Aronson Woodworks is a Prole, Iowa-based custom furniture company founded by Megan and Clay Aronson, specializing in handcrafted pieces featuring their patented “Claize” finish — a unique wood treatment that isolates and highlights natural grain patterns with custom colors. 

The company has grown from a small operation in a Morton building with no running water to a thriving business creating high-end furniture for clients across the country, including the historic Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and Central Iowa’s own LifeServe Blood Center headquarters. With a commitment to sustainability, they reclaim urban lumber and create heirloom-quality pieces that tell the story of Iowa’s trees and craftsmanship.

On a recent episode of the Made in Iowa Podcast, I sat down with Megan Aronson of Aronson Woodworks and Jon Kallen of Jennings Kallen Advisors to discuss custom furniture innovation, the power of collaboration in Iowa’s business community and how strategic funding partnerships fuel entrepreneurial growth.

Here are four quotes from the conversation.

On Iowa’s collaborative spirit: 

“I moved to Iowa about 18 years ago and it’s a very accessible community. People want to see others succeed and be a part of their success — it’s an interconnected spiderweb. Iowa truly is very small, and it amazes me all the time how small and interconnected it is.”

— Jon Kallen

On quality and legacy:

“There are people who dedicate their everyday lives in our business to making something that will be handed down generation to generation. All of what we’re doing now was driven by one creative thought that my husband had, so just let your mind run wild with what could be.”

— Megan Aronson

On entrepreneurial support: 

“To have someone in your corner at that fragile stage of really not knowing what you’re doing, building the plane as you’re flying it — just having a steady guiding hand saying, ‘It’s going to be great, we believe in you.’ I don’t think I would’ve had the confidence to go for any of those programs without Jon Kallen.”

— Megan Aronson

On innovation through reclamation: 

“The grain pattern of that reclaimed lumber is really cool — it’s very chaotic with cracks and knots and tons of character. Clay and I love every time someone specifies that style because it tells a story of a tree that grew in an environment with challenges, and we get to honor that.”

— Megan Aronson