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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

#61

Post by dragonwriter »

mysterydip wrote: post #25

I agree on what people are saying regarding the pricing; however, be sure to compare apples to apples. Part of the value-add in this is it comes complete delivered and ready to use, and hauled away at the end. If you've ever had to borrow vehicles/friends or go up flights of stairs, spend an evening assembling, or wade through buyers in classified ads to get rid of it, you know that has value as well.

> Part of the value-add in this is it comes complete delivered and ready to use, and hauled away at the end.

Aren't delivery and pickup charged services on top of the rental fee? So, it's not a value-add, just an available service (as is the case with incumbent rental providers, and also with most furniture sellers, except haul-away, which is only occasionally offered and even then only in a form useful if you aren't moving, since the haul away and delivery need to be at the same place.)

Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot

#62

Post by dragonwriter »

ams6110 wrote: post #41
opportune wrote: post #36

What differentiates you from the dozens of other furniture rental services out there? This isn't exactly a new industry. From what I see online, your prices are pretty comparable to Cort's. But as a consumer I'm pretty sure Cort will still be around in 6 months, whereas I'm not so sure about you guys (no offense, I just mean because you're a startup, not because I think you are necessarily worse). Is there a reason y…

Well, so what if they aren't around in 6 months? Once the furniture is delivered, there's not much risk to the customer after that.

> Well, so what if they aren't around in 6 months? Once the furniture is delivered, there's not much risk to the customer after that.

Since it's rental, not purchase, changing ownership (or change in corporate focus) after the furniture is delivered is a risk to the customer. A VC-funded startup with visions of growth is going to have a different customer service focus than someone trying to milk the last drops out of a dying business, and the former can turn into the latter quickly.

Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot

#63

Post by dragonwriter »

jayreno wrote: post #57
dragonwriter wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of students end up moving places due to 1) lease change 2) internships. Might be useful to them. True, then again, established furniture rental firms [0] target them; what's Feather's distinct advantage here? [0] e.g., https://www.cort.com/student

We plan to differentiate ourselves by offering better quality items, a more modern storefront/interface, a superior customer experience with top notch support, and most importantly, better pricing (we know it's not perfect for every item yet, but our prices are getting better as we grow).

Better pricing than CORTs student packages of $119/mo for three room package for 12+ months?

Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot

#64

Post by tuna-piano »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #37

When I moved to San Francisco a couple of years ago, I was really surprised by how difficult it was to find a fully furnished apartment. I really did not enjoy those trips to IKEA and putting everything together. In contrast, it seems that most apartments in Chiang Mai are fully furnished. We've moved 3 times so far, and it's always just one car ride with a small collection of personal stuff. It's really nice to neve…

I've found the same thing.

It seems awfully silly that all summer long, one young person is moving an ikea dresser out of an apartment while another person is moving an ikea dresser into the same apartment.

Obviously there's a "tragedy of the commons" issue when you rent instead of buy, but it seems like there should be a better way to do this. You'd think people hate moving enough to be ok with less selection of furniture, potentially slightly more scratched up stuff, or buying a mattress pad to get over the weirdness of a previously used mattress.

Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot

#65

Post by jayreno »

koolba wrote: post #34

> Delivery costs $99. Pickup cost varies with the size of your order - if you’re just renting a few items, we’ll keep it between $99-$149, but if you’re outfitting a whole apartment on a 4th-floor walkup, pickup is likely to be a bit more. There is a $99 refundable deposit - we charge you on the first day of your lease, and as long as the furniture is in good shape when we pick it up, it’ll be returned after pickup!…

Happy to jump in here to talk about pricing, as it seems to be a big topic of conversation (and rightfully so).

- The $338 bed that you linked to is on a massive, one-time sale right now. I've refreshed the page several times and the price keeps changing. The manufacturer must be testing a bunch of things out - take a look. Let's leave that one example there for now.

