Etsy - How it all began

​Etsy is a treasure trove of creativity, individuality, and homegrown entrepreneurship. Millions of people buy and sell using it every year. Find out how it all began in this week’s Inspiring Story!

Etsy, the popular and well loved online platform for handmade crafts and vintage items was launched in 2005, in Brooklyn, New York City. In that time, the business has grown to an enormous company worth $2 billion.

It was started by a group of three friends, Robert Kalin, then 25 years old, Haim Schoppik and Jared Tarbell. It came about when Kalin, with a degree in Classics, needed some way to market his woodworking craft that he had as a hobby on the side, which grew to become his main passion.

A market for this kind of business was not in existence, so instead of giving up, Robert created a market himself! There was clearly a very strong demand for this kind of service, because as soon as Etsy was launched, thousands of creatives and crafters created accounts and began to sell their goods. Word of mouth brought even more demand, which was increased even more in the coming years with the growth of social media. Five years later, in 2010, Etsy was hosting around 55 million sellers. Of this number, 20 million of them bought regularly from other site users. ​

This article gives more details on how Etsy became the giant it is today.
https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/etsys-crafty-growth-to-ipo-and-a-2-billion-valuation