Living The Red Life
Nick Huzar on Innovation, Failure & the Treasure Hunt That Became OfferUp
Thu, 27 Mar 2025
SUMMARYNick Huzar, the CEO and co-founder of OfferUp, a widely popular local marketplace app, joins the podcast to discuss his journey and offer insights into the company’s rapid growth and development. Known for its easy-to-use platform, OfferUp has made waves in the online marketplace industry, and Huzar shares the early days, how the idea came together, and the evolution of the platform. He dives into their strategic moves and explains how they transformed OfferUp from a simple online marketplace into a dynamic, visually engaging treasure hunt-like experience that encourages people to interact more frequently with the app.Throughout the conversation, Huzar delves into the company’s focus on vertical expansion, exploring services like home improvement and local jobs. He also touches on the importance of continuous innovation and experimentation, even as the company grows. Emphasizing the need for calculated risks, Huzar recounts the challenges of team building, especially dealing with toxic hires, and explains how they found success by betting on the right people. The discussion is a deep dive into the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, with valuable lessons on leadership, failure, and scaling a business.CHAPTERS02:35 - Building OfferUp: The Journey from Idea to Launch04:56 - Creating a Visual Experience for Users: OfferUp’s Social Media Shift07:23 - Expanding Beyond Shopping: Offering Local Services09:10 - Scaling OfferUp: Testing New Vertical Markets11:37 - Navigating Risk and Innovation: How OfferUp Stays Fresh14:00 - The Entrepreneurial Mindset: From Startup to Industry Leader16:05 - Learning from Failures: Offering New Opportunities Despite Setbacks18:40 - The Importance of People: How Team Building Defines Success21:05 - Big Bets and Small Wins: The Secret to OfferUp’s Growth23:30 - Embracing Failure: The Stories of OfferUp’s Bumpy Road to SuccessGUEST DETAILSWebsite: OfferUpLinkedIn: Nick HuzarX: @NickHuzarInstagram: @NickHuzarOfferUp Social Media:X: OfferUpInstagram: OfferUpFacebook: OfferUpConnect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter
Chapter 1: What is OfferUp and its mission?
Yeah, OfferUp's the largest local marketplace in the United States, and we really want to be the best at buying and selling things locally. Not just buying and selling. Actually, we're branching out big time this year. We're launching services and jobs and rentals, and we even have local news now. So we really want to be everything local is kind of how I would think about OfferUp.
Yeah. And I want to dive into that expansion because you obviously got the clientele database and means to do that. So I'm super excited to see that roll out. But let's start from the ground up. Like, how did you get it so big? Right.
Can you talk about that growth journey? Sure. Well, I, I'd say in the early days, you know, everyone has the idea. Uh, and then it's, then the hard part is how you execute, how do you build it? Um, you know, we started writing code for offer up before there were Android phones. That gives you an idea of where we were. Um, And it was a hard time.
Chapter 2: How did OfferUp grow from an idea to a leading marketplace?
A lot of times building companies, they say it's about timing. I think we were pretty early. We saw this phone. We had this idea that, hey, we're all going to have these phones. We can just take pictures and we can communicate with these devices. But there's a lot of skepticism. A lot of people thinking, you name it, I've heard it. I've heard people say that no one's going to buy from their phone.
How do you disrupt Craigslist? You know, no one's been able to do this. And so I think, you know, for better or worse, I think good entrepreneurs just have an idea and they can't get it out of their head. And that was definitely me. I was stubborn and I just said, that's it. We're going to go build this. But it was really tough in the early days trying to get scale, trying to get users to use it.
So that was, I'd say, a two year journey of, hey, there's an app. Why isn't everybody using it? And so you just have to run a lot of experiments and understand what works, what doesn't work. But that was, you know, pretty much I'd sum up the first two years was just lots of failed experiments. And then ultimately some that worked and we just kept doubling down on those two to grow.
Yeah, and I would love to talk about that point to start off with. Like, I sit on a lot of, like, events, like, shop, like, panels where people pitch their ideas and all those things. And I always see these apps and communities come along where they want to do this, like, nationwide thing.
