GOAT Group
YC W11YC Top CompanyLos Angeles, US · Founded 2015 · 1,600 employees · Hiring · 4 known investors
GOAT Group operates a suite of e-commerce platforms for buying and selling authentic sneakers, apparel, and accessories, serving a global community across multiple brands.
Also known as Airgoat · GOAT · was Grub With Us · was Superb
ConsumerDirect to ConsumerMarketplacesMarketplaceUnited States of AmericaAmerica / CanadaPartly Remote
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W11)
GOAT Group was founded in 2015 by Eddy Lu and Daishin Sugano.
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Daishin SuganoinCo-founder · Chief Brand OfficerDaishin Sugano studied computer science at UC Berkeley and worked on iPhone app development before co-founding GOAT Group, a platform for buying and selling sneakers with an emphasis on authentication and fraud prevention.
Investors · 4
The YC application· Winter 2011 batch
Alumni Q&A
- How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)
- The two founders met as students at UC Berkeley, where one had a computer science background and the other a design background, and they built iPhone apps together, including a social dining app called Grubwithus that they later shut down after finding it hard to scale. In 2014, one founder bought a pair of counterfeit Jordans on another platform and encountered a process with no standardization around seller trust, pricing, or shipping; recognizing the problem of fake sneakers, they created GOAT to add trust and safety to the sneaker market.
Summarized from the founders' answers on their Y Combinator profile.
Founder mafia
2 people who came through GOAT Group went on to found or lead other companies.
Competitors · 6
by search overlapGrubwithus337 shared keywordsGOAT is an online marketplace for buying and selling sneakers, apparel, and collectibles from brands like Nike, adidas, and Air Jordan.
Complex104 shared keywordsComplex is a media brand publishing editorial content and rankings across music, sneakers, sports betting, and pop culture, and produces ComplexCon, a live culture and lifestyle event. It serves a general consumer audience interested in youth culture and streetwear.
Exa73 shared keywordsExa is an AI-powered search API that retrieves high-quality information from the web in real-time, designed for AI agents, developers, and applications that require precise natural-language search capabilities. The company serves developers, AI teams, and applications like Cursor, Cognition, and HubSpot that need semantically intelligent search infrastructure.
Poshmark, Inc.69 shared keywordsPoshmark is a fashion resale marketplace that enables individuals to buy and sell secondhand clothing and accessories through a mobile-first platform. The company operates a community-driven commerce model focused on sustainable fashion across the U.S. and Canada.
Stadium Goods61 shared keywordsStadium Goods runs a premium resale marketplace for sneakers and streetwear that are sold out or no longer available at traditional retailers, connecting buyers with items consigned by trusted sellers. It holds and pre-authenticates its entire inventory to guarantee products are genuine and unworn before shipping.
Seamless54 shared keywordsSeamless.AI is a real-time search engine and sales intelligence platform that finds and verifies B2B prospect contact data, automates outreach, and books meetings. It serves revenue teams including sales leaders, SDRs, account executives, RevOps, and marketing.
Companies competing with GOAT Group for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
GOAT - FNEXfnex.com · Jul 2026Frequently asked questions
- What does GOAT Group do?
- GOAT Group operates a suite of e-commerce platforms for buying and selling authentic sneakers, apparel, and accessories, serving a global community across multiple brands.
- Who founded GOAT Group?
- GOAT Group was founded by Eddy Lu, Daishin Sugano in 2015.
- Who are GOAT Group's investors?
- GOAT Group's investors include Y Combinator, Accel, Index Ventures, Upfront Ventures.
- Where is GOAT Group headquartered?
- GOAT Group is headquartered in Los Angeles, US.