Business Insider’s Gründerszene has featured expondo and its founders, Waldemar Moss and Piotr Stach, highlighting the company’s 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 business, they began looking for specialist products with limited competition.

“Even then, we decided to focus on niche products where there was hardly any competition,” Waldemar Moss told Gründerszene.

Using €10,000 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.

“We had to make a decision: either do it properly or give it up,” Piotr Stach recalled.

A Focus on Professional Niche Products

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.

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.

The company also differentiated itself through additional services, including an in-house repair operation for defective products.

Growth Without External Funding

A central part of expondo’s story is its bootstrapped growth model. Moss and Stach developed the company without external investors, financing expansion through profits and disciplined reinvestment.

“Quickly scaling the company, making a few million and then pushing towards an exit was never our approach,” Moss said.

The founders kept their own withdrawals to a minimum during the company’s early years and focused on building the organisation for the long term.

“For the first four years, we paid ourselves almost nothing,” Moss added.

More Than 300 Employees Across Three Countries

At the time of the feature, expondo employed more than 300 people across Germany, Poland and China and generated approximately €40 million in annual revenue.

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.

“You can only achieve something like this if you are always willing to learn and grow alongside the company,” Moss said.

Looking Ahead

expondo planned to continue its international expansion and strengthen areas such as online marketing, user experience and conversion optimisation.

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’s long-term goals and culture.

The original feature was published in German by Business Insider’s Gründerszene.

You can read the full article in original German here:

https://www.gruenderszene.de/business/expondo-berlin-portraet?interstitial