Search results (tags) for: "employees"

Handcrafting Etsy

2009-12-17T09:15:00-05:00

I recently heard Professor Richard Sennett, author of The Craftsman, speak and was pleased to hear him connect traditional crafting cultures to the culture of computer programming. Here at Etsy, we think of software coding as a craft and fully embrace one of Sennett’s central ideas: namely that craftsmanship, by combining skill, commitment and judgment, establishes a close relationship between head and hand, man and machine.

Against that backdrop, I am thrilled to introduce the newest additions to the Etsy team: Jason, Greg, Isaac, Matt and Stefan. They are the team behind Adtuitive, a New York-based company which yesterday became part of Etsy. These are five highly-skilled craftsmen with deep technical expertise in algorithmic search, machine learning and data interpretation, and advertising infrastructure. In other words, five really smart guys who can help Etsy accelerate progress towards our longer-term goals. All five members of the Adtuitive team will immediately join the Etsy team.

Etsy bought Adtuitive, the company, but ultimately companies are made up of people. This team of crafty coders – with their deep knowledge, experience of working together, and fit with the Etsy culture – will help us to more quickly and successfully serve our sellers and delight our buyers. They will work on key initiatives for 2010: improving Etsy’s search algorithms and expanding Etsy’s Showcase advertising system with an eye to improving the overall user experience on the site.

Please join me in warmly welcoming Jason, Greg, Isaac, Matt and Stefan to the Etsy community.

John Allspaw Joins the Etsy Team

2009-11-19T00:27:00-05:00

One day in early 2005, I got a call from a friend and former colleague asking for career advice. My friend was considering a role running site operations at a fledgling Internet company that was creating a whole new way of connecting people on the Internet. They were a small but inspired operation running in a data center in Vancouver and the site was starting to really ramp up. The company needed his unique blend of good humor, playfulness, creative spark, world-class technical chops, and unmatched ability to get things done. I was already an early adopter and major fan of the company he was considering and told him it seemed like a solid bet. The company was Flickr, and the friend was John Allspaw.

Fast forward to the present, and after five very successful years at Flickr, John and I talked recently about another career move, but this time it was a little closer to home: John will be joining the engineering team at Etsy as VP of Technical Operations, responsible for the site operations, database, and quality assurance teams. I think his reasoning for making the move from Flickr to Etsy illustrates just what a great fit John is for Etsy:

“The reason I stayed here for five years wasn't for the vesting or the accolades. It was because I worked with people who *care* about building something that people *care* about. This also happens to be the same reason why I chose my next step: Etsy. They care, and it shows.“

I couldn’t be more excited for someone with John’s incredible experience to be joining Etsy. Before Flickr, John and I worked together at Salon.com and IDG/InfoWorld. He then went on to Friendster, one of the earliest social networking sites. Once he got to Flickr, John built site operations from 20 servers in a small Vancouver data center into a cultural phenomenon spread across six data centers around the world, with 40,000 photos being served per second and four billion photos being managed. Over four years, traffic to the site grew 40x while the number of users grew tenfold. All the while, John and the excellent team he built were the ones turning the knobs and pulling the levers to make it all work along with the developers at Flickr.

John recorded his hard-earned knowledge in a well-regarded book about capacity planning for web sites (The Art of Capacity Planning) and became a favorite speaker at technical conferences – when you’re successful, everyone wants to know the formula. With all of that happening, he also found time to play guitar in an itinerant bluegrass band, filing in the gaps between the washboard and the banjo. And have two kids!

John will joining us officially in late January, bringing his know-how to help us make Etsy better. I can’t wait to work with John again. Without further ado, please join me in welcoming John to Etsy!

About Us series | Tech Updates

About Us: Neelam Hasni a.k.a. Neelam12

2009-10-30T13:30:00-05:00

Neelam, a.k.a. Neelam12, is our web analytics guru. Neelam dives into the numbers and helps us make sense of what is happening with site traffic and activity on Etsy.com. She works on the Marketing Team and is a relatively new hire at Etsy, having starting in the spring of 2009. Let's welcome her to the fold!

Fun Facts:

