Wassail Group Inc.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Dba time2auction - Tech Startup of the Month

* DENVER

* WWW.TIME2AUCTION.COM

* FOUNDED: JANUARY 2004

QUOTE OF NOTE:

We try to generate some cost recovery, because everybody's got some overstock inventory. Don't give that discount item to your retailer that's actually going to undercut what your retailer's already selling for you; move it worldwide, and use the Internet to do it. --Wassail Group President Drake Harris INITIAL LIGHTBULB

Drake Harris, Wassail Group founder and president, first envisioned an eBay-based brokerage firm with a chain of drop-off centers for the stuff being sold. The concept--which is growing both in Colorado and nationally--had "too many variables," said Harris. "You didn't know if you were going to get a $10,000 wedding ring or a $20 tricycle." This conundrum led to a different business plan that focuses on helping manufacturers sell over-stock and other inventory through eBay and other online channels.

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"It's a lot easier to manage two or three manufacturers than it is to manage 300 individual clients," Harris added. "It's really a volume game."

Harris has Internet experience from another startup in the late 1990s, HotelNet. He also worked as a consultant to Golden-based BuyChoice.com. In launching Wassail Group, he recruited Taylor Grassby, a friend who had a background in retail, to handle COO duties, rented a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in downtown Denver and started inking clients.

IN A NUTSHELL

"To 'wassail' is to cheer the success of another," Harris said of the company's name. "Our deal was the Wassail Group, cheers to the success of your business." More specifically, the company's mission is to help clients make more money selling surplus inventory over the Internet.

"We consider ourselves to be an online rep," Harris explained. "If you look at the manufacturer's rep business, (reps) typically have a territory you work within. We've got the technology to work with eBay or develop a proprietary Web site, whatever fits the product. (The Internet) is a market that...