- Milda Mitokte is the co-founder of Vinted, a second-hand shopping app.
- The company operates in 16 countries and is Lithuania's first “unicorn” company, valued at over $1 billion.
- Mitkute explained how he created the app and why he decided to exit the business.
This essay is based on a conversation with Milda Mitokte, co-founder of a second-hand shopping app. Vinted. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Vinted has created me as a person and as a professional.
I was in my early 20s and had just moved to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, to complete my master's degree.
The apartment I moved into had a much smaller closet than the one I had at my mom's house. I wasn't able to take all of my clothes with me, so while I was sorting through them, I realized that I had over 100 clothes with labels still on them or clothes that had only been worn once.
I had a selfish goal of getting rid of my stuff, and I was also interested in browsing other girls' closets.
Sometimes selfish goals help produce great results.
completely organic process
Coincidentally, a few days later I was at a house party and met the developer, Justas Janauskas. It was 2am and we started talking about this idea.
We said, “Okay, let's meet in a few days and think about names, plans of action, etc.”
Although neither of us had any business experience, we hatched a plan to launch the site. “Give him two weeks to design the site,” Justus said.
He came back to me 10 days later and said he was done.
I took a photo of my outfit over the weekend and uploaded it. I emailed a friend to ask her to add more items so I could grow the catalog for the release.
We didn't have any money for marketing, but some of my friends were studying journalism. Within hours of that email going out, we started getting calls from radio stations and newspapers, so I guess that information probably got through to the media.
Within weeks of that party, the first version was released.
Expansion in Europe
For the first three years, we both still had regular jobs. I had a master's degree in cultural management and worked in a PR agency. Justus was an IT engineer.
The biggest cost was paying for servers. It cost 10 euros (about $10.80) per month and was tracked in an Excel sheet. But if the site had 30,000 users, more servers were needed and the bill started reaching 200 euros.
My monthly income was only 500 euros, so that was one-fifth of my salary.
We started adding ads to the site to cover costs and then created an entity. This is how we became a self-sustaining business.
There was no macro analysis, no budget, nothing. But we were booming. By 2011, the company expanded into the Czech Republic and Germany, and in March he experienced a growth of 60% or 70%.
Top Lithuanian companies began to offer us acquisitions, but we rejected them all. This platform is our passion and we didn't want to lose that opportunity.
Then our first business “angel”, Mantas Mikuckas, joined Vinted. It was he who said, “Let's spread this movement around the world.”
We expanded our team, focused on ease of use in design, and created a game-changing app.
In 2013, Accel Partners, which invested in Facebook and Spotify, said they would fly out to see us right away. They poured in $5 million.
We felt like students who had just been handed a large sum of money, but we used that moment to define what we are as a company — second-hand clothing first.
we are more similar than different
We used to think that buying second-hand goods was a post-Soviet concept (if you didn't have the money, you'd go elsewhere to buy). And we never expected that other markets might be interested as well.
But when you ask girls from Germany, France and the US why they use Vinted, it's all about selling to make extra cash, being authentic, finding unique clothes, and being more sustainable. It was for consumption.
For us, it was an eye-opener. For this generation of Internet natives, our business can succeed across borders.
Looking back, I wish I had researched the contest more. But even if you don't know what challenges you're facing, there may be no need to fear.
A life divided into projects
When you're young, you think the more you work, the more you can produce. In some cases, that's true, but on the other hand, it's just exhausting.
I had no social life.I went to the office every morning at 6 a.m. and didn't leave until 10 p.m.
I think I'll do a lot of different things now. I am she is 38 years old and has more experience. I know how to balance. It's not just about business. Everyone has other sides and other parts of their personality to explore.
So when I turned 30, I decided it was time to put the Vinted project on hold and start a family project.
My husband and I both quit our professional lives to work full time to provide for our children. I won't lie, we had a babysitter to help us out, but we wanted our kids to remember that we aren't always exhausted.
Seven years later, I have four children. I also spent time on self-development and even earned two master's degrees. It was so important to just listen to the thoughts in my head.
However, I have finished my family project and am developing a small edtech startup.
I still shop at Vinted and my kids use it too. we have rules. If you want to make some extra money, resell things.
Mitokte stepped down as CEO in 2017 and is no longer a director, but remains a shareholder. Vinted's final valuation was approximately $3.8 billion.