She's a Jersey girl. She recently decided to move to New York City, and it was cute how shocked she was by Manhattan rental prices and the lack of space you get for your money.
Neelam is the third youngest of four sisters, and one of her sisters is her roommate.
SarahSays wants to be her BFF. They had met each other a number of times randomly before Neelam started working at Etsy. It is their destiny.
Mike B says both of her parents are renowned archaeologists.
She once seriously considered being a secret service agent after watching Rene Russo in the movie In the Line of Fire.
She loves watching I Love Lucy reruns.
Nizzi claims that she definitely had some Britney songs in her music selection for Etsy's 4th birthday party.
Anda has two words: "frat girl."
Michelle thought it was awesome that Neelam shouted the seller's name "VulvaLoveLovely" loudly enough for everyone to hear in an all-company meeting the other day.
Danielle loves how Neelam says something really important or crazy but in the most "yeah whatever" kind of way.
Adam stressed how much she loves shopping, and Christina notes that she admitted to fantasizing about having a sugar daddy to escort her on shopping binges. Anda added that Neelam, Ian, and Matt all stalk gilt.com obsessively. Christina then gets her to do a fashion show for the Marketing Team.
Adam has observed how she'll cut a piece of pizza in half, pretend like she's only going to eat that half, and then eat the whole thing. Mike B is also suspicious of her coy eating habits: "She's been bringing in healthy lunches since we moved to this office. Like a plastic container with two slices of turkey and a cucumber..." Then she'll be the first to rip into the package of Double Stuf Oreos.
Bernadette recalls the time Neelam said to her, surprised, "I didn't know Sweeney was an Irish name!" Mike B made it The Quote of the Week.
She had a funny realization moment when she figured out that "decor8" is pronounced "decorate" and not "decor...eight."
Nizzi adds that Neelam lives near Magnolia Bakery and has been known to bring cupcakes in on request.
Ian from Etsy Hacks did a little research and according to Wikipedia, "Neelam" means "sapphire."
Nizzi is always trying to get Neelam to speak Gujrati with her so they can have their own secret Etsy language that nobody else at the office would understand, but she's too polite for that.
Christina says Neelam has a major crush on Anderson Cooper... and the guy from Mad Men.
Adam says she loves pop culture and celebrity trash. But, she was trying to tell him something about Jon Stewart and couldn't remember his name. She was grasping for it, "You know, he's a comedian, he has his own show...?"
Whether or not she's a "fancy dresser" is under debate. Vanessa recalls Anda being surprised when Neelam wore jeans one day, because she seems like she's dressier than that. But Nizzi says that for some reason, we're not good enough for her to wear high heels to work, but she puts them on when she goes to meet her former Bloomingdales colleagues.
Her hardest day at work was when she was working in Macy's one summer in college and had to work all day in the gift wrap department without any training on wrapping gifts.

Too bad Neelam didn't rerun this Halloween costume at last night's office party!

Obvioulsy, Neelam developed her poise and professionalism at a very young age.

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin. You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page. (The link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page.)

Some of Neelam's favorites below...

About Us: Jesse a.k.a. eetzee

2009-10-16T14:00:00-05:00

Jesse Hertzberg, a.k.a. eetzee a.k.a. Gonzo, is the Business Development Team at Etsy right now. This means he gets to talk on the phone a lot and make deals. A New York City native son, Jesse brings his enthusiasm and sportsmanship to Etsy's Brooklyn office. He's always got something up his sleeve and knows how to "make it happen."

Fun Facts:

Jesse was a one-time professional soccer player. Christina notes that he's been gearing up for the World Cup in South Africa for forever. He sometimes wears soccer cleats to the office.
He sold Matt and Anda hook, line and sinker on those MBTs fat shoes.
When Anda made him his avatar photo, she emailed it to the wrong address and got a message back from a random girl who wrote, "I think you meant to send this to someone else, but thanks for the hot guy in my inbox."
Neelam says on the outside, he's a hardcore negotiator, but he'll agree to anything for some cupcakes.
He's the one who wrote Pete's name in bubble letters with a heart around it on the chalkboard next to Pete's office.
Liz reminded us that Jesse forgot to get his wife a birthday present, so he baked her some cookies.
Matt claims that Jesse was a theater geek in high school and in college. Matt says he almost got the part of Wayne in The Wonder Years. He does great impressions, especially Ronald Reagan and Crocodile Dundee.
Anda once saw him get kicked out of a bar.
He was allergic to the sun until he was nine.
Colin from Men at Work sang at his bar mitzvah.
His favorite TV shows are Airwolf and 21 Jump Street. Matt says Jesse tried unsuccessfully to make Airwolf his nickname.
His intense crush on Olivia Wilde during the Handmade Moment contest made everyone slightly uncomfortable.
Vanessa suspects that he gets really nervous public speaking even though he claims not to be.
Anda points out that Jesse is in meetings more than any other Admin in the history of Etsy. "If you look at his calendar every day, there will be like a 15 minute open space, during which I think he hangs out over next to Matt trying to get him to go 'shoot hoops' after work with him or something."
His three-year-old daughter Lila is absolutely adorable. Adam thinks those pipe cleaner flowers on his desk were made by her.
Whenever we get a random business coldcaller or email, we send it to Jesse.
Jesse grew up above a pizzeria in Manhattan.
Adam notes that Jesse looooves his labcoat. He sported a bowtie for the Handmade Moment Contest judging.
Matt says he has an idea for a TV show about "an adult Punky Brewster type who works at an Internet start-up."
Christina says that if Jesse were a Simpsons character, he'd be Mr. Bergstrom, Lisa's substitute teacher on whom she had a crush.
Neelam recalls the time Jesse stepped in Dottie's poop and dirtied his converse sneakers.
Neelam says he thought he was so cool by turning his big computer monitor vertical and thought everyone would do the same thing but none of us did.
Jakob and Jesse know each other from plays. They're really tight.
Jesse likes to give hugs.
He has some embarrassing Bowie story about Suffragette City, but I couldn't follow what he was talking about.
As Vanessa was compiling these Fun Facts, Jesse came around and gave everyone homebaked cookies as thank yous for helping him with the Handmade Moment Contest. And then she felt really bad.

