His name is Arean, and hes very talented, and I think in the first year, it was just he and I coding. We partner a lot with local car dealerships, and we help them to be more successful by integrating with their inventory management system. Today, you see a lot of apps that have this long, infinite scrolling pic list of pictures. Nick Huzar: When I left Konnect, I had no intention of leading another company. Youve got a job. Thats probably one of my biggest painful lessons from back then. Remember to unlock for free the pitch deck template that is being used by founders around the world to raise millions below. I think that also ties nicely into culture and the intention about that. With over 33 million downloads and more than $14 billion in transactions, OfferUp is now the largest mobile marketplace in the U.S. Im sure this was an incredible MBA experience for you in real life. We expect people to dive deep into things like that. : What ended up being the business model of the business? To achieve this, they need to continue growing consumer awareness, increase seller liquidity (percentage of items that sell), and continue to emphasize ease of use and trust for all users.. : I understand that you guys have raised quite a bit of money for the business, too. Earlier in his Career Nick held positions at T-Mobile and Microsoft. Nick Huzar oversaw the hiring of personnel, growing the team from 2 to 26 people. Nick Huzar: As I mentioned earlier, with some of the founding stories, Id say liquidity [28:19] is the number one metric that we spend a lot of time focusing on because we want to make sure that were creating the best experience for buyers and sellers. Im thinking to myself, Chill me now. That was the idea behind it. At the time, I think we were the first app to do that. Thats interesting. Nicholas Jerry Jonas is an American singer, songwriter, and actor from Dallas. There were thousands of them. So, Nick, for the folks that are listening, what is the best way for them to reach out and say hi? Ive been interviewing, but I also have this idea I want to run by you. The pitch, to be clear, had nothing to do with used goods, and it still doesnt to this day. He did a lot of back-end database. If you look at annual adoption from our customers, were looking at over 44 million. Again, you have to convince people why do they want to come along in this journey, this risk of this fun, proven idea? How many employees do you guys have, Nick? Like I said, its been a lot of work, and as you mentioned, I was sleeping on an air mattress, which is not that comfortable. I think thats a great idea. He and I threw in $800 the first event. As of January 2023, The net worth of Nick is $2 million, and he earns $19K-$32K per video. We hired. But I kept thinking to myself, Man, because of these devices, can we re-imagine what local commerce actually is? I started to uncover things like 25% of U.S. households with a two-car garage cant park in their garage. That was the idea behind it. We were finding that theyre able to sell cars way faster by signing up for this program. He is a founder that has done it multiple times. OfferUp is the largest mobile marketplace in the USA. How much money have you guys raised to date that is probably disclosed? I think an important lesson for people that are building businesses: have an amazing significant other thats understanding because had she said no, we wouldnt be talking right now. I can design things, and then I can cut them up, and I can make them interactive. If you can imagine five guys sitting down in a room coding with just stuff everywhere, thats what our first office looked like. Nick Lachey is an American singer, actor, songwriter, television personality, and host who has a net worth of $25 million. So, you get the green light, and what happened next? In the early 2000s, Craigslist disrupted the classified advertising market by converting newspaper readers to online users and thereby decimating the print media advertising model. You have a lot more exposure across the country. Then, the shipping business, we take a little over 12% of transactions there, but that was a business we launched in 2018. We learned through that experience. California Weighs $360,000 in Reparations to Eligible Black Residents. So, obviously, part of the startup experience too. One day, she said, Im pregnant. Im like, Im so excited! I go into dad mode, and I open up that door to this room that Im going to turn into her nursery, my soon-to-be daughters nursery. That was my first big venture out on my own raising money, building out a team, everything associated with building a company. Probably just not the best advisors and folks around the table. How will you associate putting paint on a canvas with perhaps building and scaling a business? To date, OfferUp is the largest mobile market place in the United States, where people are using our app to buy and sell anything from cars to shoes to furniture. That was the whole idea. An example of that is, can I take complex problems and distill them down? He bagged this fortune because of his hard work and his excellent gaming skills. Here, I think that you were alluding to it by hiring the wrong people, maybe not having the right people seated in the right seats. Again, because were always focusing on removing friction. We had