excess-inventory
(5)
B-Stock
B-Stock turned retail's awkward back room - returns, trade-ins and excess goods - into a data-rich B2B market. Its real product is not the pallet. It is a faster, more legible second life for inventory.
INTURN
INTURN is a New York-based enterprise SaaS company that helps brands and retailers manage, price and sell their excess and end-of-season inventory. Founded in 2013, it built one of the first digital platforms to replace spreadsheets and email in the roughly $250 billion off-price apparel trade, connecting sellers with a global network of buyers in private, controlled online showrooms. The platform centralizes inventory data, automates offers and negotiations, and provides analytics to recover margin on stock that would otherwise be liquidated at a loss. INTURN raised $36 million in venture funding, including a $22.5 million Series B in 2017 led by B Capital Group, and was acquired by AI retail company Mad Street Den in November 2022.
Thomas Zanetich
Thomas Zanetich is the CEO of INTURN, the New York enterprise software company that helps large consumer brands manage and sell off slow-moving and excess inventory. He spent close to a decade inside INTURN, most visibly running client success for accounts like Nike, Levi's and KIND, before acquiring the business and taking it back to independent ownership after its stint inside AI firm Mad Street Den. His pitch is unglamorous but real: the surplus goods piling up in warehouses are one of retail's most expensive problems, and there is money hidden in getting rid of them well.
Ricky Ashenfelter
Ricky Ashenfelter is the co-founder and CEO of Spoiler Alert, a Boston-based B2B software company that helps major food and CPG brands sell, discount, and donate excess and short-dated inventory before it becomes waste. He co-founded the company in 2015 with Emily Malina while earning his MBA at MIT Sloan, building on earlier work in sustainability consulting at Deloitte and the U.S. EPA. Under his leadership Spoiler Alert works with global brands like Nestle, Kraft Heinz, and Danone, and has helped keep more than 500,000 tons of product out of landfills. He was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs list in 2017.
Marcus Shen
Marcus Shen is the CEO and Board Member of B-Stock, the world's largest B2B marketplace for excess merchandise, helping retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Costco efficiently recover value from returned and surplus inventory. A former Yahoo! VP of Corporate Development and KKR advisor, Shen joined B-Stock as CFO in 2019, rose to COO, and took the CEO role in March 2022. Under his leadership, B-Stock has become a defining force in the recommerce economy, selling 160 million units annually and keeping nearly 300,000 tons of inventory out of landfills.