Inside Etsy’s product, growth, and marketplace evolution | Tim Holley (VP of Product)
Brought to you by Productroadmap.ai—AI to connect your roadmaps to revenue | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments | OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster — Tim Holley is VP of Product at Etsy, leading the buyer experience. With a tenure spanning more than a decade, Tim has helped the company significantly increase buyer retention and conversion, and also led the efforts to expand Etsy into Germany and France. In this episode, we discuss: • How Etsy capitalized on the explosive growth of e-commerce during the pandemic • Lessons from navigating corporate culture shifts • Marketplace learnings: marginal gains, optimizing conversion, and more • Etsy’s approach to the “graduation problem” • Tips for hiring product managers Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Google, Overcast, and YouTube. Find the transcript for this episode and all past episodes at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/episodes/. Today’s transcript will be live by 8 a.m. PT. Where to find Tim Holley: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timholley/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Tim’s background (04:23) Tim’s time away at SoulCycle and what led him back to Etsy (06:34) Lessons from the 2017 culture shift at Etsy (12:15) Etsy’s guiding principles (13:32) How Etsy adapted to increased demand during the early days of mask mandates (16:38) What Tim learned about managing stress with his team during the pandemic (18:46) Lessons from building a thriving marketplace (21:47) Prioritization at Etsy (24:37) Supply constraint vs. demand constraint (28:43) Conversion wins (33:27) Experimentation at Etsy (37:58) Acquisition and top-of-funnel tactics (39:44) The seller referral program (40:33) Etsy’s habit loop framework (44:11) How they set themselves apart from other marketplaces (51:23) Retaining sellers (53:23) The defunct Etsy studio (55:18) Running the product team (57:20) Who the decision maker is (1:01:20) What Tim looks for when hiring PMs (1:03:03) A reflection exercise Tim does with his teams (1:05:08) Lightning round Referenced: • Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/ • SoulCycle: https://www.soul-cycle.com/ • Inside the Revolution at Etsy: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/business/etsy-josh-silverman.html • Ronny Kohavi on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-ab-testing-ronny-kohavi-airbnb-microsoft-amazon/ • How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business – Part 3: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-kickstart-and-scale-a-marketplace-911 • Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World: https://www.amazon.com/Team-Teams-Rules-Engagement-Complex/dp/1591847486 • Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman: https://www.amazon.com/Let-People-Surfing-Education-Businessman-Including/dp/0143109677 • The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-Robert-Moses-Fall/dp/0394720245 • Yellowstone on Paramount+: https://www.paramountnetwork.com/shows/yellowstone • Nara Baby app: https://naraorganics.com/nara-baby-tracker • Huckleberry app: https://huckleberrycare.com/ Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. You're currently a free subscriber to Lenny's Newsletter. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
Older messages
How to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP)
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
Part three of my seven-part series on kickstarting and scaling a B2B business
An inside look at Deel’s unprecedented growth | Meltem Kuran Berkowitz (Head of Growth)
Sunday, August 27, 2023
Listen now (72 mins) | Brought to you by Miro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life | LMNT—Zero-sugar hydration | AssemblyAI—Production-ready AI models to transcribe and
The ultimate guide to JTBD | Bob Moesta (co-creator of the framework)
Thursday, August 24, 2023
Listen now (70 mins) | Brought to you by Sidebar—Catalyze your career with a Personal Board of Directors | Merge—A single API to add hundreds of integrations into your app | Eppo—Run reliable,
How to hire your first growth team
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Practical advice from 12 world-class growth experts, including Lauryn Isford, Casey Winters, John Egan, Adam Fishman, Melissa Tan, Laura Schaffer, Hila Qu, Adam Grenier, and Ben Williams
Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patre…
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Listen now (64 mins) | Brought to you by Merge—A single API to add hundreds of integrations into your app | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security. — Camille
You Might Also Like
I'm blue
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Hey, tl;dr – I've decided to delete all my Twitter posts, lock down my account, and leave the platform. And I'm going all-in on Bluesky, which (in the last month) has become 1000x more fun
🚀 Globalstar to the Nasdaq
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Plus $RKLB CEO becomes a billionaire, DIRECTV $SATS debt deal called off, TEC's $160M Series B, and more! The latest space investing news and updates. View this email in your browser The Space
Theory Two
Friday, November 22, 2024
Tomasz Tunguz Venture Capitalist If you were forwarded this newsletter, and you'd like to receive it in the future, subscribe here. Theory Two Today, we're announcing our second fund of $450
🗞 What's New: AI creators may be coming to TikTok
Friday, November 22, 2024
Also: Microsoft's AI updates are helpful for founders ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
behind the scenes of the 2024 digital health 50
Friday, November 22, 2024
the expert behind the list is unpacking this year's winners. don't miss it. Hi there, Get an inside look at the world's most promising private digital health companies. Join the analyst
How to get set up on Bluesky
Friday, November 22, 2024
Plus, Instagram personal profiles are now in Buffer! ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
10words: Top picks from this week
Friday, November 22, 2024
Today's projects: Remote Nursing Jobs • CopyPartner • Fable Fiesta • IndexCheckr • itsmy.page • Yumestudios • Limecube • WolfSnap • Randomtimer • Fabrik • Upp • iAmAgile 10words Discover new apps
Issue #131: Building $1K-$10K MRR Micro SaaS Products around AI Search Optimisation, Fine-Tuning Image Models, AI-…
Friday, November 22, 2024
Build Profitable SaaS products!! ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
(Free) Trial & Error— The Bootstrapped Founder 357
Friday, November 22, 2024
Today, I'll dive into the difference between a trial user and a trial abuser and what you can do to invite the former and prevent the latter. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
💎 Specially for you - will never be repeated again!
Friday, November 22, 2024
The biggest Black Friday sale in Foundr history...but it won't last forever! Black Friday_Header_2 Hey Friend , We knew our Black Friday deal was amazing—but wow, the response has been so unreal