It's so weird to see crazy long-haired Jesse! These days, this guy has to get a haircut every other week.

Tiny little old man Jesse puts on his game face. Adorable!

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy Admin (and for us to get to know each other). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some of Jesse's favorites below. Yes, he's a cuff links man...

About Us: Dan a.k.a. McFunley

2009-10-02T14:00:00-05:00

This is a special edition of our About Us series, in which we profile Etsy staff. Today, we're not just getting to know Dan McKinley, a.k.a. McFunley. We're also paying tribute to Dottie, a.k.a. Dottie Matrix, his miniature daschund, in all her speckled glory.

Dan, a mainstay in the prickly pear contingent of Etsy's Admin, has been an engineer since September of 2007. He's got a lot going on in the ol' noggin. You never know when, after a brief moment of simmering silence, Dan will either burst out in a bright, slightly unhinged peel of laughter, or if he'll grumble a snide remark.

Similarly, you never know if Dottie will run over to your desk for an extended snorgle session, complete with belly scratches and frollicking, or if she'll lay a turd in the middle of the floor. Hard to tell what's going on with these two, but we love them! Dan is an excellent engineer and Dottie has become the Etsy mascot.

Dan Fun Facts:

Dan seems to have a deep, personal connection to Hunter S. Thompson, judging by his T-shirt collection.
Amy says she keeps "waiting for the 'dress as your favorite Etsy Admin' day so I can dress as Dan with a Spoon T-shirt, stuffed dog and Haskell book."
Dan once authored an Etsy Finds posts entirely about the Mountain Goats. Anda says he can sing all the lyrics of all their songs.
Nicholas also notes that Dan's favorite programming language is lisp.
Tim describes him as stern but never cross. He adds, "One time he half-smiled in my general direction."
Starpoli claims to make him homicidal every time she cheerily says, "Good morning, Dan!" So she says it a lot.
Gerry says he keeps a book about atheism at hand for bathroom reading.
Starpoli says Dan came up with one of the best names for our conference room naming contest (the theme was mashups of food and rockbands): Soy Division.
Eliz, whose desk was targeted for pooping under, is not a fan of Dottie.

One of the categories of his blog is "angst." From his bio: "I have severe disdain for C++, Java, PHP, and XML, but so far haven’t figured out how to avoid them." Dan's mindset is full of disdain.
Anda recalls that at the Etsy holiday party two years ago, Matt made us all sing Christmas carols and Dan busted out his guitar and sang. A lot.
He says he's in a band, but none of us can confirm that. Eliz points out that he does have 9583290 guitars.
Eliz says he likes to spend his time staying up late formulating arguments for emails, mostly to other engineers.
"Dan hates everything" — Ian, a.k.a. imm.
Sean says Dan is an ISTP personality type. (He hates Myers-Briggs personality tests.)
At Etsy's Fourth Anniversary Party, we all had name tags that said "I make _____". Dan filled in the blank with "eliz angry."
Sean dug up some of Dan's old posts for The Storque (back when we forced all Admin to contribute). "Dan pens baroque Etsy Finds."
Dan, who is the only engineer left on the team who understands The Storque's special Django programming language, won't touch The Storque's code with a ten foot pole.
Kevin adds, "Dan loooooves vim."
Kyle says that Dan was "all about keg stands while in a college frat." (See awkward photo below.)

Dottie Fun Facts

Nicholas points out how she likes to walk around holding her toy in her mouth and whining at people to throw it for her.
Her muzzle can barely mouth a tennis ball's full diameter.
Dottie loves playing hard to get. However, she also loves to have her belly rubbed.
Eliz hates her.
Starpoli loves her, but Dottie plays hard to get. "But then she lets me scratch her belly sometimes, and I feel like I'm the luckiest person ever."
Nicholas notes that Dottie will sit on your lap while you work, especially if you have a snack on your desk.

Dan takes Dottie to work in the wicker basket mounted on the front of his bike...like he's in Wizard of Oz or Elliot from E.T.
Dottie has her own Facebook page.
Alison and Tara love her, and they get down on their hands and knees and let her play in their long hair — hair-scapades!
When Alison dog-sat for Dottie, the little pup was quite high maintenance and needed to be in constant contact. Dottie even needed to sleep in Alison's bed — at the foot, deep under the covers. "It was most 'ENH!'," Alison says.

Dan claimed to not have an awkward photo for this post. Pshhht! Here's one compliments of Eliz, who documented this failed keg stand attempt, recalling Dan's frat boy yesteryear, late night at the Etsy fourth anniversary party.

Dan in more peaceful times (note the early indicators of angst):

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt lately, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy Admin (and for us to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some favorite dachshund related items below...

About Us: Adrian a.k.a. adrian1

2009-09-18T13:00:00-05:00

Adrian, a.k.a. adrian1, has been a steady member of the Support Team since November of 2006, one of the first Admin to be hired. He's always worked part time, and so he is a bit of a mysterious, though charming, figure around the Etsy offices. His fingernails often caked with paint, this artist/Etsy Admin moonlighter always seems absorbed in his work and ready to share his thoughtful take on support issues.

