“Knowing that we’re creating a sustainable future while solving a genuine problem for people makes all the hard work worth it.”
Meet Reham Fagiri, co-founder and CEO of AptDeco, an on-line peer-to-peer marketplace that streamlines the buying and selling of new and used furniture
Reham was born and raised in Khartoum, Sudan, and came to the US for college. Reham holds a BSc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania. She has served on the Fast Company Impact Council and Rewriting the Code advisory board, which works to advance women in business and tech.
In 2014, Reham co-founded AptDeco, a marketplace that streamlines the buying and selling of new and used furniture to make the process easy, efficient and sustainable. She came up with the idea after struggling to sell furniture on Craigslist, finding that transporting items and negotiating with buyers was cumbersome. The company was incubated at Y Combinator and has raised more than $19+ million.
Some of AptDeco’s earliest checks were written by Penn alumni who recognized the potential in both the founder and her vision. Her journey exemplifies the power of the Wharton/Penn network and the importance of supporting female founders within our community. If you’re interested in learning more about investing in Reham and AptDeco — check out their profile on WeFunder.
Join us for our exclusive WAFFA interview with Reham Fagiri on 11/20/24. Register here.
Tell us a bit about your company.
AptDeco is a venture-backed resale platform making buying and selling furniture easy, efficient, and sustainable for individuals and the leading furniture brands. AptDeco’s end-to-end platform manages everything from payments to pickup and delivery.
How have you funded the business and what are your current plans for raising incremental investment?
Early on, Y Combinator, angels, and diversity focused funds like HearstLab and Comcast Ventures backed us. Along the way Initialized Capital joined us on the institutional side. We’re currently wrapping up our extension round with plans to do one final round, a growth round, in the next 12 months.
How can the WAFFA community help you?
We’re currently raising a round so I’d welcome introductions to angels, family offices, etc. AptDeco is venture backed and we’ve raised our Series A and now is raising our final $1.5M on an extension round which will take us to cash flow positive this year. We’ll be looking to raise a Series B at a premium to the bridge in 2025.
I’d always welcome introductions to top furniture retailers who are interested in sustainability, resale, and better solutions for their returns.
What inspired you to start your business — what opportunity in the market are you seeking to address?
AptDeco was born out of frustration with the cumbersome, unsafe, and inefficient process of buying and selling used furniture through platforms like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. The opportunity we saw was clear — people wanted a seamless and secure way to furnish their homes with second hand items, but existing methods were riddled with haggling, no-shows, and logistical nightmares. We created AptDeco to provide a fully integrated, tech-enabled resale platform that simplifies the process from listing to delivery, while also addressing the massive environmental impact.
Over 12 million tons of used furniture get landfilled each year. We’re on a mission to change that by making furniture circular. Traditionally, the use of furniture is linear. We buy it, we live with it — and then we dispose of it. Instead of ending the lifecycle at one use, we’ve created a platform where furniture can continue to stay in circulation for years to come.
What helped you get here?
My background in engineering and finance at Goldman Sachs gave me a strong foundation, and both Wharton and Y Combinator were huge in helping to sharpen our approach. YC taught us to get as close to our customers as possible, and Wharton really helped me to think big-picture about scaling AptDeco. Additionally Wharton’s network also opened doors to advisors and industry contacts who’ve been incredibly helpful as we’ve grown.
What is it about your personal background, experience, or perspective that fuels your passion for this venture?
My passion for AptDeco is deeply rooted in both my personal background and experiences. Growing up in Sudan, I was surrounded by a family of entrepreneurs — many of them women — who built businesses from the ground up. This environment instilled in me the drive to create something meaningful for myself.
My own experience of moving from place to place, selling furniture on platforms like Craigslist, highlighted the frustration and safety risks that many, especially women, face. After a particularly unsettling encounter where I felt unsafe in my own home, I knew there had to be a better way. That personal experience, combined with my engineering background and time at Goldman Sachs building complex systems, inspired me to create a safer, more streamlined platform for buying and selling furniture.
What has been one or two of your biggest learnings so far?
We had to tackle some big hurdles including building a logistics network for bulky furniture without warehousing, earning customer trust in a market where safety is a real issue, and expanding into new cities while staying profitable
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is the importance of controlling the logistics side of the business. Owning our delivery network ensures we can provide a consistent, safe, and seamless experience for our users. In addition, we realized early on the need to build logistics software to power a scalable pickup and delivery model without any warehousing. Now, our proprietary logistics software combined with our local and national delivery network is what sets us apart in the furniture resale market. Well any resale marketplace really.
How have you developed the path forward?
Our strategy has been about thoughtful expansion: entering high-demand cities, partnering with popular brands, and focusing on tech to streamline logistics, all while making sure we keep the business efficient and our customers happy.
What is an obstacle that you are grappling with as you continue to build this venture?
One of the key obstacles we’re grappling with as we continue to build AptDeco is scaling our logistics network while maintaining the exceptional customer experience that sets us apart. Our fully integrated platform — handling everything from listing to delivery — is central to our value proposition, but as we expand into new markets, ensuring that we can maintain the same level of service and efficiency becomes a bigger challenge.
We’re also navigating the complexities of scaling in a capital-efficient way while meeting growing demand. Balancing rapid expansion with keeping operations smooth and customer satisfaction high is something we’re continually working to perfect.
What surprises have you encountered as an entrepreneur? Something out of left field?
One surprising challenge I encountered was how important it is to change people’s behavior around buying used furniture. While the demand for secondhand furniture is there, there is still an “ick” factor when it comes to buying used furniture. This is despite platforms like AirBnb, The Real Real, Poshmark, etc that have been instrumental in helping people embrace the sharing economy.
I assumed the convenience and safety we provide would instantly win over customers, but people are creatures of habit, and educating them about why AptDeco is different has been a bigger hurdle than anticipated. Over time, we’ve refined our messaging to highlight our value proposition and how we solve those pain points, and that’s been key to driving adoption.
What has been the most rewarding thing about starting your own business?
The most rewarding part of starting AptDeco has been seeing the real impact we’re making on people’s lives and the environment. We’ve built a platform that not only makes furniture buying and selling easier and safer but also helps reduce waste by keeping millions of pounds of furniture out of landfills. Hearing from customers who appreciate how we’ve simplified a stressful process or seeing the environmental benefits of our circular model is incredibly fulfilling. Knowing that we’re creating a sustainable future while solving a genuine problem for people makes all the hard work worth it.
Learn more about AptDeco here, WeFunder here, and connect with Reham here.
This article is published solely for informational purposes and has no regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of any person or entity. The information is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice. Please seek your own independent financial advice and do your own research in regards to any partnership or investment opportunities.
