
Curtsy began with crowded closets, college formals and a small Mississippi grant. Eli Allen supplied the code - and a lasting taste for the useful shortcut.
Before GOAT became a marketplace spanning 170 countries, Lu and Daishin Sugano tried almost everything. Their decisive idea arrived inside a fake pair of Jordans - and survived a launch-day calamity that taught them what customers actually valued.

A teenage web designer, a moped full of takeout, and a stubborn three-year pivot led David Oates to a useful idea: marketplaces grow when ordinary people can participate without becoming professionals.