where he was encouraging employees to vote in the midterm elections, Greg Greeley, the new CEO of consumer products startup Thrasio, switches his Zoom background from an American flag to a race car. He points out the names of brands Thrasio owns that are plastered on the side of the car like sponsor logos. A pit crew, meant to represent Thrasio’s finance, marketing and other teams, swarms around it.
Greeley said Thrasio is once again doing what it’s meant to do — actively evaluating new deals. He said a number of conversations with sellers are in progress. during the pandemic. But funding in the space dried up this year and there have been few new entrants. Many existing companies have struggled to manage a growing portfolio of brands at a time of supply chain challenges, inflation and the slowdown in e-commerce spending.
In 2018, Greeley left to join Airbnb as president, helping to expand the number and types of homes on the platform. He then spent a brief stint at a startup called Opentrons Labworks, which created inexpensive Covid-19 tests. It’s still unclear whether Thrasio and others have been able to grow sales and profits across the companies they’ve acquired by operating them at scale. Greeley declined to disclose financials, saying that the company has more brands that have topped expectations than have underperformed. He declined to share what percentage of sellers have received the portion of their payout tied to performance.