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Comment by opportune | Hacker News Reader

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 you decided to enter this more conventional, established market?

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Re differentiators: reasonable question, for sure. Check my reply to Charia above.

Re established market: interestingly, Cort and most other rental cos don't have a very good hold on the direct to consumer rental market. They are primarily focused on B2B rentals. Their brands and experiences are under the weather and don't appeal to our target market of younger people who move a lot. There's a new breed of successful companies cropping up that simply refresh the experience and tailor it to the way people live and interact today.

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.

Normally a new owner has to honor contracts/leases made with the former owner. Maybe the rules are different in a liquidation situation?

> 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.

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