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Highstock
A private, AI-native marketplace where big brands sell excess inventory to vetted wholesale buyers
Last verified September 15, 2026 · Updated daily
What Highstock is building
Highstock is a private B2B marketplace for the inventory brands would rather not admit they have. A brand lists unsold stock, vetted wholesale buyers bid on the shipment, the brand accepts, rejects or counters, and Highstock handles everything after the handshake: buyer vetting, logistics, compliance, payment and the order paperwork. Camille van Horne's own description at the seed was 'an eBay for discount inventory', with one deliberate omission: Highstock does not set the price. The brand keeps control of what its product sells for and who ends up holding it. The word that matters in the pitch is 'discreet'. Traditional liquidation means handing pallets to an off-price channel and hoping the product doesn't show up somewhere that damages the brand. Highstock's buyer side is closed and vetted (live sellers, international e-commerce operators, wholesale distributors) so a premium fragrance house can move excess stock into markets and channels that don't collide with its full-price retail. That is the reason roughly 60% of transaction volume comes from brands with more than $500M in annual revenue, the companies with the most to lose from a sloppy liquidation. The AI is in the matching. Excess inventory is an unstructured problem: mixed lots, odd expiry windows, regional compliance constraints, buyers whose demand changes weekly. a16z's thesis is that this is exactly the kind of messy many-to-many matching that only works if the marketplace is AI-native from the first transaction, rather than bolted on to a human broker desk. Highstock's public numbers since launch: more than $1B of inventory listed, 100+ brands, 100+ business buyers, and more than 10 million pounds of product kept out of landfill. At the seed announcement in February 2025 those figures were $100M, 50 brands and one million pounds. The founding story is a supply-chain story, not a sustainability one. Camille spent six years running fulfillment product at Instacart and kept seeing good product headed for the landfill because distribution was too inefficient to route it anywhere else. Ashish Sinha, who joined at the seed as President, comes from a manufacturing family in India that had watched leverage in global trade get abused during lockdowns. The company started in beauty and personal care because it is high-value, compact and expiry-sensitive, which is the hardest version of the problem.
Why this matters
The number Highstock itself cites is that roughly $160B of products end up in landfill every year, and the brands with the most excess are also the ones least able to dump it publicly. The existing answer is an opaque liquidation chain of brokers and off-price channels where the brand gives up both the price and the visibility of where its product ends up. A vetted, brand-controlled marketplace with the logistics built in is a structural improvement, not a nicer interface. The traction curve is what makes the timing argument. Listed inventory went from $100M to more than $1B in about 18 months, brands from 50 to 100+, and the buyer network is now big enough (100+ vetted business buyers across live selling and cross-border e-commerce) that liquidity is real on both sides. a16z led the A on a company that is barely a year into operating, with Greylock, the seed lead, coming back in. The less visible tailwind is macro volatility. Tariff shifts and demand swings have made inventory planning harder for consumer brands, which means more excess, more often, at companies that did not previously think of themselves as liquidators. Every brand that ends up with a warehouse of product it can't sell at full price is a new seller, and the beauty-to-apparel expansion this round funds is a bet that the same mechanics hold across categories.
Open roles at Highstock
4 positions we're tracking. Roles are re-checked daily and removed when filled.
Head of Operations / GM (New York, 8+ years — on the careers page)
First seen today
Growth Lead, New Verticals (New York, 5-7 years — the apparel expansion, on the careers page)
First seen today
Strategic Partner Manager (New York, 2-5 years — buyer and brand relationships, on the careers page)
First seen today
Software / ML Engineer, matching and logistics (inferred: a16z says they are recruiting to build the platform; not yet posted)
First seen today
Know when Highstock is hiring before anyone else
A role stays uncontested for about four days. Here's the window — and where we put you in it.
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Watching Highstock
0 applicantsRole spotted & verified
1You get the alert
1You've applied
~8Hits the job boards
250+Hiring outlook
Three live roles on highstock.com/careers as of 15 September 2026, all full-time in New York: Head of Operations / GM (8+ years), Strategic Partner Manager (2-5 years) and Growth Lead, New Verticals (5-7 years). a16z's announcement post also says the team is actively recruiting to build the platform. Scored 7 rather than 8 because no engineering roles are posted publicly yet despite the raise being framed around the AI marketplace.
Working at Highstock
Highstock is a AI company based in New York, USA. Working at a AI company at this stage means opportunity to shape your role based on the company stage.
New York, USA is where most Highstock positions are located.
How to actually get hired at Highstock
Why applying the normal way doesn't work
There's an ATS, but at Highstock, referrals get priority. Your cold application competes with sourced candidates and internal recommendations.
Who to contact at Highstock
What to show them
Write a two-page ops playbook for a single hard shipment: a $20K lot of mixed-SKU skincare with a nine-month shelf life, sold to a buyer in a different country. Cover the compliance checks that must happen before the bid is accepted, how you would sequence payment, pickup and customs paperwork so the brand is never carrying counterparty risk, and what your exception process is when the buyer disputes the lot on arrival. The hire signal is whether you can turn a messy one-off into a repeatable path that survives 100 brands and 100 buyers.
