Los Angeles · An appreciation by Rob Urban
Further ProductsSomebody saw
another use.
The garage was getting crowded. The soap needed work. Megan and Marshall Dostal had the beginnings of something worth making better.
An unlikely beginning
The byproduct
was taking
up space.
Further Products begins with a problem many households understand: somebody’s project has taken over the garage.
In the company’s account, Marshall Dostal was collecting used restaurant oil and turning it into biodiesel for his car. The process left glycerin behind. Megan Dostal wanted something done about the accumulating drums.
Marshall saw the possibility of soap.
That is a wonderfully practical kind of imagination. He was already finding a use for a material restaurants had finished with. Now something left over from that work was asking for attention.
I admire the instinct to keep looking. A byproduct can become so familiar that everyone accepts its presence as part of doing the original job. Seeing another use means pausing over something that might otherwise remain in the background.
It also means being willing to experiment before knowing whether the idea will become much of anything. A drum of glycerin does not arrive with a business plan attached. It does, however, make a fairly persistent case for clearing some floor space.
The idea still needed to become a product
Megan liked the possibility.
The soap needed more work.
An early Microsoft profile of the founders describes a first soap that was cloudy, with little foam and no scent. Megan helped improve its presentation and develop the fragrance. The account also recalls the ordinary but demanding questions that came next: where to get pumps, packaging, ingredients and labels.
I am glad those details survived in the story. They give the finished product a history of decisions. Somebody had to keep working after the interesting idea had occurred.
The same profile describes a partnership built around different strengths, with Marshall handling production and operations while Megan focused on product development and customers.
That division makes sense to me as a creative relationship. One person can see what a material might do. Another can help imagine the experience of the person who will eventually use it. Both forms of attention can improve the result.
There is affection in taking an idea seriously enough to help it become better. Enthusiasm gets something started. Specific attention gives it a chance to be enjoyed by somebody else.
Further’s signature fragrance
Bergamot.Olive.Grasses.A detail you can
enjoy for yourself.
Further describes its signature scent as a blend drawn from bergamot, olive and grasses. That attention to fragrance gives the origin story somewhere to meet the person at the sink.
A useful product enters a very ordinary moment. You reach for it while thinking about something else. A pleasant detail can briefly bring your attention back to what you are doing.
I like that scale of ambition. Most of a day consists of things too small to make the calendar. Design still has a role in them. A comfortable object, an appealing scent or a well-considered surface can make a routine a little more enjoyable.
The story behind Further adds another layer once someone becomes curious. The product has had a chance to introduce itself first.
The person who chose the small thing
Hospitality reaches
all the way
to the sink.
Further’s hospitality page describes products used in hotels and inns, from candles in lobbies to toiletries in guest spaces. Its customer list includes places as different as Cuyama Buckhorn and the Watergate Hotel.
That is an interesting way to encounter a maker. You came for a meal or a stay. Someone else chose the soap, and you have discovered that you like their choice.
There is an almost invisible act of hosting in that decision. The person selecting an amenity is imagining a moment they probably will not witness. They are choosing on behalf of a guest who has yet to arrive.
Care can show up in those small decisions without asking to be admired. A guest may never ask who made the product. They may simply leave with the impression that the place paid attention.
Or they may turn the bottle around, remember the name and look for it later. Either way, the maker has become part of somebody’s experience of being welcomed.
I find that a satisfying place for a company to do its work. Its contribution can be modest in size and still matter to the feel of an entire visit.
A useful next chapter
The bottle
can stay.
Further offers a gallon hand-soap refill. The product page describes glycerin recovered from biofuel production becoming soap, with restaurants that supplied oil among the places receiving the finished product.
It is an easily understood sequence. A material has another use, and an empty soap bottle can be filled again.
I appreciate that the customer has a practical way to take part. Once someone has found a product they enjoy, keeping the bottle is a simple continuation of that preference.
The refill also changes how I think about the original container. Its job does not have to end when the contents run out. It can become one of the familiar objects around a home or a business, useful because someone keeps putting it back to work.
The pleasure here is partly in that continuity. A good everyday object can earn its place through repeated use.
Why I admire Further
Attention changes
what seems possible.
What I admire about Further is the combination of resourcefulness and care for the person using the result.
Marshall found a possibility in a byproduct. Megan helped make the product more appealing. Together, they kept attending to the things that would let the idea leave the garage and become useful somewhere else.
That story contains a form of optimism I like: the belief that something can have more life in it than its current role suggests. It asks for curiosity, then for work. The work is where other people begin to benefit.
A restaurant’s used oil is an unexpected place to begin a story about hospitality. At the other end of Further’s story is a person washing their hands, enjoying a small detail somebody took the trouble to get right.
Rob Urban
Useful questions
A little more
about Further.
Who founded and operates Further Products?
Further identifies Megan and Marshall Dostal as its owners and operators. Their company story begins with Marshall’s biodiesel experiments and their development of a hand soap.
How is Further’s hand soap connected to used cooking oil?
The company describes collecting used restaurant oil for biodiesel production and using glycerin from that process in its hand soap. This description applies to the soap process, rather than every ingredient in every Further product.
Does Further offer hand-soap refills?
Yes. Its website lists a gallon hand-soap refill. Check the product page for current availability, size options and purchasing details.
Does Further work with hotels and restaurants?
Yes. The company describes hospitality relationships and provides information for hotels and inns on its website. Properties should contact Further directly about current products and supply arrangements.