Noa Santos

Noa Santos was only 25 years old when he started the company that would transform his career: Homepolish. He’d been working with one of New York’s top interior designers when he came up with the idea for the business that would combine his passion for interior design with the technology he’d grown to admire while studying at Stanford University. After raising more than $30 million and building a business with over 12,000 clients—not to mention an online community in the millions—Santos closed the doors of Homepolish in 2019 and still considers “one of the best experiences of [his] life.” 

Now, Santos has launched what he describes as his “next chapter”: NAINOA, a new interior design firm that offers design service ranging from interiors to full-scale renovations. You can follow Noa Santos and check out his latest projects on Creatively here.

What is the first creative project you remember? 

I built a birdhouse in elementary school as a class project and I  remember being absolutely thrilled with it even though I don’t remember what it looked like exactly. I’m also relatively certain I cheated and got my grandpa’s help. But I recall vividly what it felt like to be building something as special and significant as a home. 

Describe your aesthetic in three words. 

Collected, not decorated. 

What was the most fulfilling collaboration you’ve worked on? 

My partnership with my husband, Ross Matsubara (Vice President and Style Director at PR firm Nike Communications). There has been no collaboration as stimulating, challenging, or rewarding as that one.

    

What’s one creative project that taught you something fundamental about yourself? 

Designing our home in East Hampton has taught me the fundamental value of patience and how desperately little of it I have. A home, while it should look complete (and beautiful), is never truly finished. If you’re truly using it as a tool for living your life, it should evolve as you do—and that takes patience. But it’s been marvelous to see, in these uniquely challenging times, how important having a home you love truly is to the quality of your well-being. 

Do you think creativity is something you’re born with or something you’re taught? 

For the lucky ones, I think being creative comes naturally. Personally, I have to work at it—to feed it and balance it against my naturally pragmatic sensibility. However that marriage, I believe, is what separates NAINOA and the work that we do. We aren’t artists creating freely without constraints. We are designers crafting solutions that address our clients’ unique and real challenges. 

What’s the last dream you had? 

I don’t dream. I fall asleep in five minutes and sleep like the dead. 

One hundred years from now, what do you hope people write about your work?

In one hundred years, I hope people write about how young I look despite all of the martinis—and how they can’t believe I’m still working. Otherwise, I’ll be dead so I guess I won’t care.

Follow @NoaSantos on Creatively.

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