Skydivers have historically relied on trust when buying used gear. In a world where scammers are commonplace, Lean Stein and Tim Vietze wondered whether trust needed better infrastructure.
Thousands of dollars routinely change hands between people who meet through Facebook. A few photos, some direct messages, maybe a video call, and a highly technical piece of life-saving equipment is on its way across the country or across the world.
Which begs an obvious question: Why are we doing it this way? Lean Stein and Tim Vietze asked the question, invited the community to help them answer it, and decided to do something about it. The result is Avento Gear.
Following The Thread
Lean’s mother was a skydiver who made about 500 jumps before hanging up her rig. She never pushed Lean toward jumping, but she was inspirational. Adrenaline sports appealed to him, especially those that incorporated some element of air.
After completing a flying course during his service to Switzerland’s military, he committed to the sky. With money saved and a semester in Thailand ahead of him, he enrolled in an AFF course at Skydive Thailand (then near Khao Yai), got his license, and logged his first hundred jumps while living at the dropzone. He quickly reached the point where most of his free time and disposable income went back into the sport.
Before long, Lean was ready to buy a rig of his own.
Almost Priced Out
This is when the problem of online gear sales became personal.
Lean knew fraud is common across the used gear market, so he conducted what he considered to be exhaustive due diligence before settling on a system. He studied the photos carefully, had a video call with the seller, and travelled to Romania to personally pick it up.
Later, he learned from his rigger that the reserve was not as advertised. It had been manufactured in 1996, not in 2006 as depicted. The tag had been hand-altered.
For a time, Lean thought the mistake might end his skydiving altogether. He had invested what he could afford into the rig and did not have the money to simply replace the reserve and container. Then he got extraordinarily lucky.
The seller, who had also purchased the gear used and had no idea the label had been altered, was shocked and apologetic. He replaced the reserve and travelled to Switzerland to make things right.
The transaction ultimately worked out. Lean knew most people in the same situation would not have been so fortunate. The experience gave him a much clearer view of just how vulnerable even a careful buyer could be.
A Problem Worth Solving
When critical thinkers get burned, they investigate.
Already part of an entrepreneurship program, Lean decided to examine the gap between this high-value, highly technical market and the safeguards that could protect the people within it.
Enter: Tim. Lean’s partner for pressure-testing big ideas.
Lean and Tim have complementary backgrounds. Lean brings an economics degree, private banking experience, and computer science knowledge to the table. Tim adds business administration and data science to the mix, along with what he is learning through his master’s in business innovation.
Their first agreed-upon task was to talk to the people. They spoke with other skydivers to learn about their used gear experiences and conducted a survey among those who’d bought and sold gear online. As they suspected, the problem was far from isolated. Roughly one in three respondents said they’d encountered some form of scam.
Leading From The Middle
They began building what would become Avento. Their goal was not to recreate Facebook with better filters or undermine the people already serving the gear market, but to address the realities of buying and selling skydiving gear.
Their analysis pointed to what they believed was the primary missing ingredient: a trusted, efficient middleman. Avento became their attempt to fill that role.
Buyers need confidence that the gear will arrive as described; sellers need confidence that payment is forthcoming. To add protection for both sides, Avento uses Stripe Connect to hold funds during the transaction. Protection begins before money changes hands. Sellers provide details such as serial numbers and photos of TSO labels, while Avento monitors listings and accounts for inconsistencies that may signal fraud.
Once the gear arrives, the buyer has two weeks to have it inspected by a rigger. If the gear is as described, or the buyer declines inspection, the funds are released to the seller. If not, the funds remain held while any issues are resolved and, if necessary, refunded.
Riggers remain central to the process. Rather than creating a costly centralized inspection system, Avento encourages buyers to have equipment checked by someone they trust. The aim is to add structure around those essential relationships, not replace them.
Lean and Tim’s premise is that the existing system can work when everyone acts in good faith. The challenge is what happens when they don’t.
Solving For X
Tim and Lean wanted to know what else along the buyer/seller continuum was causing friction. Again, they took the question to the people.
Surveyed skydivers revealed that acting on a listing requires confidence that the gear will suit their individual needs. So Lean and Tim began building tools to reduce uncertainty and solve for the friction points that surfaced. They developed a harness sizing tool, a gear value calculator, and a wish-list system for hard-to-find gear.
Sellers get their own feedback loop, too. Listing analytics show views, favorites, and offers, helping sellers understand whether an item is gaining traction.
Lean and Tim’s ongoing exchange with users has become part of Avento’s product-development process. They build features, listen to feedback, and make adjustments. As in all things skydiving, it works best when it’s relationship-based.
Building Critical Mass
Of course, building a marketplace is only half the equation. The other half is getting people to use it.
Avento has already attracted more than 700 registered users, and Lean says most items that sell do so within three weeks. But marketplaces live and die by critical mass. There need to be enough sellers to create useful inventory and enough buyers to keep it moving. U.S. users currently generate Avento’s highest website traffic, yet only about 10% of the platform’s live listings are based in the U.S. Translation: demand is showing up faster than supply.
For Lean and Tim, this makes the next phase about changing behavior. Sellers need a reason to list. Buyers need enough inventory to keep coming back. And both sides need to trust that the platform is worth using instead of defaulting to channels they already know.
For The Good of All
As they grow Avento, Tim and Lean are staying focused on the problem they originally set out to solve.
They could’ve been tempted to become “all things skydiving” when they acquired Skydive Nation, a broader information platform for the sport. But rather than fold Avento into Skydive Nation or vice versa, they’ve kept the two distinct.
It’s a decision that reflects how they think about the business more broadly. Avento was built around a specific problem, and solving that problem well requires steadfast focus. They’ve chosen not to broaden the platform into tangential areas.
That same commitment carries into the business model. Listings are free and commissions are intentionally modest. Lean and Tim describe Avento as a passion project built for long-term sustainability rather than maximum margin.
Way More Than a Transaction
Lean’s own story is a reminder that one skydiver often leads to another. His mother led him to the sport; Lean led Tim to the sport.
Skydiving is a small community. Our shared future depends, in part, on people staying engaged long enough to become the experienced jumpers, riggers, instructors, mentors, and friends who help the next person along. It’s our responsibility to look out for each other.
For Lean and Tim, that’s what gives the problem significance beyond a single transaction. They can’t eliminate every bad actor or guarantee every transaction will go perfectly. But Lean and Tim believe a better system can make it harder for a bad transaction to drive someone from the sport.
