In December 2019, as the world teetered on the cusp of crisis, Keiran Hewkin made a decision that would dramatically change his career. He walked away from a secure C-suite role, a steady income, and the familiar rhythm of corporate manufacturing to launch a sofa company with no funding, no product, and no customer base.
Most would call it reckless. But today, as Co-Founder and CEO of Swyft Home, Keiran leads one of the UK’s fastest-growing direct-to-consumer furniture brands. His leadership story is one of resilience and building something completely from scratch. On our Pivot Points podcast, he spoke with host Dave Allen about how to follow your convictions.
A leap of faith
Keiran’s path into the furniture industry was serendipitous. A manufacturing specialist by training, he found himself frustrated by the inefficiencies of the traditional furniture model—months-long lead times for a product that took mere hours to build. “The arbitrage,” he says, “was insane.”
He proposed a new approach to his then-employer: manufacture inventory ahead of demand and deliver sofas to customers within days, not months. The answer was no.
So, he did what true founders do. He left.
With no factory and no capital, Keiran and his co-founder bootstrapped their way into existence, offering bespoke furniture through third-party workshops and using upfront deposits to fund production. It was scrappy, raw, and risky, but it worked. Slowly, they built the operational backbone that would one day carry a UK-leading consumer-facing brand.
With no factory and no capital, Keiran and his co-founder bootstrapped their way into existence, offering bespoke furniture through third-party workshops and using upfront deposits to fund production.
Conviction over consensus
What makes Keiran’s story striking isn’t just his entrepreneurial grit but his clarity of vision. He believed that modern consumers wouldn’t just prefer instant delivery—they would expect it. And when every major retailer rejected his model, he didn’t walk away. He walked forward.
“There was no career upside for anyone in a big retailer to take that bet,” he says. “So, I realised I’d have to build the brand myself.”
Thus, Swyft Home was born: one model, seven colours, no fluff. They even delivered their first sofa—unexpectedly ordered before launch—by flying it from Portugal to Heathrow and hand-delivering it to a customer in Camden. It cost five times more than the sale price. But the point wasn’t margin. It was a message.
“We don’t let customers down,” Keiran says. “That’s the tone we set. That’s who we are.”
Leading through the fall
Of course, no founder story is complete without a reckoning. After COVID accelerated Swyft’s growth, the post-pandemic years were brutal. Inflation spiked. Interest rates soared. Furniture sales collapsed.
It was a defining moment. While others hesitated, Keiran acted. He had to make painful cuts. “We wanted to do it once and do it right,” he reflects. “If you think you have a problem, you have a problem.”
This wasn’t ruthlessness. It was stewardship. His decisions saved the business, saved future jobs, protected the culture, and preserved the trust of customers. It was the kind of leadership few ever see and fewer still can stomach.
There was no career upside for anyone in a big retailer to take that bet. So, I realised I’d have to build the brand myself.Keiran Hewkin
CEO and Co-Founder, Swyft Home
The culture of courage
Ask Keiran what he’s most proud of, and he won’t tell you about revenue or growth (though Swyft is now pushing past £30M and expanding across Europe). He’ll talk about failure.
“We built a culture where failure is encouraged—so long as it's shared. If you're not failing, you're not pushing hard enough.”
His team knows: there's nothing they can break that he can’t fix, as long as they’re honest. And when he himself makes a mistake (which, he notes, “are often the most costly”), he owns it publicly. That’s how he builds trust.
Curiosity and grit
If Keiran’s journey teaches us anything, it’s this: scaling a business isn’t about finding the right moment. It’s about surviving the wrong ones.
His parting words linger like a manifesto for every CEO navigating complexity:
“You need an almost unlimited curiosity, to ask why things are the way they are. And you need grit. Because it’s going to be hard almost all the time.”
In a world chasing unicorns, Keiran built something better: a grounded, profitable, purposeful company with its eyes on the long haul.
Pivot Points podcast
Listen to the full conversation with Keiran on our Pivot Points podcast, out now!
Listen here
