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Congrats! I thought of launching something very similar when I went through the hassle of moving to a new apartment. Honest question: why did you launch to HN, if your service is only available in Switzerland?
Honest answer: YC encourages you to launch on HN, not only because some of your users might be on it (in our case, HN is not a great lead generation tool), but because investors scout new startups on HN too. We plan on raising a seed round in August/September.
[1] https://giansegato.com/essays/how-i-beat-the-berlin-rental-m...
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Honest answer: YC encourages you to launch on HN, not only because some of your users might be on it (in our case, HN is not a great lead generation tool), but because investors scout new startups on HN too. We plan on raising a seed round in August/September.
I truly hope you make it to your seed round. I think your biz is ultra solid. Happy to chat if 1. you happen to expand in Berlin, 2. you wish to fundraise around here. I have some data [1] that you might benefit from. Also: I think you'd rock in cities like this :) [1] https://giansegato.com/essays/how-i-beat-the-berlin-rental-m...
Hey Carlo, nice to see see you guys on here and great to see a Swiss company in YC! Congrats. Cheers, Can (from Chimpy).
Joining Can: lovely to see a Bern-based firm at YC and on HN!
Finally, we get access to a cool startup offering FIRST before Americans/everyone else!
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Feather is only for rental furniture (you can rent individual items) but doesn't offer interior design. Here's an excerpt from a previous comment: > ...Feather (YC S17) which is ecommerce + rental furniture. For us, the interior design aspect is a large part of our offering because you don't have to imagine what your apartment will look like with all of these items. Plus, we can offer better prices and spend more on…
I would advise you to think about how to make that value proposition proprietary and defensible. I’m not wholly convinced that offering interior design or offering whole-apartment bundles alone is something you could defend an incumbent from also providing. Although it does sound like your space-visualization technology might be a leg-up here. Also note that there are several competitors from the other-side that prov…
1. Traditional retailers like IKEA and Wayfair: We don't think they'll be fully pivoting to a rentals because it's a very different business model and requires lots of financing/credit setup. These retailers are motivated to get rid of their inventory as soon as possible (warehouse space!) whereas we look at furniture as assets, so we're happy to take yours back, refurbish it, and put in in a new place.
2. Furniture rental startups like Feather and Fernish already have a rental system in place, but but personalized interior design is a different game altogether, especially when you consider our proprietary rending technology which generates photorealistic renders with relatively little human effort. We think our technology will set us apart.
3. Online interior design services like Modsy and Havenly only focus on human-driven interior design. They might want to upsell you a furniture package, but they don't have the necessary rental and logistics setup to have a full offering as we do. This is only competition for us if people want interior designers but want to buy all furniture outright (say for $20k) and our goal is a more affordable offering.
4. Depending on where you live, fully-furnished or serviced apartments are (much) more expensive than renting an apartment, so we think our value proposition is also the "rent to own" part where each of your monthly payments go towards ownership. We also have optional addon services like electricians and biweekly cleaning, so I think we'll more directly compete with the serviced apartments space, except that it's still your apartment and you can own the furniture if you like.
Thanks for your feedback and making me think about this!
An alternative approach might be to let subscribers browse a warehouse of inventory and select items for you to move into their apartment. That might broaden the appeal of what you are offering to a larger audience, especially families. I really like the idea of having a company take away all of my furniture when moving out, and if even one third of it didn't get trashed that would be a win. Finally, a lot of people…
> An alternative approach might be to let subscribers browse a warehouse of inventory This is closer to Feather (YC S17) which is ecommerce + rental furniture. For us, the interior design aspect is a large part of our offering because you don't have to imagine what your apartment will look like with all of these items. Plus, we can offer better prices and spend more on acquisition since we have a large ticket (an apa…
I always thought something like Pabio for used mattresses would be great, so people could easily try lots of mattresses and find one which really helps them sleep.
To do that you'd need a nontoxic process for ensuring the mattress is free of bedbugs (e.g. put it in an airtight bag, then fill the bag with an oxygen-free mix of nitrogen+CO2 for long enough that any bugs will suffocate)
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> An alternative approach might be to let subscribers browse a warehouse of inventory This is closer to Feather (YC S17) which is ecommerce + rental furniture. For us, the interior design aspect is a large part of our offering because you don't have to imagine what your apartment will look like with all of these items. Plus, we can offer better prices and spend more on acquisition since we have a large ticket (an apa…
In the long term you could develop some best practices around killing pests. I always thought something like Pabio for used mattresses would be great, so people could easily try lots of mattresses and find one which really helps them sleep. To do that you'd need a nontoxic process for ensuring the mattress is free of bedbugs (e.g. put it in an airtight bag, then fill the bag with an oxygen-free mix of nitrogen+CO2 fo…
Basically, you are selling the furniture on credit the very same day they leave your warehouse.
Great concept, congrats on the launch. I am Swiss myself and I know first hand that (non-Ikea) furniture is very expensive and good interior design advice scarce and even more pricey. There is a clear trend towards an asset light lifestyle, so renting furniture definitely makes a lot of sense. I would particularly use this service for an investment property (buy to let). Lots of success with Pabio, I'm sure it'll be…