
Etsy IPO Form S-1 - coloneltcb
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1370637/000119312515077045/d806992ds1.htm
======
ericglyman
"We eat on compostable plates, and employees sign up to deliver our compost by
bike to a local farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn" \- Page 93

Etsy's hipster cred is off the charts right now

~~~
pdknsk
I'm not really familiar with compostable plates, but unless they eat from
large plant leaves, the plates are probably made somehow. And to make them,
someone probably uses resources, like energy and raw material. And they have
to be shipped to Etsy.

Compare this with porcelain plates which can be re-used and last a long time,
but have to be washed, which uses water and some energy.

Taking all of this into account, I cannot say which is more environment
friendly.

~~~
nzealand
From the environmental point of view, each ceramic plate must be used at least
50 times to have less impact than a single use biodegradable plate...

[http://sustainability.tufts.edu/wp-
content/uploads/LifeCycle...](http://sustainability.tufts.edu/wp-
content/uploads/LifeCycleAnalysisPlasticPlatevsCeramic.pdf)

~~~
Cthulhu_
That's very few actually, given that people eat on average 365 times a day,
and said plates last for decades. They only get replaced when someone drops
them or when their owners decide they're too worn and ugly.

~~~
skatenerd
Eat...365 times...per day

~~~
testingonprod
Yeah that sounds like a bit much. Honestly for me, I max out at 4 a day, I
really can't do much more than that even if they're small meals.

I don't get how people do it 365 times a day, but then again I was never much
of an eater.

~~~
Eldandan
_It 's all in the hips._

------
djloche
The numbers at a glance:

Revenue 2012 $74.6M+ 2013: $125M+ 2014: $195.5M+

Profit: Net loss 2012: (2.3M+) 2013: (0.7M+) 2014: (15.2M+)

$88M cash on hand - so they can afford to run at a loss for a few years while
they grow the company. I guess it makes sense to go public and raise more cash
while the market is hot.

~~~
meritt
My financial analysis skills must be weak but how does a company take a loss
every year yet also have $88M in the bank?

~~~
timdorr
They've taken $97.3M before:
[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/etsy](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/etsy)

Presumably they had some profitable years prior to 2012 or have maintained
limited losses.

Either way, it looks like they're gearing up for some big growth in the next
few years. They dipped into the coffers in 2014 and will raise a lot of money
from this IPO, so they'll have plenty of cash to burn on fast growth. It
should be interesting to watch!

~~~
meritt
Hrm, that's a bit of a red flag to me. Why bother raising so much money if
you're not going to utilize it? Surely growing your business will outpace
average annual investment returns. I'm sure the investors have to be annoyed
they basically just transferred their assets to Etsy to sit on and not
utilize.

And now they're trying to raise an additional $100M via an IPO? It's not like
Apple who are literally in the position of "We have so much money we don't
know what to do with it."

~~~
jonknee
> I'm sure the investors have to be annoyed they basically just transferred
> their assets to Etsy to sit on and not utilize.

Considering they all stand to make a bundle through the IPO I'm sure the
investors are collectively not-annoyed that Etsy hasn't wasted their money.

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
The only challenge will be timing when the Etsy fad bubble bursts.

~~~
cloudwalking
I think people said the same thing about Ebay.

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jonknee
Interesting nugget in that they're reserving 5% of the IPO price shares for
their users:

> At our request, the underwriters have reserved up to 5% of the shares of
> common stock offered by this prospectus for sale, at the initial public
> offering price, to individual investors. We call this our IPO Participation
> Program, or IPP. The purpose of the IPP is to allow our U.S.-based Etsy
> community and other individual investors to participate in our IPO.

~~~
pcl
I wonder how they plan to allocate them.

~~~
donutreceipt
[https://etsyipo.morganstanley.com/etsy/index.html#/sps/dspFo...](https://etsyipo.morganstanley.com/etsy/index.html#/sps/dspForm)

~~~
pcl
Interesting. They're capping individual participation for that 5% pool at
$2,500. If Bloomberg is right that they're looking to raise around $300M, that
5% pool is $15M. That comes out to 6,000 shareholders in the pool if all the
members fully allocate.

I wonder how many individuals participate directly in a typical IPO process.
I'd assume that this will be strictly additive, and that banks (including MS)
will still do their opaque preferred-client treatment on top of the 5% pool.

