It started as a repair bench in 1976. Fifty years later, Texas's largest camera store is still winning by doing the things a shipping box can't: fixing gear, developing film, and teaching people how to actually use the cameras they buy.
CompAsia built a regional business around the awkward life between a phone's first owner and the landfill - turning trade-ins, quality checks, subscriptions and resale into one circular system.
The yellow tag survived the internet by turning stores into service hubs, showrooms and a human help desk. Now Best Buy is adding a marketplace and an advertising business to a machine built for the awkward moments after checkout.
The company that killed the haggle in 1993 now sells three-quarters of a million used cars a year - and is trying to prove that a car lot can also be a website.
Syarah is Riyadh-based online marketplace for buying and selling new and used cars in Saudi Arabia. It handles the full transaction online - sourcing, 200-point inspection, refurbishment, financing, warranty and kingdom-wide home delivery - and lets buyers keep a car for a 10-day trial with a money-back guarantee. Founded in 2015, it has grown from a classifieds site into the country's leading digital used-car retailer, raising more than $82 million in total funding, including a $60 million Series C in 2024.
Reconext is a global aftermarket lifecycle services company that takes returned, broken, or retired electronics - phones, laptops, set-top boxes, AI servers, point-of-sale gear - and gives them a second life. Through repair, refurbishment, testing, trade-in, asset recovery, and IT asset disposition, the company keeps devices and components circulating instead of heading to landfill. Headquartered in Grapevine, Texas and operating roughly 22 facilities across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific, Reconext serves manufacturers, carriers, retailers, insurers, and data centers.
Trove is the Oakland-based recommerce platform that powers branded resale and trade-in programs for retailers like Patagonia, Levi's, Lululemon, REI, Canada Goose, and Carhartt. Its software, operations, and AI-driven pricing engine turn used goods into a profitable new sales channel, helping brands extend product life and capture value from items already in customers' closets.