ETSY turned 5 years old this weekend. It’s pretty amazing to think about what ETSY has accomplished, what the hundreds of thousands of people who have “done” ETSY have experienced and the hard, cold truths of Internet commerce versus the real world market experience that you just cannot ever truly experience in a virtual world. Fred Wilson, a prominent New York VC and blogger and early investor in ETSY, shared some of his thoughts on the difference between real markets and virtual markets like ETSY a while back on his blog – check it out and check out the comments for an enlightening discussion. This is especially true when it comes to the invaluable feedback that sellers have when they meet their market – there is both the spoken and the unspoken response. We’ve seen it happen in front of our eyes over the past 7 years more times than we can count. And we’ve heard more people comment about their experience of selling (“I was nervous to actually stand up behind my art, but once I did, I really enjoyed it”, “I always thought people would like the bags in brown but they didn’t and they told me why…”, check out David from BurdaStyle on his first-time selling here ) and it’s part of what fuels the market. There is no doubt in our mind that this is what has also spawned so many more markets over the past year or so (Coney Island Flea, Brooklyn Flea, Brooklyn Indie, the {NewNew} folks, etc.).
We’ll be starting a weekly post about our take on the importance of markets as it relates to the story of Artists & Fleas beginning in July as part of our 7 Year Itch story … yes, it has been 7 years since we first opened our doors – real doors, not a virtual door – across the street on North 6th Street in Williamsburg. We’d love to invite others to chime in, share their comments and thoughts and keep the community feeling that has been so incredibly vital and defining to our piece of the local artist and designer and vintage market alive and thriving.
Happy Birthday, ETSY.