Fun Facts:

Adrian is a painter and a graduate of the New York Studio School's Master's program in fine arts. Matt describes him as an "really good, intense painter." Adam says that at one point, Adrian's studio had no heat, though he carried on painting, bundled in a coat and gloves.
He's also a great musician.
In her previous job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Erin brought Adrian to draw every Monday when the Museum was closed to the public. Once they stayed so late they got in trouble with a guard and were kicked out. Erin adds that Adrian could teach anyone a lot about art.
Adrian used to be the Admin in charge of MATURE content and spent his days looking at these items.
Because he only works part time, he'll sometimes look at you and not quite remember your name. Dan gripes that Adrian only knows one story about Dan and brings it up every time he sees him. (The story involves our former receptionist Jakob smooching Dan in the elevator.)
Jason mentions Adrian's peculiar habit of using Youtube as a radio station.
Claire notes that he was featured in GQ magazine last year in a style shoot where he was "the New York painter."
The Support Team acknowledges that his desk is filthy. From Claire's vantage point, all she can see is 1.5 liter Poland Spring water bottles littering his desk.
Lauren points out that Adrian has always worked part time at Etsy, which is rare, especially considering that he's worked here longer than most Admin.
After inviting himself to Danielle and Jim's wedding (Adrian loves weddings!), he didn't even show up because he was in Italy. (As Danielle put it, "He goes to Italy like it's going out of style." And Italy never goes out of style.)
He came to Etsy through Matt (like many of us). His graduate school friend and fellow painter Erin came along on the interview and that's how she was hired as well.
His mom went to school with Matt and Emily's moms.He's family friends with Jakob.
Adrian comes from an illustrious family — artistically and politically — from D.C. and Cambridge. His father is the head of Brookings Institute.
His grandfather Constantino Nivola was a famous Italian sculptor. Adrian is actually in Sardinia right now overseeing the dedication of a park in honor of him. Adrian was close with him as a child and fondly recalls his grandfather playing country music while he worked.
When he's in Italy, he has 50 cousins who all want to party with him all night long.
Claire overhears him talking on the phone in Italian — and it's pretty much a steady stream of "Bene...Va bene."
His first attempts at drawing maps were "a disgrace," according to Time Magazine.
Adrian once gave ProjectMatt a bottle of lotion and to this day, he has no idea why.
Adrian is a very private person.
Dan adds, "WTF is up with this guy?"
His nephew Sam is totally into Thunder Chicken and dressed as the cartoon for Halloween one year.
ProjectMatt also notes Adrian's longstanding love for cereal.
However, Emily points out that Adrian went to Luciano's Restaurant, one of the few restaurants across the street from the old Etsy office and which he referred to as Lucky Luke's, everyday for lunch — even though it made him sick.
He's like a beautiful Roman statue, but more hirsute.
He loves eating sweets and reciting poetry.
Adrian has a nice, earnest way about him — he's very smart but seems like he always just woke up from a nap.
He always gives an insightful view into a Support situation. Lauren gave him the nickname Mr. Sensitive Ponytail because of his special gift of empathy.

Here's young gentleman Adrian looking like he has his hands full with a teen girlfriend.

What a little doll! He looks like an illustration in a children's book.

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past few years, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us are new, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page. (The link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page.)

About Us: Ian a.k.a. imeyer

2009-08-28T13:30:00-05:00

Ian, a.k.a. imeyer, a.k.a. imm, is our prickly pear on the Engineering Team. He works with servers and such to keep Etsy running smoothly and faithfully.

Fun Facts:

Ian is a great photographer. Here's his website to prove it and his Flickr too.
Apparently, he has bursitis.
Ian is concerned with efficiency. He once used a timer that calculated how much money we were wasting by having an all-engineering meeting every day.
Ahmed claims to have once seen Ian "on a hotel roof after Arlo & Esme on a Friday night with no pants screaming 'I'm a golden god!'" This sighting has not been corroborated.
He loves to go out to the club but refuses to ever dance.
He brought us our office manager, Sarah S., a.k.a. rockstarpoli. They know each other from working at Right Media, which was acquired by Yahoo. "The first day I met him, he was late for work because he went to a sale at Barneys."
Project Matt brought Ian to Etsy. They know each other from the club.
Vanessa thought his handle "imm" was an IRC robot.
Sarah S. says he has the cutest cat named Dexter, of whom he has taken about 10,000 pictures.
Sarah says he's OBSESSED with that Leighton Meester song.
Alison points out that she and Ian are the only Iowans in the Etsy office, though Sarah S. says he pretends he's from Philly.
Adam described his outfit at the Etsy 4th Anniversary party as Don Johnson-esque. Some unfortunate late-night events that occurred on a fire escape were not as smooth as Don Johnson, however.
Ian "eats really slow," according to Ian's boss Mike, who knows nothing else about Ian because he only concentrates on working people to death and sending them to the data center.
His first concert was Joan Jett.
He takes no guff.
Ian is upset that Ian from EtsyHacks got hired. However, Ian from EtsyHacks is upset that we hired an Ian before him.
He likes to bait people in the IRC.
Lauren and Ian got into an argument about his dislike of the Midwest. She accuses him of being scared of boredom and ashamed of his heritage.
When he first appeared in the Etsy office, we thought he was Jared Tarbell, back from the desert and clean-shaven.

