2 ms·

This has been a long time coming. Etsy always struck me as a company which was fundamentally a small business. They were never going to be an e-commerce giant a

This has been a long time coming. Etsy always struck me as a company which was fundamentally a small business. They were never going to be an e-commerce giant and should have focused on keeping headcount manageable from the start. Instead I think most of the Etsy leadership and employees forgot that they were running a business at all. That's fine when you're riding on the back of a great business model with solid fundamentals (see most big tech companies), but it fails when you're running a niche business with low margins even in the best case.

ordinaryperson 9y ago
Agreed. Their business model was to sell handmade arts & crafts, but scaling that requires mass production, which by definition is not handmade. A paradox and, IMHO, a low ceiling on where Etsy can go. It's hard not to sound like a handlebar mustache villain when criticizing Etsy's original business practices, but work is work, not a therapy group. If employees find corporate governance so horrible, hey, they're free to start companies that align with their values. But maybe they'll prove me wrong, who knows.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]