a lot of great business minds on our board, but not tech-minded individuals, which created a challenge. Can I communicate succinctly? He set up our entire first back-end system on AWS. Nick Viall is an actor, model, and television personality who is known for his starring role in the 21st season of ABC's The Bachelor. So, good stuff. Thats going to continue to evolve this year in a big way just to make it an even better buying experience for people. Earlier in his Career Nick held positions at T-Mobile and Microsoft. And if you got any value either from this episode or from the show itself, share it with a friend. Dont cut corners on that. So, another great learning lesson I had is, find partners and co-founders that are very different than you and can complement the areas youre not that strong in. In fact, in the early days, before we had a lot of traction, I used to show up to peoples houses, and I would buy their items, and I would stick them in our very small office that we had. Between he and I, we were able to build the first website, the first mobile app. What do you look for in culture? Nick Huzar: Today, years and years later, we try to figure out how can we help buyers and sellers be more successful? I didnt get halfway through it, and my wife said, This is the biggest idea youve ever had. : I had, of course, a ton of energy and excitement. How did you develop that love for computers, too? Thats been the whole focal point of the business since Day One. The Investment Thesis: A Venture Capitalist Perspective. Jonas formed a band with his older brothers, Joe, and Kevin, known as the Jonas Brothers. We had a lot of great. I can work with engineers, and tie into databases, and be functional. Nick Huzar: In our case, we happen to have two different buckets. "Nick and Arean did a fantastic job rethinking what a smartphone could do to deliver an easier, faster and more enjoyable user experience for both buyers and sellers, which in turn has driven both liquidity and virality in the marketplace," said Justin Sadrian, a managing director at Warburg Pincus, an OfferUp investor. Relationship: Married . Definitely, Im sure that creativity and how your mom pushed you in that regard, perhaps has had an incredible influence in your career. I had a room full of stuff. So, you can wrap a 77 square around every man, woman, and child in this country in storage space. . In the last years, as we got more intentional about this, we say, Okay, every review cycle, half of your review is the overall performance in getting the work done. When we could find engineers, we would pay them just a teeny bit, but wed compensate them more with ownership and stock in what we were building. I dont think we even had core values or anything. So, I think its a founders job to be intentional about the type of culture that theyre going to build as a company and bring that into everything they do from promotions to recruiting. My parents threw me into a bunch of things as a kid. I think I was making $27,000 a year back then. I know that OfferUp was also a result of doing a pivot. We have really good features like search alerts and things you can say that will notify people right away. As youre looking back, and after the time with Konnects, Im sure you had a lot of time to reflect. The first thing in my mind was not, Hey, theres something here. They have too many, and theyre just on a wall, and no one really thinks about them. Buyers can then message sellers to meet, and then pay for items through the app or in person. As a marketplace, OfferUp is not only positioned to help declutter your life, but it is also a monetization platform to convert unwanted items to extra cash. So, were looking to grow not only our Seattle office, but we also have an office in Miami as well. Nick Huzar: It was great. One day, she said, Im pregnant. Im like, Im so excited! I go into dad mode, and I open up that door to this room that Im going to turn into her nursery, my soon-to-be daughters nursery. Alejandro: So, originally born and raised in the Seattle area. It wasnt to be great in search like other marketplaces are. It was extremely expensive back then. He was definitely that. Get a custom action plan and all the help that you need to start raising more capital. I remember when we launched it, one of the questions was, Are we now becoming like other online businesses wherewhy are we focusing on shipping? My response to that was, We are about removing friction. There are many times when you wont even get in your car to drive 30 minutes for an item. We had SUN and Cisco sponsoring these events to the tune of $10,000 each, every month. The company has raised $380 million from top tier investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, GGV Capital, Tiger Global Management, Warburg Pincus, T. Rowe Price, and Allen & Company to name a few. If you want me to help you with your fundraising, just book a call. I think thats a big part early on. Sure, there are plenty of challenges. Nick Huzar: By the way, he would hate it if I called him an engineer because he is definitely more than that. Thats what we did for a while. The only examples we could look to at the time were dating sites. Its become a part of peoples daily lives that use it on an ongoing basis throughout the country. I could code that. What would you