This week, we interviewed Jay Reno from Feather.

Let’s get to it!

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m the founder and CEO of Feather, a corporation that is redefining home furnishings rental for the modern day era. In 2017, I introduced Feather as an obtainable, layout-ahead and quality different to the rising challenge of rapid household furniture.

As an individual who moved nine occasions in 10 years, I saw the want to provide increased liberty and flexibility to a new era of renters who are shifting routinely, switching positions and towns, and not committing to lengthy-time period dwelling conditions.

I’m an alum of Y Combinator’s accelerator program. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Elon University and a Master’s degree from Columbia University, the place I researched local weather and environmental science.

What dilemma does your product/company resolve?

There are 3 vital difficulties that Feather solves for both equally our residential and company clients:

The to start with is acquiring as well a great deal baggage when it’s time for a change— whether or not that is relocating cities or shifting places of work. There are not numerous household furniture possibilities that are handy for the way we dwell and function these days. Feather aims to provide increased flexibility to a new generation by taking the head aches out of furnishing a room. On go-in working day, our white-glove support will take care of all the shipping and delivery, assembly and cleanup, which indicates the client doesn’t have to carry a finger.

The second challenge is home furniture squander. With 19.6 billion pounds included annually to landfills, furnishings at present accounts for about 7% of all landfill squander. As there are few thoughtful, sustainable choices for adaptable furnishings, most people and providers resort to “fast furniture” that is low-priced and disposable right after a 12 months or two. With our practical alternatives for rental, retail, and supply with top quality goods built to last, Feather is equipped to battle home furnishings waste that comes with relocating.

Dilemma 3: Deficiency of independence and adaptability. Given that March 2020, 69% of organizations in the U.S. have completely shut some or all of their business office areas, and practically each and every company has faced prolonged closures and lowered employees in the business office. This, coupled with the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic, has led to a developing need for more versatility and flexibility in their in-human being office environment spaces. Feather’s partnership with WeWork will allow WeWork members to conveniently structure their workplace areas with our rental furnishings, with no the commitment and expenditure that will come with regular place of work setting up leasing and furnishing.

What are you most thrilled about appropriate now?

I’d have to say I’m most energized about our new partnership with WeWork.

With the arrival of distant and hybrid do the job and the uncertainty of the pandemic, our function culture’s plan of what an office environment seems to be like has adjusted a large amount in a limited period of time of time. Along with a growing need to have for versatile office environment areas, organizations are now assessing not only in which their staff operate, but how. Long gone are the days of cubicles and standard assembly rooms – in the midst of transitioning to a hybrid era of performing both from house and in an place of work, when persons arrive with each other, they are seeking to do so in new, collaborative and partaking methods.

To meet this require, Feather launched an ground breaking partnership with WeWork to offer superior-quality office household furniture with white-glove delivery and assembly to WeWork members in 150+ zip codes all-around the region. Responding to the special wants of every single office tenant, WeWork associates are now equipped to curate their spaces with anything from lounge household furniture, to collaborative breakout rooms, to objects that prioritize ergonomics and style and design – all even though leveraging Feather’s sustainable and round business product of rental, refurbishment and reuse.

What’s following for you?

Though Feather has helped furnish office spaces on a rental foundation in excess of the earlier handful of a long time, our partnership with WeWork is a greater phase in direction of this evolution in our business. Specified COVID-19 and the emergence of the hybrid get the job done era nationwide, workers and businesses are in search of versatile place of work selections that foster collaboration and comfort and ease. We’re psyched to collaborate with WeWork, other coworking areas, and big office brokerages and landlords to make flexible workplace alternatives out there to a lot of additional specialists in distinctive markets about the nation.

Final 12 months, we also launched a new, 1-thirty day period phrase length giving precisely for the property staging sector. The shift came right after real estate professionals significantly turned to Feather’s assortment of substantial-stop home furnishings to stage properties for probable buyers, and desire for a shorter expression length enhanced. We’re thrilled to keep on to present Feather products and services to a growing number of household stagers and actual estate specialists using advantage of the advantage and ease of Feather for their staging requires.

What’s a trigger you are passionate about and why?

I’m most passionate about sustainability and lowering the effect of home furnishings squander on the world. As pointed out previously, household furniture at the moment accounts for about 7% of all landfill waste, and 19.6 billion lbs . is additional annually to landfills.

At Feather, the main of our small business is our rental model— which is designed all-around our eyesight of trying to keep home furnishings in households and offices and out of landfills. This is specially evident in the design and style of our home furnishings, which is made to past with strong leading-excellent resources, and a ingredient part method for desired repairs. We also choose clean lines and a practical, minimalist fashion in our pieces to make them easy to include into a range of residences, offices and particular types.

Due to the fact founding, we have retained more than 1M pounds of home furnishings out of landfills. We’re very pleased of this accomplishment, but this is just the starting for us as we continue to operate towards obtaining our mission: change people’s relationship with materials merchandise for a more healthy and happier earth.

Many thanks to Jay for sharing his tale. If you’d like to join, obtain him on LinkedIn uncover him on LinkedIn below.

We’re frequently on the lookout for terrific authentic estate tech entrepreneurs to attribute. If which is you, please read this post — then drop us a line (Community @ geekestate dot com).

By Lela