#139 - Jay Reno

**Craig Cannon** (0:00)
Hey, how's it going? This is Craig Cannon, and you're listening to Y Combinator's podcast. Today's episode is with Jay Reno. Jay is the CEO and founder of Feather. Feather is a furniture subscription service. They were in the summer 2017 batch of YC. You can check out their furniture at livefeather.com, and if you live in LA, SF, or New York, you can try out their service. Jay is on Twitter at jjreno.
All right, here we go.
Jay Reno, welcome to the podcast.

**Jay Reno** (0:30)
Thank you for having me.

**Craig Cannon** (0:31)
So you are the founder and CEO of Feather, which was in the summer 17 batch, and Feather is a furniture subscription service. So at the core of it, is this idea that people don't want to own things anymore.
How did you come to that conclusion, and why does it motivate your business?

**Jay Reno** (0:49)
Yeah. High level, I think I saw three things happening in my life. The first was, I had moved seven times in the nine years I've lived in New York City. And that's just above average, actually. That's not too far out of the ordinary. And each time I've moved, I've had a completely different life situation. So I've lived with roommates, I've lived with a significant other, I then moved back in with one roommate, then I lived with two roommates, then by myself, then with a significant other, and then by myself, okay? And at each phase of my life, I've had completely different needs in my apartment. So, you know, the space changes, the layout of the space changes place to place, the needs of the furniture needs in that space change dramatically. So for example, one roommate might have had the sofa we needed, but not a coffee table.
He didn't have a bed for me, so I had to bring a bed and mattress, et cetera. Then when I moved to the next place, that stuff might not have fit physically or stylistically in the next space. So it might've been like a modern apartment the first time, then I moved into a pre-war building in Brooklyn.
And at each phase, you have completely different needs. And so one, I realized that moving is a pain. It's just, you know, we've all experienced this so many different times. And two, the stuff that you have doesn't necessarily fit physically or stylistically in your next space for all of the given reasons.
Couple that with basically there being a massive problem of furniture waste in the US. So what people are doing to solve this problem today is buying Ikea, Wayfair, what you might consider disposable furniture that can be assembled once and set up once in someone's home and doesn't really transport very well. It's not meant to be disassembled or moved. And so all of that stuff might not fit in your next space. So you have to throw it out and then go buy new things. Then you move and you throw those things out and go buy new things to fit your space, to fit your life.
So I got my master's degree in climate and environmental science. I care deeply about some of these big world problems, especially as they relate to the environment, the built world, and realized that I think there's a big opportunity to solve a couple of massive problems. The third piece that's kind of interesting is there's a cultural shift happening. Like you mentioned, away from ownership of stuff.
And a high level where you see that going is, and where you see that taking shape is, in the American dream changing. So it sounds like such a big lofty thing. And maybe it is. But our parents' generation cared about getting a house and cars and having a white picket fence with things in their life, settling down. And our generation cares about totally different things. We actually aspire to have something very different, which is freedom and flexibility. And freedom and flexibility allows you to experience the world. It allows you to maybe be bi-coastal or just lean into whatever feels right for you at a given time. Maybe that's a job, maybe that's a hobby, or where you live, what you're doing.
And yeah, we value something totally different. So that shift happening with all these other problems.

**Craig Cannon** (4:46)
Would you attribute that to just the dollar not going as far and people being like, you know what, maybe I can't buy a house ever, or maybe I'm going to push it back from age 30 to age 45 or something.
Is that like a main factor? What drew that change out in the world?