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Ask HN: What happens to Failed Startup furniture?

7 points by jyu ↗ HN
Every startup seems to have really nice monitors and chairs, but of course some startups fail and shut down at some point. What happens to said equipment when they close up shop? Is this liquidation process different for say a 50 person startup vs a 10 person startup?

5 comments

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CatsoCatsoCatso
The office next to my place of work (we share a floor) recently went under. They had really nice furniture, most of it was just left when they closed.

In this case I think it changed hands to the building owner. They failed to pay the rent so I think pretty much everything inside changed hands as there was a bailiffs notice on the door.

It looks like the new company which is in there is actually re-using their old tables and chairs.

jpetersonmn
When I was younger, I used to work for a commercial furniture company. Most of our work was to go into closed down companies and dismantle their furniture. Take it back to the warehouse, refurb it and then resell it. Typically used cubes would cost $1-$5 cube (plus labor costs to retrieve and refurb) but then re-sold for several hundred and sometimes thousands per cube.
jyu
That's very interesting.

Those are are walls of a cubicle right? Anecdotally cubes seem to be falling out of style. Did you get a chance to see the negotiation process for either buying or selling the cubes?

Seems like negotiations would be pretty one-sided in both cases. For sellers, they are so busted up from having a failed business, getting a good price and terms are not at the top of mind. For buyers, they need office equipment pronto to get their people productive in a way that price is a secondary factor.

smeyer
I doubt that all buyers are in a position where they "need office equipment pronto." I'm sure many are, but building out a new office can take months, leaving plenty of time for negotiation with multiple sellers. Some purchasers likely need equipment immediately and others are likely planning several months ahead of time to predict future needs.
play_tagapp
This sounds like its own startup idea waiting to happen.