The secondhand market isn't a side hustle anymore. The U.S. secondhand apparel market is projected to reach $78.8 billion by 2030, expanding nearly four times faster than the broader retail clothing market, and Gen Z and millennials are expected to drive more than 70% of that growth.

Christian Herren (Courant/Stern '26) spent ten-plus years reselling vintage clothing before coming to NYU. David Cui (Courant/Stern '26) came to NYU with a computer science and math degree and a dorm room he had two weeks to empty out. Tomer Ben Yaakov (Courant/Stern '26) was building his own fintech startup on the side, before Christian and David recruited him away from it.

Three different paths, one shared instinct: that the way people actually buy and sell things is broken, and worth betting on. David's dorm-room sell-off became the seed of a student marketplace, evolving into Agora, a platform for professional resellers. Here's Agora, in their own words: no alterations or hems.

Tell us about yourselves, apart from Agora.

David: I've wanted to build things since I was a kid, I was that kid obsessed with Legos. Before computer science, I spent years focused on art — painting, sculpting, drawing, some of that from my mom being an artist. I studied computer science and math for undergrad, and I'm in the innovation and leadership master's program here now.

Tomer: I double-majored in computer science and music technology at NYU for undergrad, then worked as a software engineer for three years before coming back for my master's.

Christian: I've never really had a real job outside one internship. I've always run my own thing. I studied business economics at UC Santa Cruz, and when I came here for my master's, it wasn't to get a degree. It was to become a founder.

What’s Agora in one line?

Christian: We're building the sales infrastructure for the second-hand market, helping professional resellers list inventory in seconds instead of minutes.

You completed the Startup Sprint in May before Summer Launchpad. Have there been any major changes?

Christian: Same track, definitely. There's been some things we've had to work through, but ultimately it's been more of an adaptation to our customer and our market than a real pivot. That's the experiment Summer Launchpad teaches you to run.

Tomer: I've watched Christian do this. He'll just go up to someone and say, "we'll get you on the app in a few minutes, let me show you a couple things," and that's it. No pitch. We learn directly from the customer right there. 

Was there a specific moment that changed how you think about the product?

David: For most of the summer we assumed bulk listing, helping resellers list a lot of inventory fast, was the whole value proposition. That's not what made customers light up. What did was an auto-measurement feature: point a phone at a garment, get the measurements automatically, skip the tape measure. That wasn't obvious to us in advance. This happens every week, honestly, you think something's true, then you find out you're completely wrong.

Christian: One person saying something is good isn't enough to validate anything. There's no "hey, this is the best app you'll ever use." We just throw it in front of them and don't say anything, see how they react. If someone messages us the next day asking when the measuring tool's coming out, without us bringing it up again, that tells us they want it bad enough to go out of their way. That's the real signal. A nod in a demo isn't.

What's the hardest part of running that kind of test?

Christian: Learn to shut up. We love to sell our product. This is our baby, but you have to stay quiet enough to get there. When you're testing what people actually want, you have to let them speak. The second you try to sell it to them, the experiment's out the door.

What is the risk or bet you took in being here?

Christian: I don't have anything in savings. I'd rather die than not be an entrepreneur. Getting a job is never in the back of my mind. Not even a little bit. You could call that pretty delusional.

Tomer: I'm an international student, so it's a risk in that regard. If after this program I go back home, it'll be a year and a half since I had an actual coding job, and I'm not a US citizen, that's already hard enough to work with. Ninety-nine percent of companies auto-reject you for being international with a gap like that.

David: My dad came to this country with less than a hundred bucks and worked below minimum wage for over a decade to fund his first business. That story's a big part of why me leaving my home for this didn't feel like that hard a call.

What's your biggest piece of advice for a student thinking about starting something?

They all look at each other.

"Don't."

And laugh.

Christian: Figure out why first. If you're doing it because it's a shiny object, or because of pressure someone else put on you, that's the wrong reason. Wanting to be your own boss is a better one, just know your investors and customers become your new boss instead.

Tomer: If you hear us give all the warning signs of why not to start something and you decide to do it anyway, then you're probably the right person to be a founder.

What's next after SLP?

David: I don't think there is a dividing line of before and after for us. We've talked about Techstars, YC, a16z's Speedrun, but really it comes down to hitting our next milestones each day, week, and month.