Why it matters:
- Chairish’s strategic decision to sell only luxury vintage home goods on its marketplace differentiated the business to become an attractive acquisition candidate, landing its founders an $85 million purchase deal this year.
- Consumer products ratings app Yuka opted to forgo ads from brands, which forged consumer trust in its ratings and recommendations, helping it amass 73 million customers worldwide.
- And food disruptor PopUpBagels hired seasoned restaurant executives to guide logistics and store expansion, which helped the startup drive profitable growth.
Vintage furniture marketplace Chairish carved a coveted niche in the upscale home goods sector, so much so that in August, the resale site was purchased for a cool $85 million.
Meanwhile, food disruptor PopUp Bagels started as a cooking hobby in one guy’s kitchen five years ago, only to become a hot chain that’s now on a 150-store expansion binge.
And food and cosmetics ratings app Yuka, hatched at a hackathon in 2017, now ranks as the second-most-popular health and fitness app in the Apple store.
Success metrics aside, these three buzzy startups would never have reached those heady milestones had it not been for one critical decision each made as their businesses were taking shape, the founders of Chairish, PopUp Bagels, and Yuka told CO—.
Here, they share the critical decisions that yielded a game-changing return on investment, with implicit lessons for all businesses.
Chairish: Selling only luxury resale home goods and rejecting ‘mediocre flea market’ fare proves foundational to profitability and a $85 million acquisition payday
Husband and wife Gregg and Anna Brockaway founded luxury vintage home resale site Chairsh in 2013 with a vision to fill an unmet need.
“Most everyone spends thousands of dollars on their furnishings, but when it comes to moving and trying to sell the pieces that don’t fit [anymore], all of a sudden you realize, ‘I spent all this money and it’s worth nothing. What do you do with it?” Gregg Brockaway told CO—.
“There are too many people leaving things on the sidewalks for sale,” he said. “The secondary market for home furnishings is broken.”
Shipping a secondhand sofa to a buyer at a price they’re willing to pay that will also turn a profit for the seller is a costly and logistical feat. But “it was a fun problem to solve,” said Gregg Brockaway, who before launching Chairish co-founded travel planning startups Tripit and Hotwire. Anna Brockway was a fashion executive who’d most recently served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for Levi Strauss & Co.
Anna felt strongly that Chairish should focus its online marketplace solely on luxury vintage home furnishings versus “what you’d find at a flea market, where you have to wade through oceans of mediocre pieces to find things of quality,” Gregg Brockaway said.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make. That’s because a mass-market mix would have been much easier and faster to scale. “It was a big debate,” Brockaway said. But “we opted for the slower road and to stick to our vision to be an upscale marketplace.”
For Brockaway, the used car industry offered a prime example of a robust, high-ticket resale market, indicating that secondhand luxury home goods might be a viable business model, too. “By dollar value, there are three times more used cars that sold than new cars,” he said.
The decision paid off. Today, Chairish boasts about 1.3 million home, art, and jewelry pieces, with an average price point near $1,000, sourced daily from the U.S. and Europe from small businesses, art galleries, and “pickers” who mine estate sales for finds. Chairish’s decision unlocked not only high-ticket sales but also a diverse revenue stream.
In addition to its core shoppers, interior decorators and designers are also a big part of Chairish’s customer base, and the company has seen 14% year-over-year growth in its to-the-trade business. And monetizing the economics of high-value goods — Chairish customers won’t blink an eye paying a $1,000 shipping fee on a $10,000 piece — helped the company reach profitability and woo a buyer, Brockaway said.
In August, London-based marketplace operator Auction Technology Group bought Chairish for $85 million. “Fortunately, we were successfully acquired, and those decisions were really foundational to help us reach the point where that was possible,” he said.
These three buzzy startups would never have reached those heady milestones had it not been for one critical decision each made as their businesses were taking shape, the founders of Chairish, PopUp Bagels, and Yuka told CO—.
Yuka food and cosmetics ratings app: Startup’s decision to forgo brand advertising engenders consumer trust in its product evaluations, racking up 73 million subscribers around the world
In 2017, Yuka was co-founded in France by two brothers and a friend: website developer Francois Martin, his banking industry brother Benoit Martin, and former business consultant Julie Chapon.
