I always say I “love all my children” and it’s true - every investment I’ve ever made has been dear to my heart. But that doesn’t mean that I learn the same from all my “children”, or that they all have impacted my personal growth in the same way. Many mothers will say, their first child made them a mom. Well, Vinted made me the investor I am today.
Inheriting this board seat was the defining moment in my career, where I realized it actually *isn’t* a universal truth that you should “cut your losses” when an investment starts to underperform. I learned to take a minute and study the problem, and have the humility to wonder if I might have contributed to it. I remember being an observer when the investors at the table urged Vinted to “go copy Etsy and eBay.” I remember the panick when the company started imploding and no one knew why, and the strain this caused on the founders, the employees, the customers- everyone…
Vinted was the company that proved to me, that if I actually took the time to understand the product and its customers, I *might* just realize it’s more of a classifieds than marketplace business. I *might* have been part of the group who created the problem, but caring enough put me in a position to also be part of the solution.
Seeing the over-night turnaround of Vinted, I started wondering how much money was being left on the table at all these funds who subscribe to “cutting your losses is critical to good investing.” Money that belonged to founders & their employees, recipients of the pensions/ endowments/foundations who backed those funds in the first place. This was the investment that spurred the thesis for Full In.
It has been such a gift to see what Thomas Plantenga has been able to do at Vinted, but I also know it wouldn’t have been possible if Justas Janauskas and Mantas Mikuckas hadn’t been the open-minded, humble, sincere, willing founders they were. In an era where the press idolizes founders whose egos drive companies to success or obliteration, I will forever credit these guys for caring about their employees and customers more than their egos and inviting Thomas in, empowering him to drive change, and ultimately making the call to let him take over. It takes big men to do what they did and we don’t see enough of that in tech.
I can’t wait to watch the rest of this movie, and not-so-secretly hope they finally crack the US so I can chose to make second hand my first hand choice!
Go Vinted go! ❤️❤️❤️🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Thomas Plantenga bet the future of Vinted on a television advertisement. The secondhand clothing resale app was burning $1 million per month and had less than a year of cash left when Plantenga made an $800,000 gamble on French television.
“They had the best retention and engagement numbers I have ever seen. Then they applied the Poshmark model and everything collapsed,” says Plantenga, 40.
Read more: https://trib.al/nDINVDa
