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When Thomas Plantenga became C.E.O. of Vinted, in 2017, the Lithuanian secondhand fashion marketplace was nearly out of cash after years spent chasing growth. Plantenga had a roughly $250 million offer on the table from a South African tech group called Naspers (not to be confused with Napster), but he rejected it; instead, he raised €25 million to preserve Vinted’s independence. By then, a series of operational changes he had introduced—including a new fee structure, better fraud protections, and lower shipping costs—had already begun translating into higher sales.