The U.S. is now Yuka’s fastest-growing market, where it’s the second-most-popular app in the Health & Fitness category on Apple.
But back in 2015, it was a mere inkling of an idea. The concept was simple: to help shoppers make informed, healthy purchase decisions with a tool that provides ingredient transparency on the everyday food and cosmetics products they buy.
The trio developed and introduced Yuka, then an internet-connected object that consumers could use to scan and analyze product ingredients, at the Food Hackathon, a Paris-based startup contest. It won first place.
When the business officially hit the market in 2017, Yuka had evolved into a food and cosmetics ratings app that evaluated products for their nutritional quality, the presence of additives, and organic claims.
The timing was right as the wellness industry, stoked by consumers’ surging interest in self-care, leaned into more affordable products and services ranging from “healthy fast food” chains like Sweetgreen to budget brands like the Now, “democratizing” wellness like never before, according to the 2017 Global Wellness Economy Monitor from The Global Wellness Institute (GWI).
But amid a ballooning $3.7 trillion global health and wellness industry, Yuka also waded into a crowded digital health tech sector: Health and fitness app usage surged 330% between 2014 and 2017, according to the GWI.
Yet the startup managed to break through the noise. Chapon said choosing to operate independently from the get-go proved critical to Yuka’s credibility, differentiation, and ultimate success.
The founders made the decision to commit to “pillars of independence.” Taking zero financing from brands or manufacturers meant companies couldn’t influence Yuka’s product ratings or recommendations while its ad-free platform ensured that no brand promotes their products on the app.
“We could easily have taken money from brands and manufacturers, and we could have easily made a lot of money from that, but we refused to do that,” she said.
In turn, “People trust the app, and they trust our product evaluations because we are independent.”
That independence helped the startup amass a customer base of 73 million global users, including paid subscribers, largely by word of mouth, she said. Today, it generates $8 million in sales and turns a profit.
“I really think we would not have so many users if we were not independent,” Chapon said.
PopUp Bagels: Hiring seasoned restaurant industry veterans fueled expansion and profitable growth
Like so many people during the height of the pandemic in 2020, Adam Goldberg was stuck quarantining at home. His job as a flood mitigation executive was on hold. And he was bored. So he tried his hand at making bagels.
Five years later, Goldberg’s Connecticut kitchen baking hobby became PopUp Bagels, the buzz-generating chain known for its “grip, rip, and dip” bagels that has inspired a cult following among everyday consumers and foodies alike.
So how did a guy who’d never made a bagel in his life shake up the $3.04 billion U.S. bagel market?
PopUp Bagel’s success is multifactorial, Goldberg, Founder and Chief Brand Officer, told CO— this year. Still, as a founder, knowing both what you’re good at and what you’re not, and then hiring accordingly, has proven critical to the startup’s growth and integral to its ongoing success, he said.
“I built an amazing team around me not just to support me, but also to lead me.”
Goldberg enlisted Doug Troy to serve as President in 2022, who has brought much-needed production and supply chain expertise to the 12-store chain. “Since the 80s, he’s been building out bagel stores and dough manufacturing facilities,” from overseeing food distribution logistics to vendor contracts, Goldberg said. “He’s been such a critical part of this business.”
Then, eyeing PopUp Bagel’s expansion, “We realized our growth path was going to be in the franchise world. And I have no experience in franchising,” Goldberg recognized.
In 2024, he hired Tory Bartlett, a veteran of multiple restaurant brands, who had experience leading franchised chains like Moe's Southwest Grill to be PopUp Bagels’ first CEO. “He’s got great experience in franchising, and he’s amazing to work with.”
The chain is now poised to open 150 locations nationwide in the next few years, buoyed by a business philosophy that every strategic move should generate profitable growth.
“I could see a young entrepreneur saying, ‘No, we’re going to do it my way,'” Goldberg said, but that would be a fool’s errand.
With these executives on board, “There’s so much depth [of experience] there,” he said. “It’s about knowing what others are great at and bringing them on.”
CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.
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