Coworking with Shraysi Tandon

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Shraysi Tandon is founder and CEO of Kidsy, an offprice platform selling returned and overstock baby and kids products.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? As the founder and CEO of Kidsy, I work with brands and retailers to recover value from excess inventory and returns, making those products available to parents at a fraction of the original price. We help families afford all the things their kids need at unbeatable prices, and we also help brands recoup significant revenue by giving their customer-returns and excess products a second life.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? Some people might assume I spend my days in boardrooms and Zoom meetings. I’m actually allergic to formal meetings and prefer hopping on a phone call or texting. My investigative journalism background still shows up everyday. I spend a lot of time asking a ton of questions, digging for solutions, following paper trails, and uncovering efficiencies that we can fix. The difference is that now, instead of producing a story about a problem, I’m building a company to solve one.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? My favorite project spans two chapters of my career. As an investigative documentary filmmaker, directing Invisible Hands, which uncovered child labor in global supply chains, was the experience of a lifetime. The film premiered at the United Nations, played in movie theaters and was a New York Times Critic’s Pick. The film is part of some curriculums at schools and colleges. I was chatting to an investor at Eniac Ventures who told me she watched my film as part of a course she took in college! To see the impact the film had and continues to have is something I’m tremendously proud of. In many ways, Kidsy feels like a continuation of the work I started as a journalist and a filmmaker: uncovering broken systems and finding ways to make it better.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about right now, and why? I love the shift from transactional retail to relationship-driven retail. Some of my favorite brands today aren’t just selling products, they’re building communities, creating content, hosting podcasts, educating, and becoming trusted sources of information. I think the brands that will win over the next decade are those that earn attention and trust, not just clicks. Storytelling is a moat and I love that this trend is emerging within retail.

What’s your go-to coffee order? A flat white. I lived in Australia for eight years, and that’s where my love affair with flat whites began. They’re surprisingly hard to find done well in the US, but I’ve learned how to make one at home on my espresso machine. Any time I see a flat white on the menu, I order it immediately.

Worst piece of advice you’ve received? The worst advice I got was to wait until everything was aligned before taking the next step. Throughout my career as a journalist, filmmaker, and founder of Kidsy, I’ve learned that you have to move forward even if the path isn’t fully mapped out. Life is about taking those big swings and leaps of faith. I believe all meaningful opportunities in my life came with uncertainty attached. If you wait until you are completely ready, you’ll just miss them. Sometimes you have to jump out of the plane and build that parachute on the way down.

What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now? When I was 15, my favorite retail product was my camera. I had two: a Sony and a Canon point-and-shoot that I carried everywhere. From a young age, I moved around and traveled a lot. I was fascinated by the world around me and loved taking photographs. I documented everything. Today, I love fashion, especially from brands that sit at the intersection of sustainability and craftsmanship. I wear a lot of Farm Rio and Cleobella. Both use sustainable fabrics and work with local artisans across Brazil and India. The founder of Cleobella uses traditional Indian craftsmanship such as hand embroidery and Rajasthani block printing in her designs. As an Indian woman who was born in Delhi, I love seeing Indian artistry and heritage celebrated in such a modern, beautiful way.