Chapter 3: What challenges did OfferUp face during its early days?
And I'm like, the scariest, hardest part of it is your app and idea only works if you get a big velocity of people, right? Because they're trying, like, it has to compound itself, like... you know, hair salons right around America. It only works if you get a bunch of hair salons and a bunch of consumers all pretty quickly or they get bored and quit.
Chapter 4: How does OfferUp innovate and stay relevant?
And I would be so scared to start that business because it's like you can't just sell the product as it comes in sort of thing. So how if someone's listening like that, how do you how do you how do you tackle that and really get that velocity as quickly as you can?
Yeah, I'd say, you know, knowing your customers and knowing what matters. So in the world of a marketplace, when you post something, somebody better buy it. Because if somebody doesn't buy it, then what good is your marketplace? So we got really good in the beginning. I think sometimes people try to scale too big. In fact, there was a number of other competitors to offer up when we launched.
They raised a lot more money than we did. And I told the team, don't worry, they're going to go out of business. Like, what are you talking about? I said, look, they're probably smart engineers, but they're not thinking about their number one metric. So they would launch and say San Francisco, then they'd say we're nationwide. Well, now it's peanut buttered the US.
And if you're trying to convert and get people to use your local marketplace, who cares if your next install is in New York? Right. And so we did the opposite. In fact, we drew a circle on a map with like 30 miles around our office. And we said, if we don't win here, we don't there's no business here.
And we spent a year just hammering on that circle, trying to figure out how do we get things to move. And so we would buy and sell things. Everything in here is from Opera, by the way. So my wife, 18, that's why it's in here. Oh, I love the idea. It's great. So you have to kind of fake it in early days. I'd show up and I'd buy the chair. I wouldn't say that I worked at OfferUp.
I would I would just pretend like I was a buyer. But then I hype it up, of course, like everyone uses it. I mean, well, no, I really did. So those are some of the benefit of doing as you're learning to you're talking to customers, you're getting some feedback. And so you do that a lot in the early days. Um, and that's important because that gets your, I call it the Petri dish phase, right?
You're figuring out the product or figure out and go to market. You're figuring out marketing. You're making sure that the metrics are working then. Okay. Now that works now show you can do that in other markets. And I think far too often I see entrepreneurs just throttling because they think they need a scale right away. And that's usually ends pretty badly. So we were very disciplined.
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Chapter 5: What is the importance of team building in entrepreneurship?
Like I said, we didn't end, we spent a year, one market before we went to any other markets.
Well, and I do want to touch on something a little more like mindset based too. So I have a documentary coming out and part of it, I say, you know, I think I'm delusional. I must be delusional. And someone said to me, why do you use that word? Because it's normally meant like in a bad way. And I'm like, no, I just think the best entrepreneurs and athletes are like,
so delusional in their own little world and like how they see things that that's why it works because they have that crazy belief and maybe delusion is quite not quite the right word but like they have that crazy belief right and they see it before anyone else can and and you just reminded me of it when you talked about the chair so what do you think about that like that belief in it
I think Mark Adresin has said this, that great entrepreneurs can shape the world. And I believe in that. And it sounds kind of egotistical and maybe delusional too. But I think if you're getting after a problem space and you're doing something that's unique and you have the skills to go do it, you can make an impact. Yeah. Everyone said we couldn't compete with Craigslist. Everybody.
I get so many no's all the time. And look, half the country's installed OfferUp now. I think that shows just a relentless maybe ignorance and just like passion for something. But also I knew, I looked at the other products and I wasn't delusional. And I just felt like we could build a better product. I'm like, we could do it better. And so I think...
There's kind of a balance of that that you have to strike. And I think a relentlessness when you're building the company. People are too impatient, especially in this day and age. We're all in the TikTok swiping mode. And to build companies, it scales really hard. And it takes a long time. And I think most people just give up.
There was plenty of days to give up in the early days that we were doing it.
