Steven Shulman is the co-founder and CEO of AWALL, a MicroLED display company that offers displays from 75 to over 300 inches at a fraction of the price that Samsung and LG charge for comparable technology. The company won Best of Show at both InfoComm and CEDIA in 2025, and Steven runs the business alongside family, including his son Joel as Solutions Architect and Allison Shulman as Director of Marketing. As a family business ourselves, we wanted to talk with Steven about building something with the people you trust most, and why premium doesn't have to mean overpriced.
Q: Zarin Fabrics has been family-owned for three generations. Harry Zarin started with a pushcart in 1936, and his grandson David runs the business today. As someone building a company with family around you, what does longevity mean to you? Are you building AWALL to last generations?
Steven: The moment your family is in the company with you, the way you think about the business changes. It stops being just a company and starts becoming something you want to protect for the long term. Joel is deep in the technical side, Allison is shaping how the world sees us. When your family is that invested, you naturally build something meant to outlast you. I have a lot of respect for what the Zarin family has done over 90 years. That kind of staying power doesn't happen by accident.
Q: David Zarin has said his father Bobby's values, customer service, integrity, fair pricing, are "organically embedded" in the company. What values do you want embedded in AWALL that your family carries forward whether you're in the room or not?
Steven: For us, it comes down to honesty about what technology should cost. We never want AWALL to be a company that charges more just because the market will bear it. If we can deliver the same quality at a better price, that's what we do. I want my family to carry that forward, the belief that doing right by the customer is the business model, not something separate from it. Beyond that, I'd say accessibility. Not everyone can walk into a showroom and spend six figures on a display. We're building for the people who want the best but shouldn't have to overpay to get it.
Q: Zarin Fabrics has spent 90 years proving that designer-quality fabric doesn't have to come with a designer-level markup. They buy directly from the same mills as the uptown showrooms. Do you see a parallel between what you're doing in display technology and what companies like Zarin do in the design world?
Steven: The parallel is almost exact. In the display world, a handful of major brands have controlled pricing for years, and the markup has little to do with what the technology actually costs. It's about distribution layers and brand premiums. We looked at that and said, why? Our MicroLED technology delivers better brightness, color accuracy, and lifespan. We just don't load the price with overhead that doesn't benefit the customer. It sounds like Zarin figured that out with fabric decades ago.
Q: When you lower the price of something premium by 70 to 90%, the first reaction from many people is suspicion. How do you overcome the assumption that affordable means inferior?
Steven: You let the product speak. We won Best of Show at InfoComm and CEDIA in the same year, judged alongside every major display manufacturer. Independent reviewers have measured our panels at 99% P3 color coverage and over 800 nits of brightness. But honestly, the most powerful thing is when someone sees it in person. The reaction is always the same: they can't believe how amazing the quality is.
Q: Where does this go from here? Will MicroLED follow the same arc as flat-screen TVs, starting as a luxury and becoming mainstream? Or is there something different about this technology?
Steven: It absolutely follows that arc, and we're trying to accelerate it. Our Phoenix product, a mobile 135-inch display that deploys on its own without wall mounting, is a good example of where things are headed. The technology is getting more accessible and easier to live with. MicroLED even now isn’t just for dedicated home theaters, it’s already a real option for living rooms, offices, and commercial spaces of all sizes.
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