Owner Scorecard
An independent research publication · data as of July 9, 2026

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TDUP, ThredUp Inc.

E-Commerce & Marketplaces retail UnprofitableDistress / turnaround

ThredUp operates one of the world's largest online resale platforms for apparel, shoes and accessories.

Our custom-built operating platform consists of distributed processing infrastructure, proprietary software and systems and data science expertise.

ThredUp's proprietary operating platform is the foundation for our managed marketplace, where we have bridged online and offline technology to make the buying and selling of tens of millions of unique items easy and fun.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K
TDUP · ThredUp Inc.
I

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025
$311M
+19.5% YoY · 11% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $321M 5-yr avg $274M
Gross margin 79% 5-yr avg 75%
Operating margin −7.1% 5-yr avg −19.8%
ROIC −47% 5-yr avg −51%
Owner-earnings margin −1% 5-yr avg −11%
Free cash flow margin −1% 5-yr avg −14%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

Situation
Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand. Distress / turnaround. Thin interest coverage, or operating cash burned against real debt, across the record. The balance sheet carries this situation; the debt schedule sets the clock.
What moves the needle
Operating margin has run around −22% through the cycle on a 71% gross margin, the operating line in the red even at its best — so the lever is whether the spending below the gross line can come down enough to clear a profit: revenue growth against the cost curve, and the cash runway until it does. The cash cycle has run negative through the cycle (a median of −33 days): the operation is paid before it pays, so working capital releases cash as the business grows rather than tying it up. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −54%, above 15% in 0 of 5 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2019–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’25TTMTTMMar 2026
Income statement
$164M$186M$252M$288M$259M$260M$311M$321MRevenueRevenue
69%69%71%67%77%80%79%79%Gross marginGross mgn
14%15%19%21%22%22%18%18%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
12%11%11%13%13%12%10%10%R&D / revenueR&D/rev
($37M)($47M)($62M)($89M)($53M)($41M)($22M)($23M)Operating incomeOp. inc.
−22.5%−25.0%−24.8%−31.0%−20.5%−15.6%−7.0%−7.1%Operating marginOp. mgn
($38M)($48M)($63M)($92M)($71M)($77M)($20M)($21M)Net incomeNet inc.
Cash flow & returns
($10M)($19M)($35M)($52M)($23M)$5M$11M$10MOperating cash flowOp. cash
$4M$6M$9M$14M$14M$17M$13M$13MDepreciationDeprec.
$16M$16M$6M($671K)$5M$39M($1M)($913K)Working capital & otherWC & other
$10M$19M$20M$43M$13M$7M$10M$13MCapexCapex
5.8%10.4%7.9%15.0%5.1%2.5%3.4%4.0%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($14M)($25M)($44M)($66M)($36M)($2M)$180K($3M)Owner earningsOwner earn.
−8.8%−13.3%−17.5%−22.9%−13.8%−0.6%0.1%−1.0%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($20M)($39M)($55M)($95M)($36M)($2M)$180K($3M)Free cash flowFCF
−12.0%−20.7%−21.8%−33.1%−13.8%−0.6%0.1%−1.0%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$0$0$24M$0———$0AcquisitionsAcquis.
——-31%-54%-56%-69%-44%-47%ROICROIC
——-31%-66%-69%-137%-34%-36%Return on equityROE
——−31%−66%−69%−137%−34%−36%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$88M$64M$85M$38M$54M$32M$39M$39MCash & investmentsCash+inv
—$2M$4M$5M$5M$4M$2M$4MReceivablesReceiv.
—$4M$10M$18M$3M$690K—$690KInventoryInvent.
—$9M$13M$8M$4M$8M$10M$12MAccounts payablePayables
—($4M)$625K$14M$4M($4M)($8M)($7M)Operating working capitalOper. WC
—$75M$228M$134M$94M$57M$57M$60MCurrent assetsCur. assets
—$63M$89M$84M$77M$62M$62M$64MCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
—1.2×2.6×1.6×1.2×0.9×0.9×0.9×Current ratioCurr. ratio
—$0$12M$12M$11M$11M$11M$11MGoodwillGoodwill
—$143M$361M$302M$250M$171M$167M$172MTotal assetsAssets
—$34M$35M$30M$26M$22M$18M$18MTotal debtDebt
—($30M)($49M)($8M)($28M)($10M)($20M)($21M)Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-25.8×-35.7×-27.4×-111.2×-23.7×-16.1×-11.3×-12.8×Interest coverageInt. cov.
($183M)($222M)$206M$140M$104M$56M$59M$59MShareholders’ equityEquity
4.7%3.9%5.1%9.3%11.5%9.9%6.1%5.9%Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
Per share
10.3M11.6M77.1M99.8M105M112M122M128MShares out (diluted)Shares
$15.96$16.08$3.27$2.89$2.46$2.32$2.55$2.52Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-3.72$-4.14$-0.82$-0.92$-0.68$-0.69$-0.17$-0.17EPS (diluted)EPS
$-1.40$-2.13$-0.57$-0.66$-0.34$-0.02$0.00$-0.02Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-1.91$-3.33$-0.71$-0.96$-0.34$-0.02$0.00$-0.02Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.93$1.68$0.26$0.43$0.12$0.06$0.09$0.10Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$-17.85$-19.21$2.67$1.40$0.99$0.50$0.49$0.47Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×6.67 into 2021 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
6-yr5-yr
Revenue / share−26.3%/yr−30.8%/yr
Capital spending / share−32.7%/yr−44.8%/yr