Especially when you're in like more the app software space and the raising money space. It's just like, yeah, there's so many like gaps where it's just like almost, you know, I think every good entrepreneur goes through it where it's like periods of time where it's almost over. Yeah. You make it and then a year later, you're like even in a better place.
And I always, you know, I coach hundreds of entrepreneurs. I have a massive community and I often see them get down. I say the one thing I've learned in 15 issues of business is right after a dark spell, there's like a light and it's normally better after it. You just have to keep going kind of through the tunnel to get to the other side.
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Chapter 6: What marketing strategies helped OfferUp scale?
Chapter 7: How can entrepreneurs learn from failures?
I would I would just pretend like I was a buyer. But then I hype it up, of course, like everyone uses it. I mean, well, no, I really did. So those are some of the benefit of doing as you're learning to you're talking to customers, you're getting some feedback. And so you do that a lot in the early days. Um, and that's important because that gets your, I call it the Petri dish phase, right?
You're figuring out the product or figure out and go to market. You're figuring out marketing. You're making sure that the metrics are working then. Okay. Now that works now show you can do that in other markets. And I think far too often I see entrepreneurs just throttling because they think they need a scale right away. And that's usually ends pretty badly. So we were very disciplined.
Like I said, we didn't end, we spent a year, one market before we went to any other markets.
Well, and I do want to touch on something a little more like mindset based too. So I have a documentary coming out and part of it, I say, you know, I think I'm delusional. I must be delusional. And someone said to me, why do you use that word? Because it's normally meant like in a bad way. And I'm like, no, I just think the best entrepreneurs and athletes are like,
so delusional in their own little world and like how they see things that that's why it works because they have that crazy belief and maybe delusion is quite not quite the right word but like they have that crazy belief right and they see it before anyone else can and and you just reminded me of it when you talked about the chair so what do you think about that like that belief in it
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Chapter 8: What are the secrets behind OfferUp's growth?
I think Mark Adresin has said this, that great entrepreneurs can shape the world. And I believe in that. And it sounds kind of egotistical and maybe delusional too. But I think if you're getting after a problem space and you're doing something that's unique and you have the skills to go do it, you can make an impact. Yeah. Everyone said we couldn't compete with Craigslist. Everybody.
I get so many no's all the time. And look, half the country's installed OfferUp now. I think that shows just a relentless maybe ignorance and just like passion for something. But also I knew, I looked at the other products and I wasn't delusional. And I just felt like we could build a better product. I'm like, we could do it better. And so I think...
There's kind of a balance of that that you have to strike. And I think a relentlessness when you're building the company. People are too impatient, especially in this day and age. We're all in the TikTok swiping mode. And to build companies, it scales really hard. And it takes a long time. And I think most people just give up.
There was plenty of days to give up in the early days that we were doing it.
Especially when you're in like more the app software space and the raising money space. It's just like, yeah, there's so many like gaps where it's just like almost, you know, I think every good entrepreneur goes through it where it's like periods of time where it's almost over. Yeah. You make it and then a year later, you're like even in a better place.
And I always, you know, I coach hundreds of entrepreneurs. I have a massive community and I often see them get down. I say the one thing I've learned in 15 issues of business is right after a dark spell, there's like a light and it's normally better after it. You just have to keep going kind of through the tunnel to get to the other side.
And yeah, most people I think do quit in the middle of that tunnel somewhere, right? Yeah. Yeah, I like the quote, the obstacle is the way. Just lean into it, power through it. Yeah, and we will learn that as we become big. So let's talk a little, you know, this is a marketing as well, you know, based podcast and listening base.
So what are some of the marketing sort of tactics you use to grow the actual customer base and, you know, the subscribers or user base?
Yeah. So we, again, going back to that circle idea, like, okay, what is the metric you're trying to move? And so we tried every experiment you could imagine. Like we even rented a long haul moving truck and put a thousand helium balloons in there with off-road branding. And we went to the densest neighborhood we can find and we just blanketed it with off-road branding. It looks cool.
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