
Move Loot shuts down, sells customer list to Handy - coloneltcb
https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/29/move-loot-a-yc-backed-furniture-resale-marketplace-shuts-down-sells-customer-list-to-handy/?ncid=rss
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rcarrigan87
High acquisition cost, low margin businesses are really hard. This is why
it'll take another decade to dethrone craigslist.

All these businesses are great ideas with great solutions, the problem comes
down to an unsustainable acquisition model.

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danieltillett
Or in other words a bad idea. An idea is not a good idea if your LCV is less
than your CAC. Please when you see a gap in the market investigate why there
is a gap. It is possible that you are a genius that can see things that no one
else can, but also consider that you are walking into a death trap.

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LeifCarrotson
LCV = Lifetime Customer Value?

CAC = Customer Acquisition Cost?

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danieltillett
Yes :) These are the two key numbers you need to know to know if your business
is on the track to success or failure.

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pbreit
How the heck did they blow through that much cash so quickly?? I wonder what
the going rate is for such a list? I don't see much if any overlap between the
two.

A post-mortem would be interesting. I'm guessing lack of discipline on the
large raise. Since you don't have any direct competition, provie it out in 1
or 2 cities before expanding. Keep operations lean. Stay hungry.

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jmcgough
They expanded to several cities to satisfy investors, and they were renting
space to store furniture, which ended up being far more expensive than they
expected. But yeah, burning through 19M in about 14 months is nuts. They were
really betting it all on growing big enough to sell investors on a series B,
which clearly didn't work out.

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rcach001
This will def be a bigger story. You know all that could've been done with
that much money? We should be concerned with irresponsible investors as well,
not doing their due diligence on the company's performance to avoid such a
catastrophe.

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scottkduncan
“Over the past two years we’ve been focused on growth, operational excellence,
and customer satisfaction with a primary focus on profitability,” AptDeco’s
co-founder Kalam Dennis told TechCrunch. “We have spoken with Move Loot
regarding their interest in an acquisition. Ultimately we’re only interested
in opportunities that align with the previously mentioned strategic goals.”

Ouch. Add it to the list of on-demand services that don't scale very well.

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ucaetano
I used it 2 years ago, in its early days. The selection was great and I was
able to buy some great pieces at very good prices including free delivery. But
after a while it was just large numbers of office furniture or ikea pieces.

Anyway, I'll probably keep what I've bought for many years. Thanks again for
subsidizing me, VCs!

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mathattack
$19mm in funding since February '15 on a 20some person company. That is an
awful lot of customer acquisition cost.

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tswartz
Too bad. This seemed like a great idea with a big opportunity. I used it a
couple of times and I loved it. It was so much easier to get rid of furniture
(and make some $$) than using Craigslist or carrying furniture to a local
store.

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danso
Boy I could've used such a service a couple months from now. But it definitely
didn't sound scalable. And apparently they expanded to the peninsula but I've
never heard about them...not on HN, not on YikYak, etc...I know Palo Alto
isn't the center of the universe...but it kind of is for these service
startups (I'm thinking of all the food delivery startups in particular).

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swang
if you live in sf they were all around. at least their hauling trucks were.
i'm guessing maybe very few people in palo alto have a need to sell their
couches?

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abraca
Sad news. I had a really good experience with Move Loot. It seemed too good to
be true - unique and cheap furniture, delivered in the exact window I
requested, already perfectly assembled. It sounds like they couldn't make it
work and things declined :(

