Online children’s apparel resale marketplace Kidizen announced its sudden closure on Tuesday, shocking its loyal community, primarily made up of mom buyers and sellers.

Kidizen was launched a decade ago by Minneapolis entrepreneurs Dori Graff and Mary Fallon, seasoned marketing executives who saw an opportunity to create a niche marketplace for moms like themselves—a population underrepresented among tech startups. They were ahead of the curve on resale and said four years ago they were finally able to lean into the sustainability message. “It’s always been core to our mission..but it’s starting to resonate with consumers,” Fallon said in a 2020 interview with TCB.

This week, they shared with TCB how difficult the journey has been. “We poured everything into making this marketplace thrive,” Graff and Fallon said in an email to TCB on Wednesday. “But despite our best efforts, we could not achieve the growth needed to sustain the business.”

They had raised more than $6 million from angel investors and venture funds and built an app that allowed consumers to easily post an item for sale by snapping a picture on their phone. Some avid users even created businesses of their own as “Kidizen style scouts,” helping others post, sell, and ship goods their children had outgrown.

From the start, Graff and Fallon envisioned a niche community that would cut out the clutter found on larger selling platforms and create a boutique-like experience for children’s resale clothing. Eventually, they expanded that to include a resale department for “moms.” Kidizen built up a community of 1 million users, but struggled to compete against larger online players like ThreadUp and Poshmark, on top of behemoths eBay and Facebook marketplace.

The pandemic bolstered online retail, and resale in particular, which fueled Kidizen growth for a while. Graff said in a podcast interview on TCB’s By All Means the company hit profitability in 2021. In 2022, Kidizen seemed to have found a new opportunity, building resale marketplaces for other apparel brands, which are also leaning into the sustainability message. But it wasn’t enough.

“We have done everything we can to build a lasting home for this amazing community, but sadly, we haven’t been able to achieve that,” Kidizen said in a statement posted on its website Tuesday. “Up until very recently, we were actively pursuing options to secure a future for Kidizen. When it became clear that these solutions wouldn’t come to fruition, we immediately shifted our focus to supporting our sellers with transitioning their listings and ensuring a smooth close-out process for everyone.”

The site says pending sales must be completed by Nov. 1 or will be cancelled. Users have until Nov. 7 to cash out any earnings.

“We understand that Kidizen’s closure may feel sudden and is incredibly difficult news for many in our community,” Graff and Fallon told TCB. “Closing the marketplace was a carefully considered decision made with our community’s best interests at heart. Acting swiftly allowed us to ensure a secure transition and safeguard the positive experiences and trust our users have built here.”

Kidizen is helping sellers shift to another resale platform that will allow listings to transfer with complimentary membership, the company said.

Their disappointment over the outcome in palpable.

“Over the past decade, we’ve proudly grown to a community of 1 million members who embrace secondhand shopping for their families,” Kidizen said in its statement to users. “We’ve partnered with over 40 brands to encourage more sustainable shopping and selling practices. And we’ve done it all with a small, dedicated team, each member passionate about empowering parents to earn extra income while promoting a planet-friendly approach to shopping. But what we’re most proud of is you—the amazing community that has flourished on Kidizen.”