Pulling into the parking lot of Gone.com headquarters in an office park south of Seattle, I knew this wouldn’t be a typical startup visit.
The company’s CEO and co-founder, Yash Wagh .
Wagh, a former Amazon supply chain leader, has teamed up with OfferUp co-founders Nick Huzar and Arean Van Veelen to launch a logistics-driven marketplace reimagining the secondhand goods economy.
“Someone else’s trash is our treasure,” Wagh said.
It recently emerged from stealth. It raised a $6.3 million seed round, led by Seattle-area firm Fuse, with Breakwater Ventures, Evergreen Green Ditkal, Tie Angels, Tampa Bay Ventures, Onesixone Ventures, and other angels participating. Jeff Hill and Ben Hoskins of 1-800-Got-Junk also invested.
It’s easier than ever to buy something online with a single click. But getting rid of things isn’t so perfect.
Admida addresses this problem by offering free pickups of reusable products, using its own trucks and third-party delivery partners. The company leverages AI to help determine which products to collect, how to price them, and optimize supply chain logistics.
Products are resold through multiple channels: Gone’s online store, its Renton, Wash., store, and third-party platforms like OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist.
“Our concept is to unlock the value that is in people’s homes,” Wagh said.
Wagh said the ability to pick up items for free, paired with its automation technology, gives it an advantage over existing trash haulers and thrift stores.
The startup shares some similarities with OfferUp, the popular used goods marketplace based in Bellevue, Washington.
“The offer works well for selling individual items,” Huzar said. “But if you want an entire office cleaned or need to clean a large space quickly, the easy button disappears. One truck shows up and it’s over.”
Longe averages 20 to 25 pickups per week —enough to keep its 12,000-square-foot Renton hub filled to the brim. Now it’s shifting its focus to the demand side, aiming to drive foot traffic and e-commerce sales.
It is also exploring partnerships with movers, real estate agents and office liquidators.
Longe is using Seattle as a sandbox and refining its business model before expanding to other cities. It has 16 employees.
Huzar stepped down as CEO of the offering in 2021 and subsequently launched a nonprofit focused on the climate change impacts of consumption, sparked in part by his interest in “circularity,” or the local movement of goods. He is also the co-founder of Juicer, a new Seattle startup that sells EV charging infrastructure.
Van Veelen, who stepped down as CTO of Oferta in 2017, is Chief Experience Officer at Gone.
Wagh first contacted Huzar with a cold message on LinkedIn. They eventually developed the idea after driving around Seattle and picking up used items from people desperate to get rid of their belongings.
Inside Gone’s Warehouse, Wagh pointed to a console table carved from wood fashioned from twisted tree roots. It looked like something from a high-end design catalog—but, like everything in Gone, it was reclaimed.
The table sits at the entrance to Gone’s warehouse, positioned just below a mossy wall decoration with the company logo prominently embedded in the center.
Wagh said this reminds him of the sustainability-focused mission behind it: to help change consumer purchasing habits in an effort to reduce emissions and promote circular consumption.
“Buying new may feel good psychologically,” he said. “But it’s not good for the planet.”
