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At Lugg (https://lugg.com https://lugg.com) we did a few things that would not scale. - My co-founder and I did all the Luggs ourselves in trucks we rented thr
by kreutz 3y ago
At Lugg (https://lugg.com https://lugg.com) we did a few things that would not scale.
- My co-founder and I did all the Luggs ourselves in trucks we rented through GetAround for the first 4 months
- My co-founder and I's names, pictures, and phone numbers were hard coded into the app as the crew to fulfill the Lugg before we had crews or proper dispatching
- We launched without payments and would charge customers with a Square reader at the door
- Most mornings we would camp out in the IKEA parking lot in Emeryville, CA and approach their customers that were struggling to get their purchases in their cars and pitched them that we would deliver their items if they downloaded the app and made a request
- In the early days we didn't have operating ours and anyone could request a Lugg at anytime and my co-founder and I would hop in our rented truck and do it
A few months in we did a Lugg for someone that knew Sam Altman and made an intro to him for us. We met him for coffee, shortly after had a YC interview, and was later accepted in the S15 batch
- sincerely 3y ago[flagged]
- Frivolous9421 3y agoOh yes I love having to move huge furniture myself or pay someone an exorbitant unfair price
- kreutz 3y agoThank you!
- dtran 3y agoThis luggs the cake! Did y'all ever debate buying a truck vs. renting on GetAround?
- kreutz 3y agoWe thought about it but ultimately decided that owning a truck would detract from what we really needed to be doing which was getting truck owners to do the luggs
- williamcotton 3y agoLove the hustle, dude! This is the way!
- nlh 3y agoBTW - I think my next door neighbor was a customer in those first 4 months. I remember helping him pack for a small move one night and we decided to see if There Was An App For That - and there was! I remember our both being surprised that we made the request at like 10pm and one of the co-founders showed up. So, um, thank you and sorry! (We didn't order at 10pm to be inconsiderate - we just saw the option and took it). Glad things have worked out since then - I still remember the experience and use it as a reference when I'm telling people about this exact sort of hustle.
- kunley 3y agonice story..
- kunley 3y agoI got downvoted for this very short reaction, so, at the risk of having another downvote(s), I want to make a statement: With my very laconic reply I wanted in fact to convey my congratulations the Lugg creator for their perservance during the hard beginnings of their startup; plus, I strongly believe that the human level of the aspiring enterpreteneur's life is much more HNish in spirit, than endless discsussions circling around running LLM in the basement (or basement-as-a-service) without apparent customers, and somehow strangely the latter seems to be dominating HN comment space. Thanks for listening.
- steezeburger 3y agoProbably because it ends in two dots which makes it look like you're being dismissive and rude.
- kunley 3y agoMmm, oh really, in my naive world two dots just mean some reflection.. (did it again). But I get your point, thank you. Although it is kind of scary people read that much between the lines.
- JCharante 3y agoWow, that's a cool app idea and your website design looks so friendly. The closest company I can think of is Lalamove which operates throughout Asia (founded in 2013). Sorry if it's not the right place, but I couldn't find on your website how the fully insured part of your service works. Do you need to take pictures of everything before hand?
- cushychicken 3y agoThat’s very cool. Love the IKEA parking lot move. Bet you helped a lot of folks that way.
- josh2600 3y agoJust want to say that Lugg has consistently been one of the best experiences I have moving things from place to place on short notice. Great customer service and the work is always done on point and on time. It’s more reliable than any other short notice moving service I’ve used, but a little higher cost. I guess you get what you pay for.
- holler 3y agoThat's an awesome/inspiring story, congrats & thanks for sharing. Was it all organic growth in the beginning? What took it from that early phase to the next step?
- Vaslo 3y agoAmazing work ethic - did IKEA ever give you a hard time?
- keep_reading 3y agowhy should they? helps people get out of the parking lot faster, helps the store move more inventory...
- simonebrunozzi 3y ago"Move anything with the push of a button" Fantastic tagline, and very clear value proposition.
- haspok 3y agoI am a bit surprised because IKEA has its own delivery service. Are you cheaper or more convenient?
- leetcrew 3y agoI recently ordered a medium sized table from ikea and the delivery options were a) $20 to receive in 3-5 days, b) $50 to receive on a specific day within a 12 hour window, and c) $80 to get a narrower time window and have the delivery person put the package in a room of your choice. I'd guess you need a lot of scale to beat a) on cost, but there's probably room to undercut b) or c) on short distance trips.
- CoachRufus87 3y agoI've always wondered why Ikea didn't offer convenient in-house delivery options. Good job.
- james-revisoai 3y agoI liked your story and technique in finding a need-now kind of audience with this method! And your bit about Square is underrated. Setting up auth/stripe/connecting everything can take so long you lose motivation. I like the idea of using Square. I face a similar kind of situation in a similar market, would love to hear your advice on something, feel it may complement what you are doing as well - can be reached at lugg@revision.ai for this if you'd be up to chat.
- cableshaft 3y agoWe almost used your service to get a lounge chair home the other weekend. We had to drive 45 minutes away to take a look at it and maybe buy it, and didn't really want to go there, rent a U-Haul, head home, head back, pick up our car, head home again. We got lucky though that it managed to fit into our car so we didn't need to. But nice to know it's an option!
- nylonstrung 3y agoLugg is awesome! My go-to for moving
- devoutsalsa 3y agoIs the insurance you offer legit or crap? Shipping companies have a notorious reputation for not paying out on insurance claims.