Design Changemakers 2022: With Kaiyo, Alpay Koralturk Is Disrupting the Secondhand Furniture Market

Who: Alpay Koralturk, founder of Kaiyo
Where to follow him: Instagram at @getkaiyo

When Alpay Koralturk moved to New York in 2014, he quickly discovered the pains of moving and furnishing an apartment in the largest city in the U.S. In one of the most innovative, bustling capitals of the world, Koralturk couldn’t fathom why it was so hard to get his hands on high-quality, pre-owned furniture. However, as he looked into it, he realized, “It’s just a very tough transaction to make. These items are hard to move; it’s hard to deal with strangers (who can also be sketchy!), and it’s hard to schedule time.”

With a background as a business analyst, Koralturk set out to solve the problem with an online marketplace to buy and sell designer-quality furniture quickly and easily. Instead of leaving the marketing and delivery up to individual sellers, Koralturk’s business would pick up the seller’s furniture, clean it, photograph it, market it, and eventually deliver it to the buyer in exchange for a commission on the sale price. Originally launched on a small scale as Furnishare in 2015, Koralturk rebranded and doubled down on the operation as Kaiyo in 2019, servicing the New York City metro area, including Westchester, Long Island, and Connecticut. Kaiyo expanded to Philadelphia in 2020 and Washington D.C. in 2021. The business has exploded in all three markets: With supply chain issues and long lead times in the furniture industry, suddenly everyone became interested in Kaiyo’s fast, reliable marketplace.

Koralturk says consumers are also increasingly aware of the issue of used furniture getting dumped in landfills. “I ask folks, ‘Can you name one other product we spend so much money on, that when we’re ready to part ways with it, we will go to the length of paying other people hundreds of dollars so they can trash it for us more conveniently? It’s really bizarre,” says Koralturk. Ahead, Koralturk shares his hopes for the design industry and Kaiyo’s goals for 2022.

Apartment Therapy: How, when, and why did you start doing what you’re doing? What inspired you?

Alpay Koralturk: I moved to New York, got married to my girlfriend, and we were furnishing our first apartment together. We wanted to buy second-hand because we both were educated to be conscious about sustainability. We thought, ‘We’re living in New York, this is going to be easy.’  But, it was such an awful experience trying to make it happen. And that’s what really got me interested in the industry. 

What was shocking to me was learning that the furniture industry is by far the largest waste producer in Western economies. We’re talking 12 million tons — it’s the weight of 30-plus Empire State Buildings that we throw out into landfills every single year. This is a crazy picture that shouldn’t exist in the 21st century. I come from a technology and finance background. So, my thinking was this might be a problem that could be solved with the help of technology.

AT: Where does your passion for sustainability come from?

AK: My early education was very forward-thinking and progressive: Recycling, sustainability — these were things that were very much top of mind. I have high school friends who shared this funny story with me — that I had actually forgotten — about how I used to walk around collecting recyclable trash off the streets, which is kind of bizarre because there were so few recycling bins in Istanbul back then. I looked like this crazy young kid who was just picking up trash around town. But those values got instilled at an early age, and I continued to live by them.

AT: You also have a background in finance and data analysis. How does that inform your approach to business in the design industry now?

AK: I joined Wall Street straight out of school, and I’ve been coding since I was in high school. I realized [the secondhand furniture market] was a big problem and well worth applying my skillset to. At Kaiyo, all the technology we have is built in-house. Our algorithms and all of our data can quite accurately tell us what’s worthwhile to sell, so nobody has to throw out anything that’s in good shape. And we provide unmatched value to buyers — not just because what we sell is used — but because all of the discounting and the pricing is also done by the same algorithm.

AT: What would you say sets you apart from your peers? 

AK: It really is the customer experience. We provide an easy transaction to our customers — if it didn’t require that, Craigslist would’ve solved this problem. Anybody who has good quality furniture really wants to sell it. They’d love to get money for it and know that it’s gone to a new home. We joke here that if it was as easy as driving over your sofa and handing over the keys, people would be driving their sofas and selling them like they do with their cars. 

AT: What makes a piece of furniture that’s pre-loved valuable and special? 

AK: The really timeless brands are always going to be hot, regardless of what day and age we live in. I’m thinking of names like Herman Miller. Anybody that has iconic designs — those retain value extremely well. Outside of that, we also see the more recent, mainstream brands like West Elm and CB2 doing really well. 

AT: Are there any customers that you were really excited about?

AK: Some of our top buyers are actually set designers, interior designers, and stagers. On Kaiyo they can find very unique pieces with character that don’t look like they just came out of a package. And for stages and set designers, the price point is magnitudes cheaper even compared to even renting set furniture.

AT: What three words would you use to describe your work or style?

AK: Environmental, passion, legacy.

AT: Any big plans for 2022 or beyond you can share with us?

AK: We just launched a new feature called Instant Offer, which is a first of its kind for furniture resale. With the new feature, sellers will immediately receive an offer from Kaiyo; if they accept, a check will then be mailed within two days, eliminating the usual wait with our original revenue share model. We believe Instant Offer is the future of the secondhand furniture market and will drive greater participation in the circular economy by providing sellers with a superior, frictionless experience. 

AT: How do you define success in the design world? What makes you feel successful?

AK: For us, it’s really how the customer feels. We’re building a service that we’d want our parents and grandparents to use. It’s not only saving people money, but also giving them access to great designs and brands and doing all of this in a way that’s better for the environment. It’s a win-win-win type situation for the seller, the buyer, and the planet. 

AT: Where do you see the design world going in 2022?

AK: I think we’ll hear more stories of brands trying to become more sustainable. We’ve even seen Ikea do a buyback program — it was a temporary pilot, but I think we’ll see more of those. We also think more brands are going to get conscious about what they do with their return items and what they do with their excess inventory at the end of the season because customers are demanding this of them.

Interview has been edited and condensed.