{"id":4573,"date":"2022-10-09T22:05:36","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T20:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=4573"},"modified":"2026-07-29T11:03:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:03:52","slug":"they-started-as-ebay-sellers-today-they-sell-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/they-started-as-ebay-sellers-today-they-sell-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThey started as eBay sellers \u2013 today, they sell millions\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Business Insider\u2019s Gr\u00fcnderszene has featured expondo and its founders, Waldemar Moss and Piotr Stach, highlighting the company\u2019s development from a small eBay business into an international e-commerce organisation.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

From eBay to an International Business<\/h3>\r\n

The founders started in 2007 by buying, refurbishing and reselling used car tyres on eBay. Encouraged by the success of the business, they began looking for specialist products with limited competition.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cEven then, we decided to focus on niche products where there was hardly any competition,\u201d Waldemar Moss told Gr\u00fcnderszene.<\/p>\r\n

Using \u20ac10,000 in savings, Moss and Stach commissioned their first own product from a manufacturer in China. The experience convinced them that the business had significant potential, and in early 2009 they founded expondo.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe had to make a decision: either do it properly or give it up,\u201d Piotr Stach recalled.<\/p>\r\n

A Focus on Professional Niche Products<\/h3>\r\n

expondo built its business around professional equipment for the catering, crafts, industrial and sports sectors. At the time of publication, the company offered more than 3,000 own-brand products, including catering appliances, welding equipment, industrial scales and specialist tools.<\/p>\r\n

Its customers included small business owners, food-service operators and medium-sized companies seeking products that were often difficult to find through mass-market retailers.<\/p>\r\n

The company also differentiated itself through additional services, including an in-house repair operation for defective products.<\/p>\r\n

Growth Without External Funding<\/h3>\r\n

A central part of expondo\u2019s story is its bootstrapped growth model. Moss and Stach developed the company without external investors, financing expansion through profits and disciplined reinvestment.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cQuickly scaling the company, making a few million and then pushing towards an exit was never our approach,\u201d Moss said.<\/p>\r\n

The founders kept their own withdrawals to a minimum during the company\u2019s early years and focused on building the organisation for the long term.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cFor the first four years, we paid ourselves almost nothing,\u201d Moss added.<\/p>\r\n

More Than 300 Employees Across Three Countries<\/h3>\r\n

At the time of the feature, expondo employed more than 300 people across Germany, Poland and China and generated approximately \u20ac40 million in annual revenue.<\/p>\r\n

The company operated its own logistics centre in Poland, while teams in China were responsible for quality control. Its continued expansion required the founders to develop alongside the organisation and draw on external expertise.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou can only achieve something like this if you are always willing to learn and grow alongside the company,\u201d Moss said.<\/p>\r\n

Looking Ahead<\/h3>\r\n

expondo planned to continue its international expansion and strengthen areas such as online marketing, user experience and conversion optimisation.<\/p>\r\n

Although the founders did not rule out bringing in a strategic partner in the future, they emphasised that any cooperation would need to support the company\u2019s long-term goals and culture.<\/p>\r\n

The original feature was published in German by Business Insider\u2019s Gr\u00fcnderszene.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n


You can read the full article in original German here:
<\/strong>
https:\/\/www.gruenderszene.de\/business\/expondo-berlin-portraet?interstitial<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Business Insider\u2019s Gr\u00fcnderszene has featured expondo and its founders, Waldemar Moss and Piotr Stach, highlighting the company\u2019s development from a small eBay business into an international e-commerce organisation. From eBay to an International Business The founders started in 2007 by buying, refurbishing and reselling used car tyres on eBay. Encouraged by the success of the… Mostra articolo<\/a>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sb_is_suggestion_mode":false,"_sb_show_suggestion_boards":false,"_sb_show_comment_boards":false,"_sb_suggestion_history":"","_sb_update_block_changes":"","rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_strive_editorial_status":"not-started","_strive_copy_of":0,"ub_ctt_via":"","_strive_checklists":"\"\"","_strive_active_checklist":"","_strive_post_notes":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,35,39,38,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-posts","category-business-insides","category-business-trends","category-founders-corner","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/gruenderszene45325.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"r.dembowski","author_link":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/author\/r-dembowski\/"},"acf_fields":{"logo_color":"light","hero_header":false,"single_post_time":"","single_post_subtitle":"","category":false,"home_category_grid_repeater":"","newsletter_module_boolean":false,"news_publication_date":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4573"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4931,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4573\/revisions\/4931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corporate.expondo.com\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}