The record, charted

FY2019–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count
122Mpeak FY2025
ROIC
−44%low FY2024
Gross margin
79%low FY2022

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$180Kowner earningsvs.($20M)net incomelow FY2022

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business turned a $20M loss into $180K of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022FY2021
Reported net income($20M)($77M)($71M)($92M)($63M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$13M+$17M+$14M+$14M+$9M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost+$19M+$26M+$30M+$27M+$13M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items−$1M+$39M+$5M−$671K+$6M
Cash from operations$11M$5M($23M)($52M)($35M)
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume−$10M−$7M−$13M−$14M−$9M
Owner earnings$180K($2M)($36M)($66M)($44M)
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still———−$29M−$11M
Free cash flow$180K($2M)($36M)($95M)($55M)
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue0%-1%-14%-23%-18%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $19M), owner earnings is nearer ($19M).

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • Can it pay its interest? -11.3×
    Does not cover its interest
    Operating income ($22M) ÷ interest expense $2M
    What this means

    A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.

  • How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +$20M
    Net cash
    Cash $39M − debt $18M
    What this means

    Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $20M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • How long is cash tied up? -52d
    Negative, funded by others
    DSO 3 + DIO 4 − DPO 59 days
    What this means

    Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. A negative cycle is a quiet moat: suppliers and customers fund the operation (Buffett's “float”), the company grows on other people's money.

Is it a good business?

  • Return on invested capital -54%
    Below average through the cycle
    5-yr median, range -69%–-31%; -44% latest = NOPAT ($17M) ÷ invested capital $39M
    Industry peers: median 24%
    What this means

    The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 5 years (it ran -44% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.

  • Owner-earnings margin 0%
    Positive this year, negative across the cycle
    latest $180K = operating cash $11M − maintenance capex $10M (positive this year), after an earlier loss stretch (7-yr median -13%)
    Industry peers: median 3%
    What this means

    What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 0% of revenue this year, a -13% median across 7 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $19M of SBC) leaves ($19M).

  • Are earnings backed by cash? $11M
    Loss, but cash-generative
    Net income ($20M) · cash from operations $11M

    In the filing’s words And the filing leans heavily on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings — steering you off the GAAP figure just where the cash is not backing it. Read the reconciliation in the notes before taking the adjusted number.

    What this means

    The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.

How is the cash used?

