Zicklin Alum Entrepreneur Finds New Homes for Abandoned Pelotons

You might say Zicklin School of Business graduate Ari Kimmelfeld (BBA, ’22) is a pedal pusher.  

In just six months, the Brooklyn-born entrepreneur has built his startup, TradeMyStuff.com (which recently changed its name from TradeMySpin), into a nationwide distributor of used Peloton exercise bikes. By offering the high-tech equipment for nearly a third of the cost ($499 compared to Peloton’s $1,449), plus full setup and even same-day delivery in many major U.S. cities, TradeMyStuff serves a previously untapped market of spin-class enthusiasts who want the Peloton experience without the premium price.  

“Our hypothesis is that there’s a much broader pool of people who can afford $499 and the $44 monthly subscription, which is basically the same as a gym membership,” Ari says. And he should know—like many startups, this one was sparked by the founder’s personal experience.  

Seeking to stay in shape during the pandemic, Ari, a cycling enthusiast since high school, found a used Peloton bike for sale online. “I handed a stranger $500, and then I had to wheel this 130-pound bike outside and put it in a taxi,” he recalls. “When I got home, the bottle cage had snapped off and the bike had to be recalibrated. It was an unpleasant experience.”  

But it made him ask: What if you could sell the same product, but include delivery and full setup? “Our whole concept is to offer white-glove service for a secondhand product,” Ari explains. The startup’s delivery speed rivals Amazon’s but with a personal flair. All drivers are trained to set up the bike and show customers how it works so they can get started immediately. It even offers a warranty on the bikes—an industry first for used Peloton equipment.  

TradeMyStuff’s formula is a triple win, Ari notes. The customer gets a Peloton at a great price, his company makes a sale, and Peloton gets a new subscriber. And with thousands of bikes sold, plus over 80 five-star reviews on Google, the formula seems to be working.  

Ari says two Zicklin experiences were formative to his successful launch. Number one: his accounting classes. “I got a very solid, rigorous accounting education at Zicklin,” he says. That knowledge enabled him to go through Peloton’s annual reports and analyze its financial statements to get a sense of the market size for used Peloton equipment. He found it in the company’s 2019 Securities & Exchange Commission Form S-1, the registration form all companies file prior to an initial public offering (IPO).  

“That document says Peloton has sold 4.5 million units,” Ari continues. “Today, there are three million active Peloton subscribers. That means there are over a million Peloton bikes that aren’t being used.”  

Ari’s second formative Zicklin experience was the Baruch Investment Management Group (IMG), a Baruch club in which students manage $1 million in real money from the college’s endowment. After two semesters analyzing the industrial sector, Ari became director of the energy group.  

“IMG was where I really got into the nuts and bolts of financial statements and putting to work what I learned in class—reading analyst reports, writing analyst reports, trying to make the best case for why a certain company should be in our portfolio,” he says. “That combination of classroom learning and outside-the-classroom experience gave me enough understanding and confidence to go all in on TradeMyStuff.”  

The other key element was Ari’s business partner, who handles logistics and operations and, not coincidentally, owns CollectibleClassics.com, the largest classic car dealership in the United States. “He ships cars all over the country, so we were able to adapt his logistics team for shipping Peloton equipment.”  

“What I love about gym equipment is that there’s no stigma about buying it used,” Ari sums up. “When you go to the gym, the equipment you work out with is used, and nobody minds,” he points out. “As long as it works and you’re getting a great price, there’s really no difference between our equipment and Peloton’s.”  

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