Just Go Grind Podcast: How Michael Barlow's Fernish Aims to Redefine the Furniture Rental Industry
Justin Gordon
Justin Gordon is the founder of "Just Go Grind" and host of the "Just Go Grind Podcast," a daily show with more than 200 episodes featuring interviews with entrepreneurs and investors. He has an MBA from USC, is an aspiring runner with a 1:29 half marathon personal best, and wants to help one billion people in his lifetime.
Nov 02 2020
Fernish
On this week's episode of the Just Go Grind podcast, hear from Michael Barlow, co-founder and CEO of Fernish. Fernish is a premium furniture rental service offering flexibility for those who don't want to be weighed down by owning.
Key takeaways:
- Founded in 2017, Fernish was inspired by a pain point Barlow experienced: the drag of renting space to store furniture and decor during his multiple and frequent moves.
- Fernish raised $30 million in a seed round led by Real Estate Technology (RET) Ventures in 2019. (In May, this year, the company raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Khosla Ventures.)
- A co-founder proved critical for Barlow for many reasons, but especially for emotional support and for raising capital because potential investors see complimentary strengths in the founders.
- Participating in the program at TechStars proved extremely useful for Fernish founders to learn a lot about how to scale a business and zero in on the company's focus.
- Barlow prioritizes people operations and the personnel management side to strengthen company culture, so people are inspired to work and stay with the company.
- Barlow says Fernish is proud to be based in L.A. and hire from the growing pool of Angeleno talent.
Why isn't moving more exciting? Why is there so much stress and hassles associated with such an...important...part of your life?...Why doesn't your home change and evolve to fit your changing needs?
— Michael Barlow, co-founder and CEO of Fernish
Want to hear more episodes of Just Go Grind? Find it on any of your favorite podcast platforms including Apple PodcastsStitcherSpotifyGoogle Podcasts.
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Justin Gordon
Justin Gordon is the founder of "Just Go Grind" and host of the "Just Go Grind Podcast," a daily show with more than 200 episodes featuring interviews with entrepreneurs and investors. He has an MBA from USC, is an aspiring runner with a 1:29 half marathon personal best, and wants to help one billion people in his lifetime.
