Ten years ago, while living in downtown Salt Lake City, I was absolutely floored by how expensive and inconvenient it was to move even a few pieces of furniture.
Renting a U-Haul felt like highway robbery, and traditional movers wanted at least $300 an hour for a three-hour minimum. It was mind-boggling — and to top it off, a lot of local mom-and-pop shops didn’t offer home delivery at all. Meanwhile, apps like Uber and DoorDash were taking off. I kept thinking: “Why hasn’t anyone tackled moving with the same on-demand approach?”
That question lit a fire under me. While working as a software engineer, I spent every spare moment building the first version of the Lugg app. By October 2014, I took the leap — I quit my job, packed up for the Bay Area, and slept on a friend’s floor. I was completely committed to bringing Lugg to life.
The early days: IKEA hustler
Mornings started with me renting a truck and hanging around IKEA, watching people wrestle with awkward items on their car roofs. I’d step in and say, “Hey, what if you could press a button and have someone with a truck do this for you?” Our very first IKEA customer still uses Lugg today. I even got kicked out of IKEA after a couple of months because, well, I was relentless — but by then, the app was catching on by itself, and Lugg was beginning to soar.
I convinced my former colleague and collaborator, Eric Kreutzer — the most talented engineer and designer I knew — to join me as a co-founder. Together, we did whatever it took to give our customers an amazing experience, even if it meant crashing on air mattresses in a friend’s office with no running water. We’d hit the gym at dawn to grab a shower before the day’s Luggs rolled in.
In those early days, the two of us were the only “luggers,” which gave us front-row access to our customers’ feedback right in their living rooms. We knew from the get-go that we wanted to build a marketplace where people who owned trucks could earn money on their own schedule.
At first, the Lugg app had only a pickup location, and we charged customers manually after each job. Over time, we finessed everything: adding drop-off addresses, automating payments with Stripe, and rolling out live tracking so customers could follow their Lugg in real-time. Bringing on our first movers who weren’t founders felt like handing over our baby, but watching them embrace our vision and delight customers was exhilarating. Many of our Luggers have moving in their blood, thriving on those “impossible” deliveries. After a packed Saturday, they’d head home feeling on top of the world, knowing they’d just lifted a huge burden off someone’s shoulders.
A Costco deal and a chance meeting
Word traveled fast, thanks to real human interactions. If we delivered a couch to a house full of roommates, you bet they’d ask, “How did you get this here so easily?” A customer would use Lugg at a store, and the owner would say, “What’s that service you’re using?” Soon enough, local furniture shops realized they could offer same-day delivery without running their own fleets. Signing Costco as our first major retailer was a huge deal. Then came Public Storage, and the partnerships kept rolling in.
We’d always aimed for Y Combinator (YC) but got rejected on our first try. Then, purely by chance, we did a Lugg for someone who knew Sam Altman, who was YC’s president at the time. We soon found ourselves chatting over coffee. Before we knew it, we were in.
Being part of YC was like being handed a road map for growth. It gave us an incredible network. We were just two guys from Utah with no elite college degrees or well-placed connections, but YC flung open doors for us. When we secured our first round of funding from YC, Sequoia Capital and Altman, it felt like rocket fuel. We expanded into Los Angeles and Orange County. Each new city has been a victory lap but also a lesson in how to grow while maintaining a 5-star experience.
There have been so many surreal moments along the way, like helping to furnish the Trixie Motel in Palm Springs, which ended up on “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.” I’ll never forget hearing that Terry Crews casually mentioned Lugg in a Vanity Fair interview, calling it one of his favorite apps. Seeing our name in outlets like Better Homes & Gardens and TechCrunch still gives me chills. But the greatest pride comes from hearing everyday people — store owners, real estate agents, nonprofits — tell me how Lugg changed their world. Those stories are gold.
A decade later
Today, Lugg operates in every major market in the United States, works with furniture retailers big and small, and has box trucks for bigger moves. But what really lights me up is bringing Lugg back to Salt Lake City.
Even though I spent most of Lugg’s early days in San Francisco, Utah has always been home. It’s personal. Now, my friends and family can finally enjoy the service that grew out of the frustrations we experienced right here a decade ago.
As we keep expanding, signing new partnerships and looking to new cities, our mission remains unwavering: make life easier, one move at a time. I couldn’t be more excited for what’s next.
