The Etsy Wars - Selling Online

The Etsy Wars
By Jessica Bruder
July 15, 2009: 5:26 PM ET
CNNMoney.com Small Business

Artisans flocked to this online marketplace, but few made enough to quit their day jobs. Now comes the struggle to keep them.

(Fortune Small Business) -- Some entrepreneurs sketch their business plans on napkins in cafs. Rob Kalin created his plan in masking tape on the floor of his walk-up apartment in Brooklyn.

It was 2005, and Kalin was a twentysomething Web site designer. He did woodwork in his spare time and was looking for an online marketplace to sell his wares. EBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) was an option, but it seemed soulless, like a garage sale full of unloved secondhand junk.

Kalin envisioned a site that would be entirely devoted to artisans selling their crafts -- and decided to build it. So he pulled out a roll of masking tape and started mapping the site on his carpet. "I wanted to change the world," says Kalin, now 29. "My goal was to empower people to make a living making things."

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