Former AirBNB executive to bring Reshopper to the world
Reshopper helps families to recycle items such as clothes through their platform, which joins local buyers and sellers. Now, former AirBnB manager Aja Guldhammer Henderson has joined Reshopper to help them flourish abroad.
For last four years, 31-year-old Aja Guldhammer Henderson has been a key figure behind the sharing economy-success of AirBNB in Scandinavia and the Netherlands. She has now moved on to join Danish startup Reshopper. Beginning in April, the former AirBNB manager will help to spread Reshopper’s success outside of Denmark’s borders.
Reshopper is a simple app, where families with children can easily buy and sell used children’s items such as prams, Legos, clothing, or shoes to other parents in the local area. Aja Guldhammer Henderson will be part of the senior team in Reshopper, working closely with the company’s founders and investor Esben Gadsbøll, who recently put funding into the marketplace app.
“The idea of the sharing economy has been absolutely central to my work over the last four years, and I am looking very much forward to working with Reshopper, as it builds on my ideas about sharing resources. It has always been important to me, and since I am myself a mother, it makes even more sense,”says Aja Guldhammer Henderson about her career change.
“I’m a big fan of Reshopper and have used it for long before I met the founders of the concept. So when they contacted me a year ago, it was pretty easy to get involved and help them with my experience, and now I can jump in fully,” says an enthusiastic Aja Guldhammer.
Reshopper to launch abroad
Reshopper has positioned itself as the leading local marketplace for families with children in Denmark, and has already taken the first steps in relation to a launch in Sweden and the Netherlands. The first task for Aja Guldhammer is to get the international expansion off to a flying start.
“For us, it was important to find someone who knows the challenges of growing a marketplace with both buyers and sellers. Aja can draw on her extensive experience as a country manager for AirBNB,” says co-founder of Reshopper, Nicolai Denmark Johannesen.
Four years ago, AirBNB was a brand new concept in the Nordics, and Aja helped ensure that the American idea gained a strong foothold in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. For chairman and investor Esben Gadsbøll, the recruitment of Aja Guldhammer Henderson was a big get:
“We are in no doubt that Aja is exactly right for the job. I’m sure she can help to create a good international team and give foreign ambitions a powerful boost.”
The company was launched in 2012 by a group of fathers as a local digital marketplace for families with children. Over 95% of users on Reshopper are women – mostly aged 25-40 years.
“I’ve spent the last four years entrenched in a US startup in Scandinavia and Holland, and now I feel that the time is ripe to try my hand at a Danish startup. I’m truly excited to lead a great Danish idea out into the world. I think there is need to spread the Danish views on recycling and the strong tradition of sharing goods. Reshopper is nothing short of brilliant for families with children, regardless of where in the world you are,” emphasizes Aja Guldhammer Henderson.
Reshopper is in the final of the Nordic region’s largest entrepreneurial competition, the Nordic Startup Awards 2016, in the category “Best Social Tech Startup”. You can still vote here.