  • Where do the earnings go? —
    Not enough data
    What this means

    The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

  • Investing or harvesting? 0.81×
    Maintaining
    Capex $10M ÷ depreciation $13M
    What this means

    Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 0 of 5 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

  • Adequate size Miss
    Revenue ≥ $2B · $311M
    What this means

    Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.

  • Strong liquidity Miss
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 0.91×
    What this means

    Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.

  • Conservative debt Miss
    Debt ≤ working capital · $18M vs ($6M) WC
    What this means

    Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.

  • Earnings stability Miss
    A profit every year (7-yr record) · 7 loss years
    What this means

    Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.

  • Dividend record Miss
    Uninterrupted dividends · none paid
    What this means

    An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.

  • Earnings growth —
    Earnings +33% over the record · —
    What this means

    Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.

  • Moderate price —
    P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
    What this means

    Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $-0.44/share (latest year $-0.16), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $0.46/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2019–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

  • Profitable years 0 of 7
    What this means

    Lost money in 7 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 5 yrs
    What this means

    A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.

  • Operating margin −24% → −14% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −24% early to −14% lately, median −22% — pricing power intact or improving.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
    What this means

    The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.

  • Worst year 2022 · −31.0% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2022, understand why before trusting the good years.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Moderate contestability

AI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.

In its own filing Named as a competitive risk

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat.

“In addition, issues relating to our and our vendors' use of new and evolving technologies such as AI and ML may cause us to experience brand or reputational harm, competitive harm, legal liability and new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, and to incur additional costs to resolve such issues.…”

The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$60M
  • Cash & short-term investments$39M
  • Receivables$4M
  • Inventory$690K
  • Other current assets$16M
Current liabilities$64M
  • Accounts payable$12M
  • Other current liabilities$52M
Current ratio0.95×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio0.94×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.61×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital($3M)the cushion left after near-term bills
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+14.6%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters1.1× → 0.9×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$47Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($53M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$52M$34M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$2Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.

  • Insider ownership5.3%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • Stock-based compensation$19M

    The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 6% of revenue. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →
  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Revenue recognition, Acquisitions, Stock compensation as critical estimates

    each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, E-Commerce & Marketplaces

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
GCTGigaCloud Technology Inc$1.3B—11.2%84%13%
SFIXStitch Fix Inc.$1.3B44%-3.0%-35%3%
RVLVRevolve Group$1.2B53%6.6%39%4%
BBBYBed Bath & Beyond Inc.$1.0B23%-4.3%-201%-3%
BBWBuild-A-Bear Workshop Inc.$530M53%8.5%34%4%
HNSTThe Honest Company Inc.$371M33%-11.3%-23%-4%
TDUPThredUp Inc.$311M71%-22.5%-54%-13%
ELAEnvela Corporation$241M22%5.1%24%1%
Group median—44%1.0%1%2%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

ThredUp Inc. is profitable, but owner earnings are negative this year because capital spending currently outruns operating cash, a build-out, so the owner-earnings reverse-DCF has no positive base to grow. We read the price from both ends instead: type a price to see the steady-state profitability it demands, then set the mature margin you would believe and weigh the two against each other. Nothing leaves your browser unless you enter it in your notebook.

$
The assumptions

Revenue, delivered8%/yr’20→’25

Enter a price to run it.

Owner earnings it must reach—
Margin the price demands—
Owner-earnings margin today−1%

Two reads of one future. From your price: the owner earnings the company must reach, valued at a mature multiple and discounted back at your rate, expressed as the margin it implies on revenue grown at your rate. From your belief: the mature margin you would credit, set on the dial above. When the margin the price demands runs above the one you would believe, you are paying for a future taken on faith. For a deep cyclical at a trough, normalized through-cycle earnings are the better lens; this mode is for the genuinely unprofitable, and for the profitable business whose capital spending currently outruns its cash.

Weigh TDUP against another business →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "ThredUp Inc. (TDUP), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/TDUP, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← TDS its page in the Manual TDW →

Industry order: ← SFIX the E-Commerce & Marketplaces chapter UZX →