Tim Holley: belief

Transcript context

…Zooming out a little bit, it's kind of wild that Etsy can exist in a world of eBay and Amazon. And I'm just curious what it is that you think the founders and the team did early on to carve out this space of, I know you could buy things from people, you can buy things on Amazon really quickly, to create a world where Etsy builds this massive business that continues to thrive. What do you think was done so well to carve out the space? I think that to some degree, resolves down to... And maybe that's a little too extreme, but a key component is the brand. The brand stands for something in people's minds. And that helps understand you're not going to get the same inventory on Etsy. You shouldn't expect the same inventory on Etsy as you might be looking for on eBay. It doesn't make sense to our buyers. The items that our sellers sell are unique. And so I think that as the core nugget, combined with how we think about policies, and our way to some degree, maintain the integrity of the marketplace, those two things combined do set us apart. And I think if you ask many people, certainly here in the US, what they think of Etsy, a very specific image will be conjured up. That may be one that we want to evolve and build on, but it feels quite distinct. And it's not the same as eBay and it's not the same as Amazon. And I think there's real deep value in that. And I wasn't here at the very beginning, but it's certainly something that was there at the very beginning of Etsy, that is still a through line to where we are today. That makes absolute sense to me. On the other hand, I also don't know how that happens. Is there anything that you think about, of how the team did that and how they built that brand? What are some of the important elements? Is that a specific aesthetic? Is it a certain type of supply that you stuck to? What do you think was so important to building that brand?…

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