Pickle is a leading peer-to-peer rental marketplace, making items from your community’s closets available for rent on demand. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Pickle co-founder and CEO Brian McMahon to learn more about the company.
Brian McMahon’s Background
McMahon went to the University of Maryland, where he majored in business and played football. And McMahon said:
“I then worked in data science strategy consulting for a few years before going to Blackstone, where I worked on our data and product teams across our Investor Relations and business development group and our real estate and asset management teams. While there, I met my co-founder Julia, and we worked on the same team for a few years and connected because we were both data nerds and were drawn to helping people make purchasing decisions.”
Formation Of Pickle
How did the idea for Pickle come together? McMahon shared:
“The initial version of Pickle is a little different than what we are today. We set out to help people make better purchase decisions through the use of social polling. Essentially, we were creating communities of users with similar style preferences, and when they were in the market for something new, they would post a poll to crowdsource opinions and essentially introduce social proof in the purchasing process. We quickly uncovered a major theme: the majority of users were recommending items that they already owned. It was a light-bulb moment that we should help people share what they already own.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Pickle’s favorite memory working for the company so far? McMahon reflected:
“We’ve had a lot of great memories. The best is probably when we closed our first capital back in June. That was a really exciting time for Julia and me. We worked pretty hard for about two and a half years to pivot and build the company – from learning to code, figuring out growth strategies, and hand-delivering all rentals across New York City (4000+ subway rides). It was a great moment for the two of us to provide some validation for what we have been working on.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? McMahon explained:
“Our core feature is that you’re able to list items that you already own and then rent them out to other people in your community. Most people wear 20% of the items in their closet 80% of the time, so Pickle is a great way to earn some passive income on those underutilized items in your closet On the flip side, renters get access to items that are often either sold out elsewhere or may be too expensive to justify for a one- or two-time wear. We also offer door-to-door courier delivery–think DoorDash but for high-quality items in your community. If you’re in a pickle, you can get something at the last minute delivered straight to your door.”
Evolution Of Pickle’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? McMahon noted:
“The company has evolved a lot since launching. I learned how to code to build Pickle, so the first line of code I wrote was the first line of code for Pickle. We’ve obviously improved the tech stack quite a bit. We now have a great engineering team focused on product, and they’re quickly adding features and setting us up for future scale. We also have a lot of integrations with courier services and payment processing systems that really help us operate in a pretty seamless fashion.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? McMahon cited:
“We’re really proud of the way our community has embraced Pickle. For example, we’ve had a number of people tell us how valuable it’s been to have Pickle as a supplemental income stream, especially given the current economic climate. We have some making hundreds, even thousands of dollars, a month listing items they already own. We have one community member who told us she uses her extra monthly income from Pickle to offset her monthly rent payments. We’re seeing more and more people meet through our app or at our community events and continue friendships beyond Pickle.”
Funding
After asking McMahon about the company’s funding information, he revealed:
“We recently raised $8 million, led by Craft and FirstMark with participation from Burst Capital. Really happy with the group that we have together. Rick Heitzmann from FirstMark joined our board, and couldn’t be happier to have him there. Jeff Fluhr from Craft is a board observer, and Derek Chu from FirstMark, both of whom provide incredible insights given their backgrounds with marketplace businesses. Geoff Donaker from Burst Capital is incredible to work with and provides some of the best advice that we get on a week-to-week basis. So really happy with the the team we have in the room. FirstMark’s blog post here and Jeff Fluhr’s blog post here.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? McMahon affirmed:
“We focus on a couple of main things to differentiate. The first is supply. Our goal is to have of-the-moment high-quality supply so that it encourages others to upload items as soon as they purchase them. The fashion-focused trendsetters are the core demographic helping us build in-demand supply on the platform.”
“Supply is definitely our number one focus, and supply drives all of our demand. The second is convenience. We want users to be able to get what they want when they want it and only pay for the amount of time that they’re actually using it. What better way to feel like it’s a true extension of your closet than to have it show up right at your door? And, on the flip side, for owners, it’s great to avoid the trip to USPS and just hand your dress to a courier at your doorstep. Our community also is a big differentiator.”
“We’re really focused on fostering a safe, trusting, and exciting community of users that enjoy sharing with each other.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? McMahon pointed out:
“We’re very focused on our initial use case of clothing and accessories. We do plan to expand from women’s into men’s clothing and accessories pretty soon. Our ultimate goal is to be the Airbnb of all items in your home–but the home. So while we’ve started in the clothing and accessories, we do plan to expand out into all other asset classes. We are essentially building micro-warehouses on every corner of every community (our user’s closets). We want to use this simplified distribution to make our consumption more efficient. We believe there is no reason for everyone in the same community to own the same things when it’s much more economically and environmentally efficient to share.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics to discuss? McMahon concluded:
“We’re really excited about the team that we’re putting together here at Pickle. We’ve been able to hire quickly, including many new employees coming from our community. Many candidates have been very excited reading about our story and what we are working on, and can’t wait to work with the team. We’re thrilled with the team we’re building and bringing on the right people to take us to the next level.”
“We are incredibly excited about the team we’re building. We’ve been able to hire quickly, with many new employees joining us from our community. We’ve also had many candidates express enthusiasm, having heard our story and about the projects we’re working on. We’re energized by the team we’ve built and continue to build.”
