A self-described “Army brat,” Cameron Johnson knows the difficulties of moving frequently — walk-throughs, paperwork, deposits and furnishing a whole new place.
With his Dallas-based furnishing subscription platform Nickson, he’s hoping to make that last part simpler for customers. And, as it gets nearer to closing in on a “significant” round of Series A funding, the startup is eyeing an expansion into other Texas metro areas.
“Not only do people not like moving, but there’s also no good solution,” said Johnson, Nickson’s CEO. “We realized there existed an opportunity to allow someone to add everything they need to live in the new place, very similar to how you might add cable, internet, gas and electric.”
Nickson was launched in 2017. While Johnson said not much has changed with the company’s business model in that time, it has expanded beyond its core focus of fully-furnishing apartments to include work with senior living facilities, coworking spaces like WeWork at Victory Park, professional Airbnb hosts and staging homes.
“We set out to solve this apartment problem, but realized that this is a real estate problem,” Johnson said.
Much of the company’s growth has been organic, but it has seen a boost in demand during the pandemic. Early on in the crisis, when some stores many went to for apartment furniture like Ikea closed, causing more users to come to the platform, especially as it provides contactless delivery. The company has also seen a number of new users come onboard as more remote workers and companies move to the region from more expensive coastal hubs.
The company has seen so much traffic, that at one point during the pandemic, Nickson ran out of stock and had to provide “survival kits,” with the basics needed to begin settling into a new place. While Johnson said the company likely lost some clients due to that, he said it was not the worst problem that could have arisen, and has helped the company forecast future surges in demand.
Nickson declined to share how many users are on the platform. However, Johnson said it has about 100,000 items currently in use.
“You click a button and give us the keys to your place. You show up and find everything is moved,” Johnson said. “A tech-enabled solution turned out to be spot-on and right on time for the pandemic.”
The idea for the company came to Johnson a few years before it launched. He was working in real estate and noticed a number of his clients would look at a house or apartment unit, thinking they were getting the fully-furnished model unit.
“The answer is categorically and uniformly no,” Johnson said.
After a user has signed a lease, they log onto the Nickson platform, inputting things like the layout and size of the apartment and the length of the lease. After that, users take a style quiz to match them with the color schemes and types of furnishings. Nickson employees will then take that information, get the keys to the unit from the landlord and fully set up the new place.
Unlike other home furnishing businesses, Nickson doesn’t offer a la carte rentals, instead focusing on the entire place, from couches and tables to vases and silverware.
“People need everything, and if you package it all together and provide it for them, we can do it really quickly, at-scale and we reduce their hassle,” Johnson said.
Since its launch, Nickson has grown to a team of about 25, with two new hires in the last month. With new funding expected in the near future, the company is looking to invest more in its technology and inventory. It’s also looking to plant a physical presence in Austin and Houston, where it has been beta testing recently and servicing from its warehouse in Dallas.
“We’re going to make a big splash in Austin this year and launch Houston, and just keep going city by city, but we want to grow in our home state first,” Johnson said.
