Etsy co-founder Rob Kalin describes the 2011 meeting where venture capitalist and board member Fred Wilson dismissed him as CEO.
Insight
Kalin: There is a continent of computing between wooden blocks and touchscreens
“I think there's a whole continent of computing in between the blocks that children play with and the way technology currently lands in their lap, which is just phones and tablets and reduces them to poking at pictures under glass.”
Opinion
Kalin: Maria Thomas was the wrong fit for Etsy CEO due to culture mismatch
“Looking back on it, it's quite easy to see like, you know, that culture piece was too important to be a mismatch at that phase of Etsy's growth. And so she ended up not being the right fit in that role.”
Insight
Kalin: Modern marketplaces like Etsy and eBay optimize for buyers, not sellers
“And you look at a marketplace, like, I would say Etsy now, or eBay, And the primary customer is clearly the buyer, where the whole experience is optimized on the buying side, to the point where, you know, I pay a listing fee, and here's my item, but the websit…”
Insight
Kalin: Meetings not worth standing up for should not happen
“If it's not worth standing up for, you shouldn't be having a meeting.”
Insight
Kalin: Nonsense words make global branding easier than compound English words
“And I also, I think even at that early stage, had a sense that I wanted it to be a global brand, and so if it was just two English words stuck together, I felt like it would be more difficult. So I wanted to create a kind of playful, nonsensical word that had …”
Insight
Kalin: Cold-start marketplace inertia requires an organic community to start the flywheel
“Overcoming inertia in the early stages of a marketplace is incredibly difficult. It's almost impossible, which is why, you know, there were so many eBay clones that never went anywhere. And, you know, you need to be able to tell a compelling story, and you nee…”