say was the most painful and the biggest lesson, at the same time, for you? I was fortunate to sit next to engineers who taught me how to code. So, I have three kids bikes. Together, they oversee over 100 OfferUp employees. How do you hire? What an amazing business that youve built with OfferUp. The shoes Im wearing are from OfferUp. Okay, great. Net Worth:$100 MillionAge:39Born:December 8, 1982Gender:FemaleHeight:1.57 m (5 ft 2 in)Country of Origin:Trinidad & TobagoSource of Wealth:Rapper/ActorLast Updated:August 2, 2022. Or, for BMX, we built their first-ever eCommerce website. And I didnt tell my parents, and then my mom found out about it because they wouldnt buy me one. So without further ado, Id like to welcome our guest today, Nick Huzar, welcome to the show. The shoes Im wearing are from OfferUp. We had this concept of why cant we just emulate that online? My parents threw me into a bunch of things as a kid. Nick Eh 30 is a Canadian YouTube gamer and a live-streamer who . Again, given my artistic bent, I taught myself Photoshop. I think I learned a lot of painful learning lessons from doing that. 10/10 Amanda Bynes- Estimated Net Worth $3 Million. You can keep going as a company and think about how those things get shaped. As of March 2023,Nicki Minaj has an estimated net worth of over $100 million. I think that were going to really enjoy the guest that we have today. He definitely did that, and I feel like I did that. Id say as hard as it is, the people are everything. During his time at T-mobile Nick Huzar helped to redevelop the online channel enabling the company to accept over $45 million a month in payments and 8 million customers. We dont have to send out our phone numbers and our emails anymore, and we can make it much more secure. Hes seen the ups, the downs, and obviously, now, hes seen a lot of traction. They have too many, and theyre just on a wall, and no one really thinks about them. Will Others Follow? I feel like I build things and sculpt things, and that works well for me. The company has raised $380 million from top tier investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, GGV Capital, Tiger Global Management, Warburg Pincus, T. Rowe Price, and Allen & Company to name a few. This is so creative. If youre not intentional, culture is just going to take the form that its going to take for better or worse. OfferUp is a national platform, but the goal is to buy and sell items within a users local community. He is becoming more successful day by day and will soon surpass his current net worth. But my wife and I moved into a good-sized house. So, we built the first online ticketing for them. We came up with those three because we looked around the company at the time. OfferUp is hoping technology will simplify the sale process and enable users to monetize the cash hiding in their home. Thats going to continue to evolve this year in a big way just to make it an even better buying experience for people. So, there were a series of different changes over a period of time to be explored. Prior to Konnects, Nick Huzar played a key role on the web team at T-Mobile for 3 years where he was pivotal in leading the development and integration of web applications. You want to find the right people to believe in where youre going and are really motivated and excited about that. We hired too quickly and didnt have a focused strategy, and we werent intentional about culture, and we can talk about how that has changed now at OfferUp, but thats another thing. Again, you have to convince people why do they want to come along in this journey, this risk of this fun, proven idea? I essentially told them, Look. Hello everyone, and welcome to the DealMakers show. What do you think? I said, Hey. : Marketplaces are obviously a beast. Some users use OfferUp to help grow their small businesses. We had SUN and Cisco sponsoring these events to the tune of $10,000 each, every month. I kept thinking about that moment in the doorway, and I kept looking at my iPhone, which is the second-gen iPhone, and at this time, theres no Android phone even on the scene. Nick Huzar: Yeah, definitely. But, luckily, she was supportive, and I think shes always believed in me. OfferUp was created in 2011 by Nick Huzar, former co-founder and CTO of Konnects, Inc., and Arean van Veelen. We had been married, and we always wanted to have kids. In this case, it led you to where you are today. The top unused items in our homes are clothes and shoes (67%), games and toys (34%), electronics (33%), jewelry and accessories (22%) and kitchen supplies (18%). Alejandro: I understand that you guys have raised quite a bit of money for the business, too. I cant exist without my computer. In her 2016 Internet Trends report, Mary Meeker, a senior partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, wrote that OfferUp users spend an average of 25 minutes per day on the OfferUp app, which is the same amount of time users spend on Instagram and Snapchat (and more time than on both Pinterest and Twitter). I think were probably one of the top places in the country in terms of units. Particularly, the browsing experience when you first open up the app. So, to jump into another startup was the last thing in my mind. Theres got to be a better way. Musk Made a Mess at Twitter. Im sure that all those experiences