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A Brief History of Etsy: From Its 2005 Brooklyn Launch to Its 2015 IPO

Founded in Brooklyn in 2005, Etsy grew into a large marketplace for handmade goods and craft supplies before completing its Nasdaq IPO in April 2015.
From TheFinanceBase Team2 min to read
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Etsy began in Brooklyn in 2005 as a marketplace for handmade goods and craft supplies. A decade later, it went public on Nasdaq at $16 per share. The path between those milestones was marked by rapid growth in transactions and users—but Etsy was still reporting a net loss in 2014, the year before its IPO.

When did Etsy start, and where was it founded?

Etsy’s IPO filing says the company was founded in June 2005 in Brooklyn, New York, as a marketplace for handmade goods and craft supplies. Founder Rob Kalin later recalled that the initial idea took shape in Brooklyn in April 2005. In a 2008 first-person account, he wrote: “Working with three friends – Chris, Haim and Jared – Etsy went from these ideas to a site live on the Web in about two months.” The April-to-June timeline is Kalin’s retrospective account; the company’s 2015 filing independently confirms the June 2005 founding date and Brooklyn location.

What was Etsy building?

Etsy connected sellers—particularly makers—with buyers looking for distinctive goods. Handmade items were central to its original description, alongside craft supplies. In its 2015 IPO filing, the company also described services for sellers, including promoted listings, payment processing and shipping labels.

This was a marketplace-and-services model: sellers offered goods to buyers through Etsy, while the company provided a platform and related tools. Etsy reported the value of transactions made by sellers separately from the revenue it recognized for its own business.

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How large was Etsy before its IPO?

By the end of 2014, Etsy reported 54.0 million members, including 1.4 million active sellers and 19.8 million active buyers. Sellers generated $1.93 billion in gross merchandise sales (GMS) that year, a 43.3% increase from 2013. Etsy’s own revenue was $195.6 million, up 56.4%, and it reported a net loss of $15.2 million.

GMS and revenue measure different things. GMS is the value of seller transactions on the marketplace; revenue is income recognized by Etsy. The larger GMS figure should not be read as money Etsy itself earned, and rising activity and revenue did not mean the company was profitable in 2014.

When did Etsy go public?

Etsy completed its initial public offering on April 21, 2015. Its final prospectus set the IPO price at $16 per share and identified Nasdaq’s Global Select Market as the listing venue, under the ticker symbol ETSY.

The offering included shares sold by Etsy and shares sold by existing stockholders, so it would be inaccurate to treat the entire offering as cash raised by the company.

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What changed in Etsy’s first year as a public company?

At the end of 2015, Etsy reported 1.6 million active sellers and 24.0 million active buyers. Seller GMS for the year reached $2.4 billion. Those company-reported figures show that the marketplace continued to expand after the IPO; they are not a measure of Etsy’s revenue or profit.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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