Etsy Going Public – Sell Jewelry Boca Raton

Etsy, Inc has taken the first step towards going public.  They recently filed their registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  When their IPO goes public it will be listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol ETSY.  The price range and amount of shares have not been released yet but there is sure to be a lot of interest surrounding a public offering.  According to Etsy’s S-1 form filing, they generated revenue of $195.6 million in 2014, up from $125 million in 2013.  When Etsy goes public they will be the first B-corporation to be publicly traded.  That means they have been certified for social and environmental performance by B-Lab.  Etsy is a e-commerce website that specializes in handmade and vintage items and they also sell jewelry Boca Raton.

Etsy was founded in 2005 by iospace, a company run by Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik.  Later Jared Tarbell came long followed by former NPR exec Maria Thomas.  She started as the COO in 2008 and was then promoted to CEO.  She left the company in 2009 and Kalin resumed the position until 2011.  Major investors in Etsy include Sean Meenan, Spencer and Justin Ain, Union Square Ventures, and founders of Flickr and Delicious.

Etsy gained a lot of popularity and attention when it first launched because of their tools and functionality that made it easy for sellers to gain exposure.  By 2007 Etsy already had almost $2 million in sales.  Then in 2008 Etsy raised $27 million in funding from Union Square Ventures, Hubert Burda Media, and Jim Breyer.

By 2008 Etsy was really gaining a lot of popularity.  People started to speculate that it could become a large competitor for eBay.  However, for some reason, founders Schoppik and Maguire left the company in the same year.  But they did hire Chad Dickerson who worked at Yahoo as the Chief Technology Officer.

By 2009 the company was growing exponentially.  They were selling to $10 million to $13 million per month with only 60 employees.  Then in 2011 Etsy introduced a Facebook style social networking system called People Search to help buyers and sellers connect with each other.  Chad Dickerson was promoted to CEO as well.

By May 2012 Etsy raised $40 million more in funding.  They also announced they were B-Lab certified.

Going public was an idea that spawned back in 2015 but was not realized until this week.