and lessons with Konnects you were able to apply them here. There are two areas in which OfferUp generates revenue. With her blessing, I decided to move forward and dedicate all my time to building up what is now OfferUp. Today, we offer that via shipping. OfferUp also found that 46% of respondents find it difficult to meet their household expenses on time each month, and 50% have more than $1,000 in credit card debt. He set up our entire first back-end system on AWS. My wife is also my boss. There are plenty of things that you just dont sign up for that you have to address as somebody thats running a business, but I think of companies as the ultimate creative experience. It was to explore, like more of the treasure hunt type of experience. : Yeah. They created OfferUp to create a simpler and more trusted way to buy and sell locally one in which users leverage the power and ease of their smart phone to take photos and then list and sell items in a more seamless way. Again, were only in the United States. northern state university softball roster. Thats something I definitely advise people to not do just given how much I learned through that. So, you get the green light, and what happened next? We didnt see any examples of what we were doing in a smartphone. With its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, OfferUp enables users to buy and sell everything from furniture and electronics to cars and boats through its free mobile app. I grew up in a suburb about 20 minutes south of Seattle. : As I mentioned earlier, with some of the founding stories, Id say liquidity [28:19] is the number one metric that we spend a lot of time focusing on because we want to make sure that were creating the best experience for buyers and sellers. I think Ive even learned that mistake early on at Konnects, but I think at OfferUp, we definitely made mistakes there too. With Nick Huzar leadership, Konnects growth exploded growing from 1,500 members to over 1 million within 18 months. I used to go to Goodwill stores, and Id realized the cars never stopped. I look forward to it. It was to explore, like more of the treasure hunt type of experience. I need to understand how these things work. So, I finally bought one, and then I graduated and worked in a startup for one of my fraternity brothers, making half as much as all my friends did. 'America needs our help': Q&A with OfferUp CEO Nick Huzar after Seattle-area startup lands $120M by Taylor Soper on March 25, 2020 With many physical stores closed and online retailers facing. Im thinking to myself, Chill me now. Ive got to go get a job. Im out there interviewing for a job and spending a bunch of time on that, but I think like any good ideas, for entrepreneurs that are out there, I believe that if you cant get it out of your head, you should listen to that voice. Well, Nick, thank you so much for being on the, If you like the show, make sure that you hit that subscribe button. This is just the consumer side of things, but I also started to spend time in local retail stores. Probably just not the best advisors and folks around the table. If you had the opportunity to go back in time, knowing what you know now, and give your younger self one piece of business advice before launching a company, what would that be and why knowing what you know now? OfferUp has a very visual interface so the quality of your photos can impact how many offers you receive. We said, Who are the people that are striving here, and why? You look at driven, for example. Or, diving deep. The second promotional area is our auto business. He was able to figure things out. Nick Huzar is the Founder, President & Chief Product Officer and CEO at OfferUp. We were making more money doing that than we were in our day job. That is a combined net worth with his wife, model/actress Vanessa . I have a trampoline that I purchased. I had a father who worked at Boeing his whole life. I think just given the fact that I had just come off of another startup, I had no income because I had just quit. Product. I think that were going to really enjoy the guest that we have today. We were making more money doing that than we were in our day job. : There, you talked about, Arean, your co-founder, and you were mentioning that hes an amazing engineer, and Im sure that there are a lot of people that are listening now that are maybe looking for a tech co-founder. Huzar, 39, serves as chief executive officer and van Veelen, 43, is chief technology officer. I think for anybody thats building a company, it feels good when you fill that role, and then 90 days later, you realize you made a huge mistake. From the tough moments, from the tough experiences is where we learn the most. Users can conduct the entire transaction through their smart phone: snapping and uploading photos of an item to sell, adding a description and interacting with potential buyers. Great investments are built on a solid investment thesis. Nick Huzar: When I was in college, I was pretty fortunate that I lived in a fraternity, and the majority of the people living there were getting MIS degrees, which is Management Information Systems, basically a business major with an influence in computer science. Today, we offer that via shipping. If you look at commerce in general in the U.S., about 85% of it is still not online today.