Ian claimed to not have an awkward photo from his teen years, so we went for this gem:

And then we found this specimen online with the caption "Man or woman? Nobody knows?"

Here's the young cat-lover:

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy Admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the Admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the Admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some of Ian's favorites below...

The Great Etsy Office Move of 2009

2009-08-19T10:10:00-05:00

Hi! I'm Etsy’s third Sarah (well, technically, only the second with an “h”), and I am Etsy’s new Office Manager. I started in June, and it has been an exciting whirlwind, absorbing as much as I can about Etsy culture and community while also trying to improve the day-to-day workings of Etsy’s offices. I feel very lucky to be part of this family of hardworking and creative people who have welcomed me with open arms!

One of the most exciting projects I’ve been helping with is the Etsy office move. After three memorable years in our wonderfully quirky — though sometimes dysfunctional — office building, Etsy headquarters is moving to new digs on August 22. We will say good-bye to our Brooklyn/Bermuda Triangle location between Fort Greene, DUMBO, and Downtown Brooklyn. We look forward to inviting visitors to meetings without fear of them getting completely lost (which was a frequent occurrence at 325 Gold!).

The new office will be in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn (which stands for “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass” — a sensible acronym, but it still makes me laugh every time I say it). DUMBO is known as an arts-focused neighborhood filled with galleries, restaurants, new media and non-profit organizations. Many of the buildings were once factories or warehouses, but they now are home to a growing community of studios and vibrant web companies. With friendly residents and many independent businesses, DUMBO is an oasis in the midst of the big city. Commuters drinking their morning coffee will be able to spot our bright Etsy orange walls from the Manhattan Bridge.

The new office is designed for greater efficiency, as we will no longer be trying to coordinate ourselves on three separate floors of a building with a temperamental elevator. The new space is all on one floor, with most folks sitting out in an open floor plan. The internet connection will be stable, and we won't be in the middle of a construction site — we've had three 40 floor buildings shoot up just next door to us! In short, it will be a vastly improved work environment.

Soon Etsy Labs will be reopening for Monday Craft Nights and other Virtual Labs events. These gatherings, both in Brooklyn and online via our multi-user chat room, are just one way for us to stay connected to you, and we're looking forward to hosting these in our new office. Stay tuned for posts from julieincharge and daniellexo regarding those events. You can also sign up for the Etsy Labs mailing list. For now, we are co-hosting DIY Thursdays at the Museum of Arts and Design. Please join us for these events — even if you're not in New York, you can participate online.

We are working to make sure that the office reflects our handmade and vintage spirit. We want to make sure we share it with all of you, even from afar, so after we move in, I’ll post stories about the handmade and vintage elements in the office. Our desks, conference tables, kitchen flooring and cabinetry are among the items made and installed by Etsy sellers, and I can't wait to show them in use in our busy office.

Ok, back to packing!

About Us: Mike Becak a.k.a. mikeynice

2009-08-07T13:00:00-05:00

Mike Becak, a.k.a. mikeynice, is our resident email guru on the Etsy Marketing Team. Do you subscribe to the Etsy emails, like Etsy Finds or Etsy Success? Mike is leading the charge to make these emails more compelling and user-friendly.

He's also a total sweetheart and a great guy to have at the Etsy office.

Fun Facts:

Mike is a marathon runner and then some. He ran 50 miles straight this summer, though he claims to hate running. Not surprisingly, the next day he could hardly walk. He wants to do a marathon through the arctic.
He's very sweet to his wife and recently surprised her while they were on vacation by arranging a vow renewal ceremony.
He "thinks better" while sipping red wine and refers to the bottles he whips out at the end of the workday as "his guns."
He's a Mets fan.
None of us are quite sure how to pronounce his last name. Sarah S. says she likes to pronounce it like a rooster. Bee "CAWWWWWWK!"
He likes to wear his lab coat around the office.
Dan announced that Mike has officially unseated Steve as the most "Bro" guy of the Etsy Admin.
Kevin notes that Mike has had the same carton of muscle milk in the fridge for at least three months.
He watched 13 straight hours of the television show Wife Swap.
Nizzi says he does a great impersonation of his mom, whom he evokes during marketing brainstorms while considering her demographic.
He looks good on the phone. Anda suspects that "Mike, Matt and Jesse are all on one conference call with one another all day long — 'You hang up...' 'No YOU hang up first!'"
He's "so money."
Danielle claims that he can be bribed with inflatable dinosaurs.
Neelam says he follows a wide array of celebs on Twitter: P. Diddy, 50 Cent, Britney Spears, and Martha Stewart.
Tara mentioned his fancy sneakers, and Christina notes that he actively works on his quirky t-shirt collection.
Christina says he initiated the Marketing Team's "Quote of the Week" — a real crowd pleaser.
Mike dreams about The Little Mermaid soundtrack, according to Christina, and Nizzi says he knows the entire Les Miserables score by heart.
According to Mike, he can eat more Chicken McNuggets than anyone here.

