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Launch HN: Pabio (YC S21) – Interior design and furniture rental as a service

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Re: Launch HN: Pabio (YC S21) – Interior design and furniture rental as a service

#101

Post by anandchowdhary »

duped wrote: post #100
anandchowdhary wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we do serve houses too, but we don't currently offer straight-up buying options. You can get a Pabio subscription for your house and buyout the furniture at the end of your subscription. We're not considering the buying upfront part because we really believe that the subscription models makes our offering much more affordable (think $20k of furniture upfront vs. $400 of monthly payments which all go towards owne…

> We're not considering the buying upfront part because we really believe that the subscription models makes our offering much more affordable (think $20k of furniture upfront vs. $400 of monthly payments which all go towards ownership). How is this different (functionally, or financially) from financing that is pretty standard fare at most furniture shops?

In some ways, the UX is pretty similar to financing, with the difference that:

1. We offer personalized interior design. Yes, it's theoretically possible that we interior design your apartment and then outright sell the furniture package to you using a financing setup like Affirm, but:

2. The customer doesn't necessarily want to own the furniture. For example, at the end of their subscription, they can return all furniture and get a new brand new style and continue the subscription, or if they move sooner; we take care of all delivery, installation, moving, etc., and:

3. We offer add-on services like electricians and biweekly cleaning. I personally really believe in the "living as a service" part where the goal is to have a subscription that takes care of all aspects your living. Furniture is only the first step, there's lots more we can do there!

Re: Launch HN: Pabio (YC S21) – Interior design and furniture rental as a service

#102

Post by sureglymop »

anandchowdhary wrote: post #97
sureglymop wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh thank you! That makes it more interesting. As I'm in Switzerland, I would try this service out if I wasn't a broke college student.

Thanks! Just curious: At what price point would you consider this? Say you have a student room (like a studio), how much would you like to pay to furnish it to your taste? I'm asking because we want to make this as affordable as possible!

Well, let's consider the cost of a student "room" or flat first. In major cities like Zurich or Bern this would range between 500 and 850 CHF for enrolled students under the age of 28, usually with any additional costs already included. Now most of these rooms are already furnished (poorly), it is actually harder to find unfurnished rooms. So I think personally, I would probably not pay over half of the rent itself, so if I had a place for 700 CHF, I might pay an additional 350 CHF a month to get furniture I like. So if I stayed in the apartment at least 6 months, I would have paid 2100.- which would be about the same as if I had just bought new furniture, considering that a student room is probably small.

I think that at the end of the day, students are probably not your target audience, because they also see furniture as more disposable. So they would sell their furniture too, when they get a new room. Now you could use that opportunity to offer a very cheap rental fee specifically for students and then they could give back the furniture when they move on.

I guess my point is, the price point is okay, the fact that it would take two years to eventually own it isn't attractive to a student. The alternative of paying for some time (e.g. 6 months) and then dropping the subscription without owning anything at the end is also unattractive.

Re: Launch HN: Pabio (YC S21) – Interior design and furniture rental as a service

#103

Post by anandchowdhary »

sureglymop wrote: post #102
anandchowdhary wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Just curious: At what price point would you consider this? Say you have a student room (like a studio), how much would you like to pay to furnish it to your taste? I'm asking because we want to make this as affordable as possible!

Well, let's consider the cost of a student "room" or flat first. In major cities like Zurich or Bern this would range between 500 and 850 CHF for enrolled students under the age of 28, usually with any additional costs already included. Now most of these rooms are already furnished (poorly), it is actually harder to find unfurnished rooms. So I think personally, I would probably not pay over half of the rent itself,…

Thanks for the insights! I believe that if you have a small studio/room as a student would, a four-year plan would cost closer to CHF 150. I know that a 1-year one would be much more expensive, but we're working hard on changing that.

I agree that unless we offer significant savings, students are not an ideal market for us, but maybe when we get furniture back and we renovate it, students might be especially interesting since we can furnish their rooms for a big discount.

Re: Launch HN: Pabio (YC S21) – Interior design and furniture rental as a service

#104

Post by plibither8 »

anandchowdhary wrote: post #98
plibither8 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the original commentor, but I guess what they were talking about was the low contrast of the description text of text posts on HN with the background.

@pblithier8, maybe this could be a feature for your much-loved Refined HN browser extension! PS: Mihir is also our first engineering intern at Pabio! :D

Thanks Anand, I'll consider that! Meanwhile you can use the extension's "Custom CSS" field to take care of it :).
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