Sometimes the fate of a public company isn’t decided in a boardroom but on an old couch in a New York apartment.
On September 10, 2025, I hosted a Fireside Skull Session on Geoinvesting with the CEO of PhoneX Holdings (PXHI), Nikhil Raman. Since PXHI is in our Microcap 2025 Quality Index (MSMqi), we are also posting and archiving the chat on our Substack. Here is the Cliff Note we published on PXHI.
We discussed Nikhil’s journey, his philosophy of survival, and how PXHI transformed into a cash-flow-positive software company.
Nikhil went from a business school idealist crashing at his sister’s place to the CEO of a company, building a “Shopify style model to connect buyer and sellers in the used phone supply chain ecosystem,” to recently rewarding shareholders with a large special dividend… And we think he’s just getting started.
Q2 2025 Financial Update (from slides in the video)
Q2 2025 Sales: $2.4M vs $0.8M last year (+182.5%)
Q2 2025 GAAP EPS: $0.74 vs $0.02 (Includes gain from the 80% sale of its WeSell subsidiary).
Q2 2025 Non-GAAP EPS: $0.03 vs -$0.02
Cash: $50.5M on the balance sheet (~$1.39 per share) (will decrease once special dividend it paid).
Debt: Zero
📊 PXHI is effectively trading near its “cash per share,” while already generating revenue from a high-margin, recurring software business.
The Journey
The Beginning
2010. Fresh out of Harvard Business School, Nick wanted to change the world—tackle electronic waste. His plan was to buy and resell used phones, building a platform along the way. Idealism, little capital, and no safety net.
Early Failures
Customer acquisition was expensive, partners unreliable, and the market kept collapsing. Twice, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy.
A Lesson from His Father
When it looked like there was no way out, Nick remembered his father’s words:
“Even if they cut off your arms and legs, you crawl. You never give up.”
That became a strategy, not just advice.
Transformation: Shopify for Distributors
What used to be chaotic deal-making has now been automated.
“Sales reps with spreadsheets, almost like a boiler room… I got 50 A stocks (used phone inventory), 50 B stocks — what price? They haggle and they figure it out.”
PXHI’s model today is best described as:
“Shopify for distributors.” A SaaS platform where wholesalers manage inventory, clients, and pricing—not just a website, but infrastructure for the messy world of secondhand electronics.
The market still tends to see PXHI as a “phone company,” since most of its Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) is tied to smartphones.
But the CEO insists otherwise:
“We’re not a phone company even now… people sell other electronics through the platform. But yes, we are heavily leveraged to the pre-owned device industry.”
In reality, PXHI is building infrastructure for reverse logistics. Phones are simply the first act.
