Key to Success? Be Scrappy & Resourceful with Reham Fagiri, Co-Founder of AptDeco

Reham Fagiri is the Founder and CEO of AptDeco, an online
marketplace that eliminates the hassle of buying and selling
furniture. 


Reham always knew she wanted to build something but never knew
exactly what it would be. The idea for AptDeco came to Reham
after she finished business school at Wharton and was preparing
to move to New York. Desperate to sell her furniture, she used
Craigslist, and was met with strangers coming to her house, heavy
negotiations, cancellations, and even moments that compromised
her safety. When speaking to her colleagues, she realized so many
of her classmates were dealing with the same frustrations. 


Although she accepted a job with another start-up, Reham became
obsessed with the idea of creating a better platform to buy and
sell furniture. Fast forward to today, AptDeco has morphed from a
scrappy team poaching furniture sales from Craigslist to now
being a leading marketplace that provides a seamless experience
from buying to selling to delivery of furniture.


We talk to Reham about how she got the idea off the ground with
very little money, some of the hurdles she hit when it came to
scaling the business, how to really engage with your customers
and create a trusted brand that people truly want, and so much
more.


In this episode, we’ll talk to Reham about: 


* Reham shares about her life growing up in Sudan and the
exposure she had to entrepreneurship [2:46]


* Why Reham decided to leave her reputable job at Goldman Sachs
to pursue business school [4:22]


* The importance of having exposure to different opportunities
and people when thinking about career changes [7:47]


* How the idea of AptDeco came to life and how she decided to
test the concept before spending more time and resources towards
it [8:42]


* Reham discusses why she felt comfortable taking the risk to
build the business despite the massive amount of school debt she
has [22:30]


* The motivations around starting Y Combinator and the biggest
lesson she learned: meet your customers [27:14]


* Reham shares her best advice when it comes to connecting with
your customer & some of the mistakes she made in the process
[30:20]


* How Reham created awareness in the early days & brought in
her first few hundred customers [39:22]


* The power of word of mouth and referrals in your business vs.
paying for your customers [41:47]


* Reham discusses the difficulty she faced raising money in the
early stages of the business & why that was one of the best
things that she experienced [43:04]


* How she dealt with the rejections when it came to fundraising
& how she deals with the highs and lows of entrepreneurship
[48:19]


Follow Reham:


* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aptdeco/


* Website: https://www.aptdeco.com/


Follow Yasmin:


* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/


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