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Etsy.com founder Rob Kalin hasn’t just created an online marketplace for crafts; he’s built a site that creates entrepreneurs and strives for a sustainable future.
Rob Kalin, founder of handmade products marketplace Etsy.com, had a mission: A mission to change the way commerce works; a mission to promote sustainable products; a mission that, much like eBay, is creating an exponential number of entrepreneurs in its wake.
Kalin created Etsy in 2005. As a woodworker, he was looking for a place to sell his wares. “I [felt] like eBay [had] grown to the point where it’s this faceless corporation, and I wanted to create a company that would have a handmade feel to it,” says Kalin. He and a group of college friends holed up in his Brooklyn apartment for six weeks before launching the initial beta version of Etsy.com, with Kalin on design lead and his co-founders, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik, handling programming.
Now more than three years later, Etsy has over 100,000 active sellers and more than 500,000 members. More than 1 million items have been sold through the site, which has become synonymous with handmade goods. Part of the site’s attraction is its simplicity.
Continue Reading: “A Marketplace With A Mission“
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