#105 - Reham Fagiri and Kalam Dennis

About this episode

<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/reham-fagiri-97683b1/">Reham Fagiri</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalam-dennis-641a7120/">Kalam Dennis</a> are the founders of <a href="https://www.aptdeco.com/">AptDeco</a>, where you can buy and sell used furniture. They were in the YC Winter 2014 batch and you can find them at <a href="https://www.aptdeco.com/">AptDeco.com</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br><br></b>0:21 - What is AptDeco?<br><br>1:06 - Why did Reham and Kalam start it?<br><br>2:51 - Were they considering other ideas?<br><br>5:06 - How did they prepare to start AptDeco after business school/the corporate world?<br><br>6:21 - Getting over the fear of starting<br><br>9:21 - Communicating that they're starting something to friends and family<br><br>14:21 - Starting a startup after business school<br><br>17:21 - Helpful learnings from a more traditional business education<br><br>27:21 - Early models of AptDeco vs today<br><br>31:51 - AptDeco's customers<br><br>34:06 - Brands and customer acquisition<br><br>38:46 - Learning how to do delivery<br><br>42:06 - Deciding not to warehouse furniture<br><br>43:51 - Ideas that didn't work and some that worked on the second attempt<br><br>48:21 - Analytics<br><br>50:51 - Being a NYC company in YC<br><br>52:11 - How to make the most of YC</p>