Published on: 2026-07-30
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
The team “Danil Kolbasenko” with the project “Without Boxes” took second place in the VI Open Youth Contest of Entrepreneurial Ideas The Blue Ocean Open Polytech Entrepreneurship Competition 2026. The team consisted of fourth-year students of the “Management” program at the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade: Nikita Atoyan, Veronika Stepanyan, Ilya Kaitmazov, and Elina Yusupova.
Associate professors Anton Shaban and Anastasia Klimina from the Higher School of Production Management at IPMEiT helped the young polytechnic students bring the project to life. During their classes, students studied the tools of Blue Ocean Strategy. The instructors also supported the students at all stages of the project development and gave valuable advice on how to improve the product.
“Without Boxes” is a furniture rental service for leased apartments by subscription. It allows a person renting a home to lease furniture just like the apartment itself: pay a fixed price and not worry about buying, assembling, or transporting it.
According to student calculations, one set of furniture for a one-room apartment pays for itself in 20 months, and over the full eight-year life cycle, it brings in approximately 1.8 times more than was invested in it. This result is achieved because one set can be rented multiple times to different tenants.
Imagine: you rent an empty apartment, but don’t want to buy furniture because in a couple of years you will move again, and taking it with you is too labor-intensive. The “Bez korobok” service offers a subscription: you pay a fixed amount monthly, and all the furniture is delivered to your home, assembled, and installed. When you move, it will be taken back, and you don’t need to spend effort on assembly, removal, or selling. No boxes, no movers, no sale ads.
The practical significance of the project is that it eliminates three typical “headaches” for the tenant.
First, there are no large one-time expenses upon moving in. Second, when relocating, you don’t need to sell, transport, or dispose of furniture yourself. Third, one set goes through up to four rental cycles (about eight years), after which it is used for spare parts or recycling rather than being sent to a landfill, which reduces the burden on the city’s waste disposal system.
The service can be used in any region with an active rental housing market. Only the input parameters for price calculation will change: logistics cost, average rental check, and demand.
The project was developed within the framework of the Blue Ocean Strategy methodology using all key tools. First, the team built an As-Is Canvas, analyzed the current situation in the rental housing market and how renters currently solve the furniture issue: either by buying furniture or renting furnished housing. Then they conducted an analysis of non-customer segments, identifying those who do not use any solutions and rent empty housing, enduring inconvenience or postponing moving due to furniture. Using the Buyer Utility Map, the team went through all stages of the buyer experience—from deciding to move to disposing of furniture when leaving—and found points where the market causes unnecessary inconvenience to the client. Based on the ERRC grid (Eliminate—Reduce—Raise—Create), they developed a subscription mechanism: eliminating furniture ownership and large one-time expenses, reducing logistics costs through kit standardization, increasing move-in speed and cost predictability, creating a cyclical model of using one kit by several renters. The result was a To-Be Canvas with a new strategic positioning of the service in the market.
The students also created a prototype of a mobile application describing the user journey: from selecting a furniture set and subscribing, to placing a delivery request with assembly, and subsequent return in case of moving.
At the moment, the project is a concept developed within the framework of a competition. The team is considering the possibility of its further implementation provided that investors are attracted, since scaling the service (purchase of initial batches of furniture, logistics, warehouse) requires starting capital.
If the project receives investment support, the developers will first communicate with real users: conduct interviews with apartment renters to verify their willingness to pay for a subscription and clarify price thresholds. Then they will launch a pilot project in one city with a limited assortment of kits to test the service in practice. Simultaneously, they will negotiate with furniture suppliers, as well as with management companies and developers as potential channels to attract clients through new buildings rented out without furniture. A separate task is to refine the application: it is currently a prototype, and for a full launch, it needs to be brought to a working state, including integration with CRM, payments, and logistics partners.
Currently, there are equivalents of such a service, for example Rentu and the European pilot project IKEA Leasing. They have one drawback — they are not cyclical. Furniture that has served its term is simply written off at the end of the lease period, which makes the economy linear and less sustainable.
The polytechnic’s project has three distinctive features. First, each set goes through several rental cycles with refurbishment between them, rather than being discarded after the first use. Second, the renter decides whether to pay more for a new set or choose a cheaper used option. And finally, the model was initially adapted to the realities of the Russian market: short rental periods and frequent relocations.
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