- The Purchase Queen you linked to does look nearly identical to what we get from our manufacturer that must also sell to Wayfair. And the price on this item has shifted dramatically on Wayfair as well.

Seems you grabbed a particular item that doesn't favor us well in the rent vs buy equation. For the majority of our items: try the same comparison and let me know what you find.

Point here is, we should be more aware of the dynamically shifting prices of items on other sellers websites and re-price our items accordingly. Good catch, thanks.

Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot

#66

Post by jayreno »

pcunite wrote: post #6

https://rentfeather.com This might be a helpful service for real estate agents who need to stage a home for a photographer.

Yep, totally. We've been approached by a number of real estate agents asking if we'll do staging. We're working on seeing of and how this might fit into our business model.

Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot

#67

Post by gmisra »

What do you think about the fact that, in general, the percentage of Americans who move is on the decline?

> In the mid-1960s, about 20 percent of the population moved in any given year, according to the United States Census Bureau. By 1990, it was approaching 15 percent. Today it’s closer to 10 percent. The percentage that moves between states has fallen by nearly half since the early 1990s.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/opinion/how-to-get-americ...

Also, https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/02/american-mobility-has...

Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot

#68

Post by jayreno »

justboxing wrote: post #54
toomuchtodo wrote: post #38

> I guess I should start a payday loans company marketed in such a way that using it doesn't offend the class sensibilities and self-image of well-off millennials and say I'm doing something "new". https://www.lendup.com/

Didn't know about this. Landing page says > Good Credit Not Required. > Instant decision. Wow.

Yeah, it's kind of gross really. These guys prey on the inability of certain income-classes to get credit, obtain loans, etc. Rent-a-Center is the same way :(

Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot

#69

Post by austenallred »

justboxing wrote: post #54
toomuchtodo wrote: post #38

> I guess I should start a payday loans company marketed in such a way that using it doesn't offend the class sensibilities and self-image of well-off millennials and say I'm doing something "new". https://www.lendup.com/

Didn't know about this. Landing page says > Good Credit Not Required. > Instant decision. Wow.

What's wrong with granting loans to people who have bad credit? What are they supposed to do if there's a shortfall or a car breaks down, pawn a wedding ring?

I used to work for LendUp. They're the most caring and altruistic people I've ever met. I mean that literally.

LendUp uses machine learning & data science to decision people with more granularity than a credit score, and can therefore approve much deeper than banks or credit card companies ever would. On top of that, as LendUp learns you're a reliable borrower, it will lower your interest rate as far as it can for you, give you more favorable terms, and even extend a credit card for those that qualify.

LendUp helps people improve their credit when almost no one else will lend to them, and has been shown in independent studies to both improve credit scores and decrease the costs of borrowing for subprime borrowers. These are folks for whom the only other option is payday loans or pawn shops if there's a shortfall, and LendUp uses tech to give them much better options.

It's a noble mission, and one I'm damn proud to have been a part of.

Re: Launch HN: Feather (YC S17), painless furniture rental for people who move a lot

#70

Post by jayreno »

gmisra wrote: post #67

What do you think about the fact that, in general, the percentage of Americans who move is on the decline? > In the mid-1960s, about 20 percent of the population moved in any given year, according to the United States Census Bureau. By 1990, it was approaching 15 percent. Today it’s closer to 10 percent. The percentage that moves between states has fallen by nearly half since the early 1990s. https://www.nytimes.com/…

Great point here. It's a bit counter intuitive, right, that Americans on the whole are moving less. To add some color:

-The majority of Americans that live in rural or somewhat suburban areas are most certainly (though anecdotally) bringing this number down. In cities, you'd expect this number to be much higher than 10%.

-This data point from article below is bit more telling of our target market. Please don't mind their incessant use of the term "millennials" - they know not what they do.

> "44% of millennials say they plan to move again in the next year." (http://blog.rent.com/the-millennial-generation-on-the-move/)

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