Hacker News Reader

Comment by contingencies | Hacker News Reader

Feather seems very solid. If you guys want a China partner let me know. It's Ikea's fastest growing market.

Do you think? There are already plenty of companies in the UK at least that rent furniture and home electrical goods to people who can't afford it

Are they bringing anything new to the party?

There are already plenty of companies in the UK at least that rent furniture and home electrical goods to people who can't afford it

We have those in the states too. The interesting thing is that their business model isn't renting furniture and appliances, their business model is providing credit. They are more like banks than they are rental stores.

We've seen the replacement of a globally fragmented sector with a well funded and executed global technology-heavy upstart before. What did airbnb bring that was new to the party? UX and a marketing budget.

I think they're going for the convenience factor of full delivery/setup, which I think is more or less a distinguishing factor.

Unless they switch up the line up or numbers, I don't see how it can be popular enough to be profitable. When they did a Launch HN[1] a few weeks back the rent vs. buy costs was high enough that I couldn't imagine anyone using it.

Best of luck to them though.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14664851

You're missing the point. A lot of people don't want to bet on acquiring stuff, moving stuff, selling stuff, etc. They just want a known cost and a known quality of living... with some choice and control... now. Particularly young people.

The furniture wasn't particularly great. I found the exact models on Wayfair.

The rental price was even worse. Adding in the delivery and return fee, I think it was more expensive at any of the durations (3 month, 6 month, etc).

Combining those two together I don't see this working out.

Are there really that many people who live in a place for less than year that will pay a premium of a couple hundred bucks for okayish furniture? I would imagine that target market would instead rent a furnished apartment. Baked in cost, no dealing with movers at all, and you leave everything where it's at when you're done.

EDIT: Added that there's both a delivery and return fee of $99. That means a three month rental of a queen sized bed (https://rentfeather.com/collections/bedroom/products/durham-...) would be $99 + 3 x $53 + $99 = $357. I'm pretty sure it's this bed on Wayfair (https://www.wayfair.com/Varick-Gallery-Bonfiglio-Upholstered...) which is currently $223 with free shipping arriving next Thurs. That leaves $134 to pay someone to dispose of it or just pocket the difference and spend 10 seconds listing a "Free Bed - Just Pick It Up" on Craigslist. Again, I just don't see this working. Even modern consumers aren't this stupid.

Tell that to their revenue numbers :)

They may or may not make money, but how is this in any way qualify as a tech startup ? Aren't they a leasing company ?

Isn't amazon a logistics company?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com