Editor’s note: Y Combinator, Google Ventures-funded Move Loot picks Raleigh-Durham for its second furniture marketplace. Two of its co-founders are UNC-Chapel Hill graduates, but more than Tar Heel connections were part of the expansion decision, reports ExitEvent Editor Laura Baverman. ExitEvent is a news partner of WRAL TechWire.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – The Silicon Valley full-service used furniture marketplace called Move Loot has gotten plenty of validation in its first year of life.
The co-founders, two of whom graduated from UNC Chapel Hill, were accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator last winter. They raised $2.8 million in funding from Google Ventures, First Round Capital and Index Ventures upon a June 2014 Demo Day. And they quickly became an option of choice for people moving out of San Francisco to get rid of their old stuff. And for people moving into the city to quickly acquire new stuff. Sales are growing 40 percent month-over-month since an October 2013 launch.
But startups are constantly in validation mode in their early days. So the team has already begun its next big test this fall, opening its second Move Loot operation in the Research Triangle. It launched a region-wide advertising campaign last week.
Why here? Because if it can work in Raleigh-Durham, then it can work in any other secondary market around the nation, says local GM Mike Althoff. The Triangle also is the fastest growing of those with more than a million residents, and the founders have roots here.
So far, $40,000 in furniture has been collected—about 600 items. Check out the website, and you can browse an interesting collection of desks, nightstands, dressers, artwork, chairs, bookshelves, beds and tables including my personal favorite, the Steel Sawhorse Table.
For more about Move Loot, read the full report at ExitEvent.
