How I Built This · Journal 2 · JOUR 3270
Etsy.
In 2005 a furniture maker in Brooklyn couldn't find anyone to sell his desks to. Rob Kalin and three friends built the place where makers could sell to each other. This is the story of the business, in ten answers.
Brandyn Ippolito · October 2026 · from episode 566 of NPR's How I Built This with Guy Raz, aired October 30, 2023
Start with who, and why
Question one
Who and what did I choose, and why?
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
Question two
When and how did they start?
June 2005
Two and a half months to build. Servers ordered from Newegg, assembled at home, racked in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
Question three
What does the company do?
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
- Handmadethe only rule at launch: you made it
- Vintage & suppliesthe categories that followed
- A listing fee, then a cut of the saleno advertising, by design
- Makers, mostly womenthe first sellers, by Kalin's account
Question four
What challenges have they experienced?
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
Question five
Where did the start-up money come from?
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
- $50,000the first cheque, 2005, from a man whose apartment bar Rob had built
- $250,000the round about two years in, at a $1.5 million valuation
- $1Msales through the site in year one
- $2.5BEtsy's revenue a year by 2023, per Raz
Question six
What is a typical day like?
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
“The heroes of all of that are the sellers.”
Rob Kalin, about 82 minutes in
Question seven
Why do they do this?
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
Question eight
What is their goal?
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
Question nine
What makes them unique?
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
Question ten
Who is their competition?
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
The takeaway
What I'm taking from Rob Kalin into my own idea.
Brandyn’s answer goes here, in his words: three to five lines, every number with the episode and its date.
Source: Guy Raz, How I Built This, “Etsy: Rob Kalin,” NPR, October 30, 2023 (episode 566, 1 h 21 min). Photographs from Unsplash under the Unsplash License. All text my own. Word count: to be counted.