GoodwillFinds taps top talent to accelerate resale platform

GoodwillFinds, the online resale platform backed by a consortium of Goodwill nonprofit stores, is primed for growth after tapping top retail talent to scale operations, CEO Matthew Kaness tells Axios.

Why it matters: Thrifting household name Goodwill is targeting a growing global secondhand marketplace, poised to reach $350 billion by 2027, according to a recent ThredUP report.

Driving the news: Nicolas Genest, who has served as chief technology officer at Modcloth and Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce division, will join GoodwillFinds as the head of its technology, product, data analytics and IT services.

• GoodwillFinds has also tapped Jim Davis, who has worked with omnichannel brands such as Hoka, Urban Outfitters and Buck Mason, as its chief revenue officer.

By the numbers: GoodwillFinds, which has 20 employees, has already generated double-digit millions in gross revenue as an enterprise, Kaness says.

• The company has also added another three GoodwillFinds stores to its platform and will double its employee headcount this year.
• It will add another three to four more in April, “and then we'll look to double that again before the end of the year,” Kaness says.
• It will go from launching 120,00 unique items to about a quarter million unique items on its site.
• Kaness expects it to approach nearly a million unique items in its catalog by year’s end.
• There are more than 150 Goodwill stores to activate, he says, so this means plenty of headroom to grow just by continuing to bring more Goodwills on.

Zoom in: “Nicolas was the CTO of the RealReal before they went public so he technically understands how to architect a platform, how to build products, and how to design and manage a roadmap for this exact model,” Kaness says of Genest.

• About Davis, Kaness says, he’s “managed massive e-commerce and digital brands at scale, and understands how to build a demand gen engine that is efficient, that is targeted, and that specifically works within a brand umbrella.”

What’s next: GoodwillFinds will deploy more software, tools and training on the platform to help individual stores improve operations.

• The company also aims to improve cross-channel marketing to the in-store Goodwill customer.

The intrigue: GoodwillFinds is also in the process of opening up its catalog to cross-sell and co-list on other marketplaces, such as Amazon, eBay, and a number of other retailers, he says.

• “That's one thing that we're building out, which is going to make us easier to find within a much larger online audience,” he says.

The bottom line: “I see a huge need for an industry-wide platform, not just for Goodwills and consumers, but also for retailers and brands,” he adds.