Houzz raising $400M at $4B valuation
Huh. I just realized I didn&#x27;t really know what Houzz was. Not even sure if I still do.<p>As an interior design enthusiast, I come across Houzz all the time. It&#x27;s one of my least favourite sites in that regard, after Pinterest. The problem for me is that it mostly serves to obscure. It&#x27;s full of pictures of furniture and other design objects that are usually impossible to source -- just like Pinterest, which itself is one step down from design blogs that rampantly steal each other&#x27;s photos without credit. It&#x27;s <i>so</i> hard to source design. Most of the time, what you come across isn&#x27;t even a product, it&#x27;s some concept work by some designer in Spain who has no plans to manufacture whatever it is, or it&#x27;s a custom job. Or some super high end Italian product with a price that&#x27;s firmly in the &quot;if you have to ask, you can&#x27;t afford it&quot; category.<p>Sure, valuable for inspiration, but annoying if you&#x27;re looking to buy, say, a modern coat rack. (Which is surprisingly difficult, by the way. The US has still, for the most part, not caught up with modernism when it comes to interior design.)<p>Houzz does have a shop section, but it&#x27;s not great. Mostly there&#x27;s confusion about what mode Houzz is currently in; when landing on Houzz from Google I&#x27;m usually unsure if I&#x27;m looking at a product page, a lookbook or an ad for some interior decorator.