks to go before the company's debut, Foley seems relaxed but energized in this barebones space overlooking Eighth Avenue, as Ernesta's two dozen New York–based employees buzz about with rug samples and laptops. “I've started all my companies in Chelsea,” he notes. Ernesta's HQ is a stone's throw from Peloton's first headquarters, where Foley once painted the front door himself to spiff up the entry, and a few avenues over from the Frank Gehry–designed headquarters of Interactive Corp (IAC), where he