A cold email that works at Highstock
What Highstock screens for
a16z put Olivia Moore on the board and brought in Jeff Jordan, its former general partner and one of the best-known marketplace investors, as an advisor. That is the firm treating Highstock as a marketplace bet first and an AI bet second, and it matches what the careers page says: the three open roles are operations, partnerships and new-vertical growth, not model research. The hiring window is the category expansion. 'Growth Lead, New Verticals' is the apparel push made into a job title, and 'Head of Operations / GM' is the seat that owns logistics, compliance and paperwork across a marketplace that just crossed $1B listed. Anyone who has run wholesale, off-price or cross-border ops for a consumer brand is unusually well positioned this month; a year from now the org chart will be filled in.
A tailored CV beats a generic one. Use Highstock's job description language to clear filters.
Don't make these mistakes
Do not lead with sustainability. Camille is a six-year Instacart fulfillment product lead with two patents (optical scanning for weights and measures, and a messaging interface for order changes); the 10 million pounds diverted from landfill is an outcome she reports, not the reason she built the company. A note that opens on ESG will read as someone who hasn't understood that this is a logistics and recovery-rate business. Equally, skip 'AI-powered marketplace' abstractions; she has spent 15 years in consumer and grocery and has heard every marketplace analogy. Lead with something operational: a liquidation you have run, a recovery-rate problem you have seen, a cross-border compliance failure on a specific product category, or a concrete view on why apparel behaves differently from beauty in a bid-based market.
Mistakes that kill Highstock applications
A recycled CV gets rejected fast at Highstock ( people). They notice.
Don't open with what you want. Open with what Highstock is dealing with right now — The number Highstock itself cites is that roughly $160B of products end up in landfill every year, and the brands with the most excess are also the ones least able to dump it publicly, and what you'd do about it.
Most AI applications get ghosted. A day-five follow-up can double your response rate.
Applying to Highstock? Get the contact, not the form.
The Highstock interview process
4 stages · 14 days typical · take-home: yes · modelled from similar companies
We don't yet have verified candidate reports for Highstock. What follows is the typical process for a -person AI company — treat it as a model, not confirmed detail.
Interview stages
Recruiter Screen
Phone or video · 30 min
Basic qualification and logistics
Recruiter or HR
Hiring Manager Interview
Video call · 45 min
Role fit and experience deep-dive
Hiring manager
Technical/Functional Round
Video call · 60 min
Skills assessment and problem-solving
Team members
Final Round
In-person or video · 60 min
Culture fit and cross-functional alignment
Senior leadership
Highstock take-home assignment
Highstock includes a take-home exercise in their interview process. For AI roles, this typically involves a practical problem that takes 2-4 hours. Focus on clean, working code over premature optimization. They're evaluating how you think and communicate, not just the solution.
Highstock interview timeline
Timeline: ~ days. That's about average than the AI median (14 days at people).
Interviewed at Highstock?
Tell us how it went — stages, questions, timeline. Takes 90 seconds and it's how this page stays accurate for the next person.
Submit your Highstock interview experience →Highstock jobs, frequently asked questions
How many jobs does Highstock have open?
4 open roles at Highstock, last checked September 2026.
Does Highstock hire remotely?
Currently, Highstock only has in-office roles in New York, USA.
What roles is Highstock hiring for?
Highstock is hiring across Operations, Marketing, Design, Engineering. The most recent opening is Head of Operations / GM (New York, 8+ years — on the careers page).
How do I apply for a job at Highstock?
Apply via the links above. For tips, read our guide on how to get hired at Highstock.
Does Highstock respond to cold emails?
Not enough data yet on Highstock's cold email response rates.
Who is the hiring manager at Highstock?
At this size, hiring is usually run by the hiring manager.
How competitive is it to get hired at Highstock?
Expect 100-250 applicants in the first two weeks for AI roles at this size. Apply within 72 hours for best odds.
How many rounds is the Highstock interview?
4 stages: Recruiter Screen, Hiring Manager Interview, Technical/Functional Round, Final Round.
Is the Highstock interview hard?
Focus on technical depth and system design, not puzzles. Technical Interview is reportedly the most challenging round.
Does Highstock give a take-home task?
Yes, Highstock includes a take-home assignment.
How long does Highstock take to get back to you?
Around 14 days across the full process.
What should I prepare for the Highstock interview?
Focus on technical depth and system design. At people, they're testing whether you can operate without process, not whether you memorised algorithms.
Where is Highstock based?
Highstock is headquartered in New York, USA.
Get Highstock roles before they're posted
A role stays uncontested for about four days. Here's the window — and where we put you in it.
From $5.99/week, cancel any time.
Watching Highstock
0 applicantsRole spotted & verified
1You get the alert
1You've applied
~8Hits the job boards
250+Related
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