ThredUp

ThredUp began in 2009 when co-founders James Reinhart, Chris Homer and Oliver Lubin pitched an online clothing swap for men's shirts to 27 venture capitalists - all of whom passed. Investors kept saying they wouldn't wear secondhand themselves but would buy it for their kids, which pushed the founders to pivot toward women's and children's clothing. The company's core mechanic, the 'Clean Out Kit,' lets a seller ship a bag of unwanted clothes to a ThredUp facility, where staff inspect, photograph, price and list each piece for resale. Beyond individual consignment, ThredUp has built a business-to-business arm supplying resale infrastructure for retailers including Gap, Adidas and Madewell. The company went public on Nasdaq in March 2021.