[1] [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-14/etsy-s-
ipo...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-14/etsy-s-ipo-
valuation-may-hit-2-billion-feeding-off-of-grubhub)

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dewitt
Looking at the cap table (to the extent it's visible in the S-1) it appears
that the big winners are the investors: Breyer, USV, Accel, Tiger Global, and
Index add up to 92.3% ownership of the company. [Edit, 65%]

Or am I totally reading that wrong? (Note, I really might be, this isn't my
area of expertise. I just scrolled down to "Beneficial Owner".)

Edit: It was pointed out below that I double-counted Accel, making the total
closer to 65%. Thanks!

~~~
ericglyman
You are double counting Breyer and Accel's shares -- footnotes give the key
details.

Breyer personally owns 3%, and is deemed to control Accel's 27%. So
collectively, Breyer is considered to control 30% of voting shares.

Read correctly (not adjusting for any preferred or convertible notes that
could be in the structure somewhere), the amount held by Breyer, USV, Accel,
Tiger Global, and Index should add up to ~65%

~~~
dewitt
Thanks! That sounds a lot more reasonable. I'll amend the original comment.

------
egonschiele
I recently set up a shop on Etsy to sell my art. There are two types of shops
for selling prints: shops that print/ship for you (like nuvango), or shops
that just provide a storefront (like etsy). Of the latter, Etsy isn't the
cheapest (Square Market was). But Etsy has discoverability and ratings, and
that's why I chose Etsy. I think it gives them an advantage over their
competition.

On the other hand, you are not going to make a lot of money selling prints
anywhere. This website tracks the top shops on Etsy:
[http://www.craftcount.com](http://www.craftcount.com)

The top shops sell beads, clothes, jewelry. It makes sense: even as a person
who makes posters, I have bought more shirts than I have bought posters in my
lifetime.

~~~
chrischen
Hey, I've been building the type that prints and ships it for you. We don't
provide discoverability, but in exchange we have extremely low prices ($22 for
a 12x12" stretched canvas, no commissions or monthly fees). You can see the
link in my profile (amanufactory).

~~~
RBerenguel
Thanks for pointing it out, I'll try to keep it on my radar (if you have a
not-much-bother newsletter I'd be happy to give you my email so I get some
remainder as you move it on). How outrageous would shipping prices go for the
rest of the world?

~~~
chrischen
For a gallery wrapped 12"x12":

Shipping to most countries outside of the US is about $14 for economy
(ground).

Shipping to Canada is about $21.

And within the contiguous US states, $10.

This is on top of the $22 base price, which brings the total cost to $32 (a
few bucks cheaper than Costco).

Feel free to email me at chris@instapainting.com, or request an invite on
amanufactory.com, and I'll keep you updated!

------
Animats
Some of the key numbers aren't there. It's not clear how much stock the
insiders retain after the IPO. At least there's only one class of stock,
though. Google and Facebook have two classes of stock; the insiders hold the
class with a majority of the voting rights. (That's rare; the only other big
US company set up that way is Ford.)

~~~
gaadd33
Isn't the NY Times also set up that way?

~~~
Animats
They are. But they're not in the Fortune 500, and they're about to fall out of
the Fortune 1000.

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seeingfurther
Not a single mention of any of the four founders. Sad.

~~~
honksillet
What happened to the founders? Is there a back story here?

~~~
colmvp
Haim Schoppik and Chris Maguire: Left Etsy at the same time
([https://blog.etsy.com/en/2008/a-fond-
farewell/](https://blog.etsy.com/en/2008/a-fond-farewell/)) to create Postling
([http://mashable.com/2009/08/11/postling/](http://mashable.com/2009/08/11/postling/))

Kalin is still there as CCO. Tarbell also looks like he's still there too?

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free2rhyme214
Pretty sad the founders got fired:

[http://www.forbes.com/pictures/feki45gjlk/rob-kalin-usv-
on-f...](http://www.forbes.com/pictures/feki45gjlk/rob-kalin-usv-on-flickr-
jpg/)

~~~
callmeed
Why sad? Everything I remember reading pointed to him not being a good CEO.

~~~
free2rhyme214
Oh I didn't know that.

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sabalaba
Pretty interesting, not a single mention of any of the founders appear on the
S-1 form.

~~~
free2rhyme214
[http://www.forbes.com/pictures/feki45gjlk/rob-kalin-usv-
on-f...](http://www.forbes.com/pictures/feki45gjlk/rob-kalin-usv-on-flickr-
jpg/)

