Abitacolo

The circular-furniture revolution. This startup, incubated at La Nave, rescues furniture off the street to restore and rent it out, on a mission to make our transient spaces feel like home.

Abitacolo

We don't often meet projects that fit us this well, but seeing as kikiriki.works is a company that has picked up every one of its wardrobes off the street, Abitacolo felt like a perfect match. So we rolled up our sleeves and got into their world.

What did we find?

A passionate team with a clear mission to push sustainability in furniture and habitability, fighting against:

  • Roles that weren't clearly defined within the team
  • No prior experience in marketing or brand-building
  • Trouble getting the value proposition across, to users and potential investors alike
Abitacolo postcards: rescued chairs, each with its own story

SCOPE

Cultural discovery

First question: is there room for Abitacolo at all? The easy answer would be to chase restaurants and hospitality, but that wasn't what the founders wanted.

After the research, mapping socioeconomic tensions, an opportunity heatmap and a subculture study, we found yes, in three areas:

  • Digital nomads and international students who love unique design but don't want to own pieces long-term
  • Flatmates who want the flexibility to rent furniture as their needs change
  • Landlords who'd like to offer their tenants flexible solutions

FORGE

Optimising the product

This is a service that needs heavy upfront investment and high costs to build a furniture stock, costs that would drop as repair replaced replacement as the guiding philosophy.

Analysing the business and co-designing the product, we found that even though the philosophy was design democratisation, we needed to differentiate on design, not on price.

We designed a communication roadmap built around commercial actions and community-building around design, with users who saw Abitacolo as an aspirational brand.

VOICE

Compass narratives

Two narratives: investors and users. For investors: we're a solid project, backed by incubators and driven by people who care. We don't oversimplify, we go deep, explaining architectural influences and the founders' backgrounds.

For users it was trickier: an unfinished product, a philosophy? a movement? We made them part of it: Abitacolo is a brave project that shows its wins and its failures alike.

FLOW

Following the route

Abitacolo had a committed but junior marketing team, and freelancers hadn't convinced them.

We supported the in-house team, coaching them on sector best practices and locking in solid growth processes.

Together, we built an organic growth plan based on building in public that prioritises creativity over technique, leaving room to grow.

Resultados

Tangible social capital

The brandbook turned an abstract philosophy into a tangible system: a visual palette rooted in urban recycling, a tone of voice that blends activism and professionalism, and clear guidelines for communicating its unique value.

A team as the engine, building in public as the philosophy

  • Strengthening the in-house team turned fuzzy roles into structured processes. Today they have the tools and methods to create multichannel content aligned with their mission.
  • The strategy of openly documenting their process (from rescuing furniture to the logistics challenges) grew an early community committed to their vision, not just their product.

Infrastructure to scale, and credibility with investors

The detailed go-to-market plan and the 360º strategy laid the groundwork for a coherent launch, where every piece, from social media to pitch decks, reinforces the same narrative.

WANT TO BE OUR NEXT PROJECT?

WRITE TO US

Your project is innovative. We work differently, with our own method. Let's build something great together.