I Cofounded Vinted. Turns Out People Like Buying Secondhand Clothes Online.

• Milda Mitkute is the cofounder of one of many secondhand buying app Vinted.
• It operates in 16 international locations and was Lithuania’s first “unicorn” firm valued at $1 billion-plus. 
• Mitkute defined how she created the app — and why she determined to step away from the enterprise. 

This as-told-to essay is predicated on a dialog with Milda Mitkute, the cofounder of second-hand buying app Vinted. The next has been edited for size and readability.

Vinted created me as an individual, and as knowledgeable.

I used to be in my early twenties and had simply moved to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, to finish a grasp’s diploma.

The condo I used to be shifting into got here with a a lot smaller closet than I had at my mum’s home. I could not take all my garments and as I used to be going by means of them, I noticed I had greater than 100 gadgets that also had labels on or I might solely worn as soon as.

I had this egocentric purpose of eliminating my stuff and was additionally curious to browse different women’ closets.

Generally egocentric targets assist to create large issues.

A totally natural course of

By probability, just a few days later I used to be at a home get together and I met Justas Janauskas, who was a developer. It was 2 a.m. however we began speaking about this concept.

“Okay, let’s meet in just a few days and take into consideration the identify, about motion planning, and so forth,” we mentioned.

Neither of us had any enterprise expertise, however we labored out a plan to launch the location. “Give me two weeks to design a website,” Justus mentioned.

He got here again to me in 10 days and mentioned he’d achieved it.

I took footage of my garments and uploaded them on the weekend. We emailed associates asking them so as to add gadgets in order that we may make the catalog greater for the launch.

We did not have cash for advertising and marketing, however a few of my associates had studied journalism and I assume it will need to have reached media contacts as a result of inside just a few hours of that e-mail going out radio stations and newspapers began to name us.

Inside just a few weeks of that get together the primary model had launched.

European growth

For the primary three years, we have been each nonetheless working in regular jobs — I used to be finishing my grasp’s in tradition administration and dealing at a PR company, and Justus was an IT engineer.

The largest price we had was paying for the servers. It was 10 euros (about $10.80) a month and we might observe it on an Excel sheet. However when you may have 30,000 folks in your website you want extra servers and people invoices began going as much as 200 euros.

I used to be solely incomes 500 euros a month, in order that was a fifth of my wage.

We began including promoting on the location to cowl the prices after which created an entity. That is how we grew to become a self-sustainable enterprise.

There was no macro evaluation, no budgets, nothing. However we have been booming. By 2011, we have been within the Czech Republic and Germany, and rising 60% or 70% a month.

High firms in Lithuania began providing to purchase us, however we rejected all of them — this platform was our ardour and we did not need to lose that chance.

Then, our first enterprise “angel,” Mantas Mikuckas, joined Vinted. He was the one to say, “let’s attempt to unfold this motion all around the globe.”

We expanded the crew, centered on design usability, and developed the app, which was a recreation changer.

In 2013, Accel Companions, the blokes who invested in Fb and Spotify, mentioned they’d fly out to fulfill us instantly. They put in $5 million.

It felt like we have been college students who had simply been handed all that cash, however we used that second to actually establish what we have been as an organization — secondhand clothes first.

We’re extra related than we’re completely different

We had thought that purchasing secondhand was a post-Soviet Union idea — if you did not have cash, you go and purchase someplace else — and did not count on that different markets may be as effectively.

However after we requested women in Germany, France, and the US why they used Vinted, it was all about promoting to earn some additional money, authenticity, discovering distinctive garments, and consuming extra sustainably.

For us, it was an eye-opener. Our enterprise could possibly be profitable throughout borders with this internet-native era.

Trying again, it might have helped to do extra analysis in regards to the competitors. However in some circumstances when you do not know what problem you are up in opposition to, you simply do not need to worry it.

A life divided into initiatives

Once you’re younger you assume that the extra you’re employed, the extra you are going to create. In some circumstances, that is true however however, you simply get exhausted.

I had no social life. I might go into the workplace each morning at 6 a.m. and never depart till 10 p.m.

Now I might do numerous issues otherwise. I am 38 and I’ve way more expertise. I understand how to create steadiness. It isn’t solely about enterprise. Everybody has different sides as effectively and different elements of their character to discover.

So once I turned 30, I made a decision that it was time to pause the Vinted challenge and begin a household challenge.

My husband and I each give up our skilled lives to be there full-time for our youngsters. I will not lie, we did have a babysitter to assist, however we needed our youngsters to do not forget that we weren’t exhausted on a regular basis.

After seven years, I’ve 4 youngsters. I’ve additionally used the time for private improvement and accomplished two extra grasp’s levels. It has been so essential to only hear the ideas in my head.

However I am closing the household challenge and growing a small edtech startup.

I nonetheless store on Vinted and my youngsters use it too. We now have a rule: if you wish to earn pocket cash, resell stuff.

Mitkute stepped down as CEO in 2017 and is not on the board however stays a shareholder. Vinted was final valued at about $3.8 billion.