EXCLUSIVE: How The Chernin Group’s Content-to-Commerce Bet Came Crashing Down
In October 2024, after three rounds of layoffs and a desperate going-out-of-business sale, The Pro’s Closet finally shut its doors.
The used-bike marketplace, once a pandemic darling, had grown from a garage eBay hustle into a venture-backed business that brought in around $75 million in annual revenue in 2022, according to three people familiar with its finances. But its final years were marked by shrinking sales, steep losses, and the fallout from its ill-fated acquisition of a retail media brand.
At the same time, a similar story was unfolding elsewhere. Hodinkee, once the most influential watch publication on the web, had acquired and quickly jettisoned a commerce business, and was then sold off in pieces.
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