Mike was a gamer nerd and a Simpsons nerd:

Baby Mikey started off with cake and then moved on to the beer and ciggies:

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy Admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the Admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the Admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some of Mike's favorites below...

About Us: Bernadette a.k.a. bernsweeney

2009-06-26T14:10:00-05:00

Bernadette Sweeney, a.k.a. bernsweeney, heads up Etsy's Support Team. Before starting at Etsy in May 2009, Bernadette worked for companies such as Community Connect Inc. (now Interactive One) and 1-800-Flowers.com. She brings with her a wealth of professional experience and also her warmth and concern for our members. Please join us in officially welcoming Bernadette!

Fun Facts:

Bernadette, KC, Ahmed and Tara share Queens as their hometown.
She's a Mets fan.
Bernadette is a first-generation American. Both her parents are from Ireland, and many of her relatives still live in the Motherland. Lucky for Bernadette, she gets to visit them every other year or so. Unlucky for Bernadette, they get to come visit her, and consequently, she's taken the tourist trolley around Manhattan more times than she can remember and will be taking the Sex and the City tour with her cousins visiting from England this week.
She has kissed the Blarney Stone which is supposed to give you the "gift of gab." She says this could explain why she "can't stop talking."
She adores Bono and is so excited to go see U2 in the fall. Her first concert was Molly Hatchet, but she wishes it had been U2 or Bruce Springsteen or the Police.
After college, Bernadette backpacked for three months in Australia. She blew her life savings and had to move back in with her parents. She still loves to travel and recently went to a wedding in Spain.
Facebook lost some of its cool appeal for Bernadette when her 70-year-old mother joined. But that said, her mom is pretty cool.
"She completed her doctoral research Performing the Body in Irish Theatre" at the University College in Cork, Ireland. Oh. Wait, I think that's a different Bernadette Sweeney.
Tim says she was named after the song "Bernadette" — not The Four Tops one, but the gospel song about St. Bernadette. ("Bernadette!")
She took part in a special task force on internet safety held at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Bernadette is very sporty: She rides her bike, kayaks, and hikes.
She bribed the Support Team with cookies after her first interview at Etsy.

Family photos by the Christmas tree. Classic! Bernadette's mom is an expert knitter and made those cabled Irish fisherman's sweaters!

First Communion Bernadette looks like a little angel. But what is with that guilty look and that imprisoned baby crying for help in the background, hmmmm?

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some favorite shops below...

About Us: Sean a.k.a. sean11

2009-06-12T13:22:00-05:00

Sean works on the Product Team, developing new site features. Right now he's focusing on the shopping experience. As many of his colleagues point out, Sean has an absolute passion for user experience, product management and design. Perhaps even more impressively, he can clearly explain dry computer-y stuff and make it really interesting.

Fun Facts:

He consumes vast quantities of mints.
He's a foodie, but Lauren notes that he doesn't know how to cook.
He didn't like his lab coat photo so we combined it with his avatar photo!
Sean's obsessed with Rhode Island history and hosts RI birthday parties (evidence!). Sean and Vanessa are the two Admin who share Rhode Island roots.
Played for a straight-edge hardcore band and published a straight-edge hardcore fanzine in high school. No longer straight-edge; now really interested in Belgian beer. KC confirms Sean's love for witbiers.
He's a former wannabe graffiti artist and claims to have skateboarded with Shepard Fairey in his youth. Anda comments that he practices graffiti all over his notebooks, though she can't vouch for his skater skillz because she's never seen him skate.
First concert: Verbal Assault (a Newport, RI hardcore band), afternoon matinee, age 13. Sean sang for a hardcore punk band called Non-Conformity in the eighth grade.
His favorite TV series is The Sandbaggers.
He thinks public data should be put to good use.
KC notes that he refuses to use iTunes to listen to his music.
Sean is big into old-time comics and spent formative years in cartooning classes at RISD. He vaguely looks like a Chris Ware character, according to Alison.
He loves books and notebooks (evidence!).
His father has the largest handlebar moustache in Rhode Island and possibly the East Coast.
He's been a vegetarian (or rather pescetarian) since age 13.
His Etsy username is sean11 because 11 is his "life path number" in numerology.
He's seen almost every movie shot in New York City in the 1970s and thinks all the best music was made in that decade.
Jen points out his Nike sneaker fetish. Pete says, "He started wearing Nikes on Fridays and then extended it to other days of the week as he became more 'casual.'"
Before Etsy, he worked for the 92nd Street Y.
He has an endearing habit of rubbing his hands together.
Sean is on a mission to visit and document every island in Narragansett Bay (there are 30).
Lauren found a college class that uses his blog as a reference for how to create good wireframes.
Self-proclaimed Big Nerd!

Sean submitted this as an awkward photo, but we think it's pretty rad:

Sean used to compete in breakdancing competitions in the '80s. Again, pretty rad:

Baby Sean sees his first wireframe:

And one more cute one, for good measure:

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt recently and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some favorite shops below...

