Burrow, a DTC furniture company, rapidly adapted to market shifts by launching a virtual design consultation program, replicating the in-store experience online. This quick pivot, guided by a "just launch" startup philosophy, generated significant revenue despite initial data scarcity. The episode highlights the importance of business agility, risk-taking, and transparent re-forecasting in volatile market conditions.
Key takeaways
Implement virtual consultation services to replicate in-store experiences and drive revenue, even without extensive pre-launch data.
Prioritize business agility and rapid deployment (e.g., "within 48 hours") to respond effectively to market disruptions.
Embrace a "just launch" mentality, getting a minimum viable product into customers' hands quickly for feedback and iteration.
Acknowledge the inherent difficulties in forecasting during uncertain times and adopt flexible, frequent re-forecasting (e.g., weekly).
Be willing to take calculated risks on new initiatives, even when concrete data to validate success is limited.
Through this crisis, Burrow CEO Stephen Kuhl is sticking to a piece of advice he got back when the furniture store was just another startup at Y Combinator.
"The advice we got then was 'just launch your first product. Get it out there into people's hands and you'll get feedback,' Kuhl said on the Modern Retail Podcast.
That's what the company has done with a virtual design consultation program delivering an "in-store experience" to customers from their homes.
It had been in development for a while, according to Kuhl, but the pandemic's halting effect on the economy made this the time for Burrow to see it through (Burrow has one store, now closed, in Manhattan). "Within 48 hours we stood up our V1 of this virtual design consultation program. And that was something where everybody who was involved in that dropped everything and jumped on it," Kuhl said.
He added that Burrow has seen "a good amount of revenue" from the new program, especially considering it was a leap of faith. "We had no data to say this is definitely something we should spend our time and money on."
Kuhl talked about Burrow's supply chains, pivoting its business and how "anybody that tells you that they know how to forecast their business in this is either lying or completely naive."
