Companies
Etsy

Etsy is going public

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Etsy is going public. Etsy, a B Corp certified online marketplace for handcrafted goods based in my neighborhood DUMBO, just filed for its IPO. It will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ETSY. After reading through its S-1, there were a couple of key takeaways. First of all, Etsy is big (in size and dollars). In 2014, there were 54.0 million connected members, including 1.4 million active sellers and 19.8 million active buyers, in nearly every country in the world. In 2014, $1.93 billion was transacted on their platform, generating $195.6 million in revenue, up 56.4% over 2013. But what was more interesting is how prominent their values featured in the SEC filing. “We are a mindful, transparent and humane business. We believe that business interests and social and environmental responsibility are interwoven and aligned and that the power of business should be used to strengthen communities and empower people. We plan and build for the long term. We want to build a company that lasts, and we plan to measure our success in years and decades.” Learn more about how Etsy’s went from a concept in Brooklyn apartment to an IPO in my book Profit & Purpose.