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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

#41

Post by ams6110 »

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.

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

#42

Post by noxryan »

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!…

I was just about to comment exactly this. I immediately recognized several items from Overstock, Wayfair, etc.

The price of several of the items on Feather is close or sometimes more then the retail price from Overstock/Wayfair and delivery is not included. What am I missing here and what value do they provide?

Feather might as well just drop ship the furniture to your door and send somebody to assemble it.

Edit: Looks like Wayfair even offers 2 day shipping on some items and usually provides an exact delivery day: https://www.wayfair.com/Zipcode%E2%84%A2-Design-Colby-Uphols...

This is anecdotal but a lot of my Furniture is from Overstock/Wayfair and arrives within a week living in a city. Ikea also delivers for a flat fee within a day or two.

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

#43

Post by opportune »

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.

I wouldn't want their assets to be acquired by some organization that specializes in liquidating end-of-life business, and then have to deal with them instead.

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

#44

Post by jayreno »

charia wrote: post #32
ashark wrote: post #23

> Wait a minute, you want me to rent furniture? > We get it. This is kind of new, right? We’re excited about that. But it's... not remotely new, right? [EDIT] seriously, "tiny houses" = mobile homes for well-off millennials, Feather = Rent-a-Center for well-off millennials, Soylent = Ensure for well-off millennials. I guess I should start a payday loans company marketed in such a way that using it doesn't offend the…

Exactly, I'm reminded of Berkshire Hathaway's Cort Furniture. It's been a couple years, but when I walked into a nearby retail presence they had the prices were fairly reasonable. They also do delivery and complete setup. What does this offer that Cort and other companies don't? An online presence? https://furniture.cort.com/storefront/ Just browsing through here suggest they offer more flexible renting periods, (sta…

All great points re Feather vs Cort. To add to the conversation, we see ourselves as different from Cort in 2 key areas:

1) Price: compare our prices and, across the board, you'll find we beat them in every category, for every rental length. True, it's not a long-term strategy of ours. But the reason neither you or I are renting our furniture from CORT today is that their prices are above what we'd be willing to pay for a 12 months lease. 2) Style: the overwhelming majority of their furniture is bland, and as one of our customers put it, "my parent's furniture". Our style is strictly mid-century modern and slightly modern, and designed to appeal to a younger demo.

Cort's main business is going after government and corporate relocation budgets. We are focused more heavily on the larger market, servicing consumers who are moving frequently (i.e. every year or so).

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

#45

Post by jayreno »

mixedbit wrote: post #40

Maybe to address the pricing concerns you could make it more like car leasing deals that often allow to buy the leased car after the contract is over? You could rent furniture but with an option to buy at any time and terminate the monthly payments.

That's exactly what we're working on now. we should have more information about rent-to-buy options on our site soon, but in the meantime we're discussing it directly with anyone who might be interested in this.

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

#46

Post by ams6110 »

mixedbit wrote: post #40

Maybe to address the pricing concerns you could make it more like car leasing deals that often allow to buy the leased car after the contract is over? You could rent furniture but with an option to buy at any time and terminate the monthly payments.

Most furniture rental contracts do (or can) include this option.

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

#47

Post by ams6110 »

caust1c wrote: post #17

The 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.

Convenience. If I move frequently, I don't have the time or desire to deal with listing stuff for sale, deal with people coming to look at it, deal with getting paid for it, deal with people trying to scam me, etc. Just open my browser, a couple of clicks and I'm done with it. If it costs me a couple of hundred dollars more over the year, I don't care. It's probably just background noise compared to my income and the convenience is worth it.

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

#48

Post by jayreno »

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…

Yep, it's difficult to find fully furnished apartments in a number of cities, especially at a reasonable price. Oftentimes landlords will put significant premiums on apartments they have fully furnished and keep that margin for themselves. If you rent from someone like us, you don't have to pay that premium, and get the added benefit of picking what items you'd like.

We're also partnering with property managers and real estate cos in NYC to help them furnish their units. It seems to be resonating well with them to not have to pay thousands of dollars up front for furniture, and instead can make monthly once their rent checks come in. Helps them with cashflow.

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

#49

Post by _sentient »

jbob2000 wrote: post #18
anilshanbhag wrote: post #14

A 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.

I'm not really in the furniture rental demo, but I don't think it's exactly fair to compare the price points of high-quality furniture with what you'd pay for some particleboard abomination from IKEA. There is definitely a market for a service like this, but I think it's more a question of whether they can compete against the likes of Cort et al.

I agree that furniture rental is a slightly weird value prop though. People lease cars because most folks don't want to outlay $35-100k for a depreciating asset, or they want to change models so frequently that buying becomes unwieldy. Furniture is not nearly as expensive, however, and the rent-to-buy ratios are far less favorable.

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

#50

Post by ams6110 »

mbalex99 wrote: post #30

The only thing I'm scared of is Bed Bugs.

Matresses are probably destroyed or recycled. A lot of states have regulations specifically addressing sale of used matresses.

Other furniture can harbor bedbugs of course, as well as other pests such as cockroaches. It's a risk. I'm not sure how it's dealt with.

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