AptDeco's Growth As A Top 100 Marketplace

31 Oct 2024 · 2 min

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In this interview, Max Brun discusses AptDeco's evolution from its 2014 launch to becoming a top‑100 marketplace recognized by Andreessen Horowitz. He explains that the company achieved double‑ and triple‑digit growth in its first four to five years but deliberately avoided a "grow at all costs" approach, instead emphasizing strong unit economics and profitability. Recently, AptDeco reached EBITDA profitability and is on track to become cash‑flow positive. Brun highlights sustainability as a long‑standing pillar that has grown in importance, positioning the firm as an "operating system for furniture resale" with a comprehensive technology and logistics suite designed to serve large, bulky retailers—an avenue he sees as a major future growth driver.

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I believe you've been listed on A16Z's Marketplace 100 for a few years, you know, so could you maybe share more about, you know, what growth has been like? I mean, this space is very tricky, just to say the least. We've also just had many competitors come and go. They've tackled it differently. But for us, growth has been, you know, we've focused on unit economics. We focus on building a business that's you know, foundationally solid and built to last. And so we, you know, we intentionally did not go the just grow at all cost. So that being said, you know, we, you know, we have been growing, you know, double, triple digits percentage-wise, you know, the first like 4 or 5 years. And then over the last few years, we've been focused on profitability. And, you know, we actually just reached EBITDA profitability, about to be cash flow positive. So our growth has been also Also kind of focused on making sure like we're we're focusing on our bottom line. The exciting thing for us is you know when we started in 2014, sustainability was big but not as big as it is today. When when we started in 2014, brands didn't really think about resale as the as an option. And for us now, you know, ten years in. We see this really big opportunity. You know, we sit in the middle, and so we've even our businesses like now the way we talk about our marketplace is we are an operating system for furniture resale. We've built a full end-to-end suite of technology and logistics to power retail for any, any, you know, big and bulky type of retailers. And we see that as a big driver for growth for us in the future as well.