[Pitch] How would the global economy change if consumers' normal household goods -- $10T+ value globally and growing -- were elevated to an investable, tradeable asset class? We're here to find out.
Venato -- "to track" in Latin -- is taking a long view on how online resale markets will evolve on a 10 year timescale, informed by co-founder experience as a trader on Wall Street. We're building B2C tech tools that address pressing needs today, while simultaneously bringing our users along on an accelerated path to the future, where we'll be a critical enabler and key beneficiary. We're an ANTLER Ventures start-up, eligible for pre-seed funding in a few short weeks, after which we'll be sprinting to our seed round. We're seeking thought partnership and execution from top-notch interns, and in exchange we'll deliver a hands-on, high impact experience that you can be proud of.
[What] Here's what our international co-founding team is focused on today: resale marketplaces are growing 20x faster than the broader retail market. Thanks to these online resale hubs (think Facebook Marketplace, Vinted, Tradera, etc), consumers are starting to think of their household goods as assets -- items that hold value, and can be traded for money. If that mindset were widespread, we foresee a tectonic shift that impacts consumer behavior and the entire consumer goods supply chain, around the globe. But there are a few problems: there's basically no efficient market for stuff today. Consumers don't know what's valuable, how valuable it is, where to get the best price for it, and how to manage sales across the fragmented marketplace ecosystem. These problems are experienced most intensely by the people with good-quality stuff to sell, and the willingness to do it: Millennials and Gen Z top our list, with a bias toward higher income brackets = more valuable stuff. With >1 billion people using Facebook Marketplace alone each month (250 million are selling), there's no shortage of potential users across Europe and the EU.
[How] We're building an investment platform for your stuff, and a friction-free path to market. Upload your items, see live price feeds to track value through time, and gather insights through analytics and community. When you're ready to sell, use our AI-driven optimized product listings and marketplace recommendations to get the most for your stuff. Our initial target market is Millennials who aren't as close to their financial goals as they'd like to be: Venato validates this group and gives them a win (a higher net worth) today. We're planning to launch in Denmark, then will expand to the Nordics and eventually to the US.
[Why] As frequent but non-professional resellers, we have experience with the friction-filled process of exchanging your stuff for money today. Additionally, as students of marketplace structure, business history, the unfolding evolution of technology, and entrepreneurship, we're seeing the patterns emerging in the market for stuff that suggest a very different -- and very exciting -- future.