From Corporate Engineering to Climate-Driven Entrepreneurship
A few years ago, while working as a software engineer at Airbnb, Sonia Yang experienced a turning point. The surreal, smoke-filled skies over California during the 2020 wildfires left her reflecting on the urgency of climate change. That moment became the seed for a career shift—from building travel technology to creating tools that could reduce waste on a global scale.
The Birth of Treet
In 2021, Yang co-founded Treet with the goal of helping fashion brands participate directly in the resale economy. The platform enables companies to set up branded secondhand marketplaces where customers can purchase and sell pre-owned items. This approach not only keeps clothing in circulation longer but also allows brands to maintain a direct relationship with buyers—something traditional third-party resale sites cannot offer.
Solving Complex Marketplace Challenges
As CTO, Yang’s focus has been on making resale integration seamless for retailers, many of which use varied systems like Shopify. She and her team designed flexible backend solutions that adapt to each brand’s product categorization, so new resale stores can launch quickly without heavy customization.
Positioning in a Growing Market
The resale fashion sector is expanding rapidly, with industry estimates placing it in the tens of billions of dollars annually. By giving brands the tools to own their resale channels, Treet helps them tap into this growth while reinforcing their sustainability credentials and reducing unsold inventory waste.
Momentum and Investment
Since launch, Treet has partnered with hundreds of fashion labels, including well-known names in activewear, footwear, and lifestyle apparel. The company has raised over $16 million in funding, reflecting investor confidence in the market opportunity and in Yang’s leadership.
A Philosophy That Combines Profit and Purpose
For Yang, resale is not just a business trend—it’s a necessary evolution of retail. She believes that since secondhand transactions will happen regardless, brands should embrace the opportunity to engage with customers directly, extend product lifecycles, and reduce environmental harm.
In essence, Sonia Yang represents a new breed of entrepreneur—one who blends technical expertise, commercial vision, and environmental responsibility to create scalable solutions that benefit both business and the planet.
