The presale platform received $3 million in seed funding led by Serena Ventures and is hosting a Soho pop-up.

Trance launched its app on Thursday, bringing life to the platform backed by Serena Williams’ venture fund, Serena Ventures.

Founded by Harvard Business School graduates Katie Pfleger, who previously worked at Etsy and Ella Rubin, who helped launch Walmart’s Online Grocery business, the platform focuses on the “presale” market. The duo created the app to list products before purchase to discover if others are interested in renting or owning it next.

Based on their own experiences, the founders said they often justified their own expensive purchases that could be rented out or resold later without having an understanding of who is interested in the piece or what they’d be willing to pay.

“Traditional rental and resale marketplaces largely start with items people already own, then find demand,” said Pfleger and Rubin. “Trace reverses that sequence. You can find the person who wants it next before deciding to buy it first.”

Users copy and paste a product link into the app to create a listing in less than 10 seconds using artificial intelligence to pull product details from the retailer’s link. Another user will then “call it,” offering to rent or buy it later at a specific price and date. The second user “calling it” is charged when the first user accepts. The price on Trace reflects the retail price minus what is received from the rental or sale created — with users still buying products new from retailers.

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