About Us: Danielle aka daniellexo

2009-05-22T14:40:00-05:00

Danielle, a.k.a. daniellexo, a.k.a. preciouspups, has worn many different hats during her tenure as an Etsy Admin. This former full-time seller really shines when sharing business tips with sellers. You'll often find her sharing info in the Virtual Labs (she also co-hosts Shop Live!), leading show and tell on Monday Craft Nights, collecting bits for the Etsy Success email list, and organizing with the Teams. She's a wiz when it comes to posting how-tos for sellers, as well as shopping articles, here on Etsy's blog, The Storque.

In addition to her work at Etsy, she also blogs at Fact and Fancy and Gold School.

Best of all, she has an infectious laugh. We love you, Danielle. More than Jim.

Fun Facts:

Danielle was a child model.
She's originally from Las Vegas, but also lived in Canada for a while. She was shocked when we didn't know what a "duotang" was. There's actually some confusion about whether she's an illegal alien or not.
She loves to LOL with her Momz.
She's obsessed with peanut memorabilia.
According to her husband, Jim, "She and Patton Oswalt slept in a walnut and rode around New York in a pea pod."
Julie recalls that Danielle and Jim met through an online comedy nerd club. Jim points out that Danielle met Julie while working at Etsy.
Dan says that Danielle and Jim first met Etsy founder Rob Kalin while buying hot dogs at the Renegade Craft Fair.
Alison points out that Danielle loves her Sidekick.
Everyone loves Rudy, Danielle and Jim's ewok-dog. He's a Brussels Griffon, but Danielle has her eye on a bulldog too. She also wants a pet bunny.
She's barely five feet tall.
She went to metalsmithing school in Toronto, and she's very crafty.
She doesn't have a driver's license.
She has a fiery temper.
"Lucky for her," she was the recipient of baby wipes as a birthday gift from Michelle. She also got a comb.
She has a tattoo of a lotus flower, which she got when she was a yoga instructor. According to Beug, she actually got the tattoo to cover up another tattoo which was the symbol of "WOMAN."
She loves Amy Sedaris so much that she can quote Strangers with Candy at the drop of a hat.
If you need a sugar fix at the Etsy Labs, sneak over to the squirrel nut candy jar on Danielle's desk.
She's obsessed with this Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats." It's even her ringtone, much to Jason's chagrin.
She's a foodie who hates food.
She was a tennis champ in high school.
She was in a riot grrrl band and had pink hair at one point.
Michelle says that Danielle started her shop "preciouspups" thinking she was gonna strike it big with jeweled dog tags!

Grunge phase alert! Danielle's locker opens to reveal her secret obsession with Johnny Depp and Smashing Pumpkins.

Did I mention that Danielle was a child model? So cute!

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy Admin (and since some of us work remotely, for the Admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some favorite shops below...

About Us: Amy aka amydec

2009-05-15T13:40:00-05:00

Amy DeCicco, a.k.a. amydec, joined the Etsy Admin in April of 2009. She comes to us via National Public Radio and brings her expertise as a librarian. Amy will be working on Etsy's taxonomy, specifically the organization of the Etsy Categories and how they relate to tagging.

Fun Facts:

In college, Amy wanted to be a sociologist or anthropologist, but decided academia wasn't for her.
According to her former boss at NPR, "When Amy is upset and disagrees with something, she sends her boss memos so well written, so clear, specific and precise outlining her disagreements that her boss has no choice but agree with her!"
Her first gig at NPR was interning for the music librarian, which has to be one of the best jobs ever. That's where she fell in love with opera. Which brings us to our next Fun Facts...
Her favorite opera singers are Enrico Caruso and Juan Diego Flores.
Her former NPR boss weighed in on the opera theme too, "She has been known to travel to the suburbs to catch the Met Opera simulcast in HD. (On public transportation, of course!)"
She's a good cook and likes to host dinner parties.
Her celebrity look-alike is Brittany Murphy.
She grew up in the Blueberry Capital of the World in South Jersey (Exit 28, Expressway).
Amy dreams of joining a marching band.
From looking at her flickr stream, I got the feeling she's into shoes. This Fun Fact has been verified by her NPR blog post about librarian fashion. She also told me her taxonomy inspiration is Endless.com.
She has worked as a barista, florist, cheese monger, research coordinator, and news librarian. No, she is not a taxidermist.
Her To Do List for the year includes organizing a double-dutch jump rope team and learning to play the xylophone.
She can drink wine seven nights a week with little or no after-effect.
Amy can write backwards in cursive.
She's an example of the reason why you shouldn't get a tattoo in high school. She wouldn't spill the beans until I guessed what it was on the first try! Now I'm sworn to secrecy.
Don't challenge her to a game of dice.
According to other folks on the Product Team, Amy is preparing to blow everyone else in the "messy desk contest" out of the water.
Her first concert was Faith No More and Helmet.

Amy (on the right) gives Tara a run for her big-haired money. I love how the bouffants seem to be casting shadows along the far wall.

Amy got into karaoke before everyone else, way back when blue shag carpet, Mr. Potato Head, and — as Eric put it — "Burt and Ernie shirts" were de rigeur. Amy, "You should be dancin', yeah!"

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some of Amy's favorites below...

