With 90s fashions back in full force, big box and boutique retailers alike are stocking up on retro styles. According to Google Search Trends, searches for “90s fashion” are up 40% year-over-year and have increased by over 80% since 2012. To get their 90s fix, many fashionistas are turning to fashion resale, including high income, luxury shoppers. According to ThredUP’s 2017 Resale Market Report, high-income shoppers are 35% more likely to shop with secondhand shopping companies than low-income buyers. In fact, the report found that the resale market is growing 20x faster than the broad retail market. Market conditions like this created the ideal environment for Charles Gorra to make the leap and start his own company, Trendlee. Read on to learn about his playbook for maximizing the potential of this recent shift in shopper preference and behavior.
Trendlee Luxury Bag Resale
Q: What was the inspiration behind Trendlee? Why did you decide to focus on luxury bag resales?
A: Trendlee’s mission is to make luxury resale as seamless as possible. My co-founder Erwan Delacroix and I spent months talking to individual owners of luxury items and professional resalers, like Sophia Amoruso in her early days. They allowed us to uncover some universal challenges, that most of the existing resale options, including peer-to-peer websites or consignment brick and mortars, are time-consuming, complex and frustrating for sellers.
That means there is a “supply” problem to the market, especially with luxury handbags which see consistent prominence and demand within the fashion world.
It was crucial to unlock the valuable supply that was lying dormant within closets. So first we launched Rebagg to created a better selling experience and to get more inventory out into the market to work with.
The increased availability of variants of one bag, and of luxury bags overall, allowed us to created a better shopping experience on Trendlee and offer competitive prices.
Q: How has your corporate Finance background helped your fashion resale startup succeed? How do you feel about this new world of entrepreneurship?
A: I started my career at Goldman Sachs, in the Mergers & Acquisitions department, and then moved on to Private Equity at TPG Capital. Those five years in finance were indeed very different from the experience of entrepreneurship. However, I did learn a useful skillset that was transferable and is incredibly valuable to me in my role as Trendlee’s CEO.
Both Finance and Startups are demanding and high-intensity environments where working under constraints, time management, priorities, and efficiencies are of essence.
Ahead of making the leap into entrepreneurship, I spent a few months working with Rent the Runway, in New York. I was inspired by the founders and the company and the strength of the market, and the growth of their operations and user base helped push me forward, to making Trendlee a reality.
Q: The storyline of a successful, college-dropout-turned startup founder is a popular one. Has your MBA from Harvard given you an advantage in running a successful business?
A: Absolutely. I moved to the US in 2012 to attend my MBA at Harvard Business School. While getting an MBA is by no means a requirement, I found personally it very valuable in terms of accomplishing my goals and making good decisions early on. HBS focuses on general management, which is useful for entrepreneurs as they need to be jack-of-all-trades, and would benefit from instruction on multiple topics. I like to think of it as a “liberal business” experience (chuckles).
From my perspective, I found the ROI of my MBA overwhelmingly positive. During those 2 years at HBS, I brainstormed on the concept and had access to top-notch professors and brilliant peers to provide feedback and to nurture the idea to a fully formed business plan. I also met my initial investor and my co-founder through HBS. If I had to do it again, I would do the same for sure.
Charles Gorra, Trendlee Co-Founder