This is genius time! I've moved a half dozen times in and since college. No way I can impose on friends and family to help me move anymore. When are you coming to L.A.? I'm all in when you do.
Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot
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Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot
#12YES! I'm a student at Columbia and I hate having to spend money on cheap furniture and having to sell it for a very low price at the end of the school year when moving out. This is EXACTLY what I'm looking for, and I'm sure that a ton of other students are looking for the same too. Best of luck with YC :)
Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot
#13Just glancing at the home page, I see two sofas for over $100 /mo. At that price, even if you're someplace for only a year, it makes more sense to buy. Especially if you don't mind the effort of reselling, which could be minimal -- even at firesale prices you'd still come out way ahead vs rental fees that high.
Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot
#14A lot of students end up moving places due to 1) lease change 2) internships. Might be useful to them.
However, the pricing is insanely expensive. 3 month rental for a dresser is $210; same for a AC unit. You can buy new ones for the same price.
Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot
#15Yes! This is genius, YC. Great investment into yet another amazing YC startup. Amazing potential! This is like AirBNB for ice-cream stands! Definitely billions! This is creating new industry!
Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot
#16Just glancing at the home page, I see two sofas for over $100 /mo. At that price, even if you're someplace for only a year, it makes more sense to buy. Especially if you don't mind the effort of reselling, which could be minimal -- even at firesale prices you'd still come out way ahead vs rental fees that high.
I just craigslist it all. I've never actually paid for a couch — and I find really nice couches, they're not like stained bed-bug ridden things. People just want to get rid of them.
Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot
#17The economics here doesn't make sense.
The cheaper couches hover around $40/month, which over a 12 month period at 7% YOY interest is valued at 473 PV or 508 FV.
What's the motivation against just buying new or used and selling once you're done? A marketplace for this sort of thing would make more sense than a service.
Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot
#18A lot of students end up moving places due to 1) lease change 2) internships. Might be useful to them. However, the pricing is insanely expensive. 3 month rental for a dresser is $210; same for a AC unit. You can buy new ones for the same price.
Yeah this pricing makes 0 sense. I can furnish an apartment from Ikea and pay a contractor to assemble it all for a tad more than what it would cost to rent it all.
Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot
#19Nice scam.
Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot
#20I like to move as well. What I've found:
The problem with every rental place I've seen is how expensive they are. You could just buy the furniture outright for the cost of three months rental. Doesn't exactly match the year lease does it? :-/
There is a used market for IKEA furniture, and they're swapped regularly on Craigslist for half price assembled. Sometimes you can even rent for "free" by buying used and selling later. New items can be sold at half price as well. So I haven't had as much difficulty with that, though I wish they had more "modular" i.e. snap together furniture.
So there are some challenges to this endeavor, good luck.