Startup of the Week
GONE
On-demand selling marketplace. Ebay minus the work.
WHAT WE DO
Gone takes care of the logistics of selling your stuff. We find the best prices for your items, handle all the packing and shipping, and pays you the money for your sales. Gone is the only service that manages the entire online selling process from pick up to packaging to sales and delivery.
OUR AMBITION
Ebay sells $20B in old stuff every year even though it’s a pain for sellers and bidders. We plan to beat eBay at their own game by making it simple for anyone to sell anything with the click of a button. We’re curated, fully inspected, and warrantied. Gone will soon be the virtual garage sale – the only place to sell your stuff and buy other people’s stuff online.
- $560K GMV since launch.
- Launched the first UPS partnership in the second-hand space: 100K drivers and 5K drop-off locations.
- Acquired YC / Greylock Partners / Lowercase Capital backed companies, FOBO and Yardsale.
- Launched first conversational bot allowing consumers to sell online via SMS.
- Techstars Alum. Investors include: Mastercard, Silicon Valley Bank, Techstars Ventures and others.
- Named “Five Austin Startups to Watch” by CNN
- Launched the Gone Concierge (On-Demand) Service in four markets: Austin, San Francisco (Bay Area), Seattle, and NYC.
Startup of the Week
WHY WE LIKE GONE
I’m bullish on companies that make selling stuff easy. None of my friends sell things online anymore (who even thinks about eBay?) but everyone seems to have junk. If these guys can change that, with good UX and logistics, I think that can be significant.
I like the traction they have so far and the high-level vision. I’m not an expert in the space so I’m not familiar with all the nuances, but what they’ve done so far makes sense to me and I can see a path between where they are today and where they need to be if they want to grow into a big company (devil’s in the details).
THE BUZZ ABOUT GONE
“Among the Five Austin startups to watch.”
VIDEOS
Selling online has never been easier. Watch how it works.
HOW IT WORKS
Gone is the only service that manages the entire selling process from dropping off boxes to packaging items, picking up items to selling them for the best price.
GRAPHS
Gone has shown significant growth across a variety of KPIs in the 20 months since launch.
SECONDHAND IS ACTUALLY UNDERSERVED
eBay’s GMV for used goods is five times the valuation of airbnb, one of Silicon Valley’s most highly valued Unicorns. Nevertheless, there are hundreds of billions worth of used goods that gather dust because many of today’s platforms don’t address the real-world problems that make selling difficult.
GONE CONCIERGE
Gone offers users an effortless alternative to the hands-on eBay or Craigslist experience with optimized pricing, pickups by courier or UPS, inspections and repairs, multi-marketplace listing, and payment processing. With Gone Concierge, users summon couriers directly to their door to pick up anynumber of items. Concierge is available throughout the Bay Area, Austin, Seattle, and Manhattan.
GONE LITE
Gone Lite makes on-demand selling available to users across the United States with the help of 100,000 UPS drivers and 4,000 drop-off locations. With Lite, users receive packing materials and helpful instructions for sending their items off safely and quickly.
GONE SMS
Gone SMS delivers the entire Gone selling experience, from pricing through pickup and payment, via text-message conversation with an operator-assisted system. SMS reaches users with any phone, carrier, and operating system, and trains an intelligent machine to automatically ask only necessary questions.
GONE MARKETPLACE
Gone’s marketplace offers buyers an easily browsable web store of thoroughly described, quality assured used electronics sold at fractions of the retail price