Contents:
James Reinhart on Turning Trash into Treasure in the Resale Industry |
In 2009, long before the “resale market” had picked up steam, thredUP incorporated. Now, 10 years later, they’ve raised over $300m in funding, including a new $175m round announced in August. They also introduced a new platform powering apparel resale for retailers and brands.
But it took Reinhart awhile to understand thredUP’s unique advantage. How’d he do it? By constantly talking to his customers — and asking a few key questions. We talked to Reinhart about how thredUP found its footing, and how he created demand for a product that, at the time, no one was talking about.
Takeaways
- Want to find out who your main competition is? Ask your customers what they would use if your company didn’t exist
- To win at a secondhand marketplace, make it as frictionless as possible for sellers
- In an early-stage market, competitors are your friend: The more players, the bigger the pie
What inspired you to get into the resale industry?
Check Out Signals, Our New Feature That Highlights Fast-Growing Trends | Trends by The Hustle
Each week we send out a handful of data points that we’re tracking, explaining what they mean and how you can use that data to your advantage. We’ll alert you to early-stage concepts, businesses, and apps so you won’t miss out on the latest opportunities.
3 Signals are sent with each weekly email. We’re also building a database where you can sort through past Signals, as well as other Signals that we’re looking at. You can search our early version of that database here. The next iteration will be built out a bit better, but please use that sheet for now.
This post will be updated every week with new Signals until our searchable tool is properly built out.
21st century catnip: The rise of CBD for pets | Trends by The Hustle
What you need to know: Pet supplements have risen in popularity because of the increase in pet ownership and humanization of pets. The $636m supplement market is expected to grow at a 5% rate, and CBD is leading the way. CBD sales are expected to increase at a 57% CAGR.
How you can capitalize:
- Make a product backed by trials and testing. One industry expert believes 90% of current companies selling pet CBD are looking for quick profits.
- Gamble on making pet food with CBD. For now, CBD is restricted to pet supplements. Experts believe it will eventually be allowed in food and dog treats, creating a wider market.
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Catharine Dockery on building a VC fund for vices | Trends by The Hustle
Her last job was technically for Walmart. Catharine Dockery, the founder of VC fund that specializes in vice, was chief of staff for Bonobos founder Andy Dunn. After Bonobos was bought by Walmart, she worked several months for the company that cared so much about maintaing a squeaky clean image it didn’t sell music with explicit lyrics in the 1990s.
“It’s definitely a cultural shift,” she says.
Dockery, who is 26 and lives in Brooklyn, started Vice Ventures in January. In just over six months, Vice Ventures has raised $25m and invested in several companies related to traditional “vice” industries that are spurned by many investment funds.
The Future is Female Pleasure | Trends by The Hustle
See the necklace pictured above? Surprise, it’s a vibrator.
These companies have names like Crave, Unbound, Dame Products, and Maude. Their wares include sex toys like the “Fin,” the “Bender” and the “Mini Marvels Marvelous Flicker,” with features like USB charging and microbotics. And all of these companies were started by women.
While 70% of legacy sex toy companies are run by men, women now account for the vast majority of sex toy startups. Why? Because the sex industry is huge, and since its inception, its products have been driven by men, for men… Until now.
Gumroad Founder and Viral Sensation Sahil Lavingia Riffs on the Future of Work, Failure, and How to Build an Audience | Trends by The Hustle
Pinterest hired Sahil Lavingia to build its iPhone app in 2010. He was 19, a college dropout and a self-taught coder. His stock options would end up being valued around $40m.
In 2011, Lavingia, then 26, quit to start Gumroad, an ecommerce tool for selling creative products. He thought it was a billion-dollar idea, but the path to success has not been nearly as smooth as it was at Pinterest. Though Gumroad has helped over 40k creators make a total of $213m, Lavingia has lately been getting attention for getting specific about the difficulties of building a startup.
Every month, Lavingia publishes Gumroad’s financials on Twitter. Recently, he gained greater fame for a viral Medium story, publishing in February the Medium post Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company. More than 700k people have read it.
The Year of the Job Board | Trends by The Hustle
If you haven’t launched a job board in 2019, you’re missing out.
Entrepreneurs have picked up on this high-margin platform by targeting a simple formula:
- automated job aggregation
- a large existing traffic base, or a focus on organic traffic within a specific niche
- high CPM (cost per thousand impressions) ads in the form of job postings
Dozens of these independent sites have been launched this year alone on Product Hunt.
The Tech Boom in the Beauty Business | Trends by The Hustle
Beauty YouTube hit 168 billion views in 2018—nearly double the previous year’s—and investors pumped $303m into beauty tech startups in early 2018. Now, beauty businesses are investing in tech that lowers the barrier to online skincare purchases.
How to capitalize:
There’s still no single platform that caters specifically to the skincare community. That leaves a huge opportunity to build a place for power users and influencers to share tutorials and regimens, or schedule recurring product orders.
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The future of bikes is electric | Trends by The Hustle
What you need to know: Sales of ebikes are eventually expected to comprise half of all bike sales, meaning about 75m units will be sold each year, up from about 30m currently. The United States could see one of the biggest increases: Some 300k ebikes will be sold this year and that number is expected to increase to 2m within the next few years and eventually 7m annually.
How you can capitalize:
- Design a low-cost model of ebike to sell direct-to-consumer.
- Build apps that allow luxury ebikes to communicate to other riders and emergency responders.
- Design electric-powered mopeds and motorcyles.
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9 Ways to Make Money in the ‘Experience Economy’ | Trends
As a society, it’s advice we seem to be taking, as more people are investing in the experience economy.
In this Trends snapshot, we’re going to highlight a handful of businesses that are satisfying consumers’ thirst for interesting outings and experiences––and making millions in the process. We’ll also show you how you can capitalize on this growing market.
To begin, let me introduce you to the YouTube channel the Best Ever Food Review Show.