About Us: Eric aka objecked

2009-05-08T15:00:00-05:00

Eric Beug, a.k.a. objecked, a.k.a. Beug, works with us here as an Admin for Etsy's blog, The Storque. After interning with our friends over at Make Zine, he moved to our office in March of 2008. Before that he was a graduate student at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he invented amazing musical machines. He is much beloved to us. However, as Adam points out, many of us are still unsure how to pronounce his last name.

Eric is one of those rare and wonderful birds who marries tech-savviness with artistic sensibilities. He programmed the nifty video player you see when we have scheduled site maintenance (known around here as "late night at the Etsy movies"). When something goes haywire with our video equipment or RSS feeds, Eric is the one we turn to. His artistic abilities seem to know no bounds; for instance, he hand-draws the titles for our There's No Place Like Here video series. He really is a renaissance man. He's our video shooter, editor, music composer, drawer, animator, blogger, maker, cute-video finder, snacker, and lover of handmade and vintage. He also has great fashion sense (who else can rock a pair of Google socks, polyester pants and a bolo tie as office attire, or a red velvet suit to a wedding?).

Fun Facts:

When Eric composes original music for the Etsy videos, he wears his headphones, and all we hear is his tappity-tap-tapping out the song on his keyboard. We are always excited to hear the music!
Eric heads up Etsy's involvement in Handmade Music Night with Make Zine and CreateDigitalMusic at 3rdWard. Watch a movie he made about it here.
He is an "honorary girl" on the Storque Team. He's been known to include a virtual *gasp* when writing about cute things.
He knows about computers' brains.
According to Dan, "eric b. has 5% body fat."
He rocks an amazing 'stache, which he strokes thoughtfully, which as Jakob points out, informs our choice of walrus for his spirit animal.
You think he's taking notes in meetings, but he's actually methodically drawing intense patterns. He's in the zone.
His girlfriend Kelly is an improv and sketch comedian who works at Vice. She broke the story of the hipster-grifter.
Eric went to Evergreen College in Washington and learned about all kinds of interesting subjects.
He and Julie have the same sandals (see Alpine photo below).
He's only six degrees of separation away from being bff's with Neko Case.
He quotes Twin Peaks sometimes. Right now he loves Tim & Eric (he has a beaver bounce t-shirt), and he and Project Matt are mutually obsessed with Lost.
He calls Adam by his alter-ego, "Chauv."
Lose the glasses and he looks like 1970s Nick Nolte, but Maria thinks he's a "boyish Walter Cronkite."
Christina notes that he takes free hugs from EVERYONE with a "free hugs" t-shirt.
He geeks out on music technology, according to Jason. And Adam adds that he also has some mean dance moves.
He has a "Butt-freckle"(.etsy.com), about which he and Danielle made a movie.
Matt nicknamed him Hambeuger Helper.

Precocious and awkward videoblogger pops off his raw coverage of George H.W. Bush:

Baby videoblogger, honing his skills:

(And another photo — we couldn't resist! *gasp* We want to Alchemy a grown-man size of this outfit for you, beug!) When not videoblogging, lederhosen baby chillin' in "the Alps":

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt recently, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy Admin (and since some of us work remotely, for the Admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the Admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page. (The link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page.)

Some of Eric's favorite shops below...

About Us: Bryan aka bschwab

2009-04-24T15:25:00-05:00

Meet Bryan Schwab, an Etsy Admin who works on the Engineering Team. Bryan has been with the Etsy engineering team since January of 2008 and focuses mainly on payment system projects. He's based on the West coast, so we don't get to see him face-to-face all that often. We wish we could! His well-tempered voice comes through as insightful and business-minded when we hear him on the daily Engineering Team conference call.

Bryan Fun Facts:

Bryan used to work at eBay.
He speaks German and has a viking beard.
Schwab actually means Q-tip in German.
Bryan is also very tall.
He's a family man, with a wee one (actually not so wee! A 10-pounder!) recently born.
He lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and two young children, though he lived in Manhattan for one year.
He is obsessed with Abe Lincoln.
He recently bought a painting with Boston terriers.
He ran a marathon.
According to Dan, he's really good at shaking exactly two aspirin out of the bottle.
He's an iPhone wiz and has every app known to man or beast, including that one that recognizes music.
His ringtone is Starship's "We built this city."
His first concert was Pearl Jam.
Bryan is a really good guitar player, and you can see awkward youth Bryan jammin' below. We think he looks like the perfect Zep fan.

Yum!

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Some favorite shops below...

About Us: Liz Wald aka muka

2008-12-19T14:06:00-05:00

Bonjour, G'Day, Guten Tag, Hola, Konnichiwa Etsy!

My name is Liz Wald and back in November, Maria mentioned in her post on the Etsy blog that I would be joining Etsy to work on international development. My first day is January 5th and I'm really looking forward to being a part of the team. I just wanted to say a quick hello, wish you all a very happy New Year, and let you know that I'd be reaching out to some of the international Team leaders so they can introduce me to their Etsy worlds.

My Etsy name is "Muka," a nickname I received while working with artisans in Rwanda. It's an abbreviation of a Kinyarwandan word that loosely translates to "a woman who lifts up others." It was generous of them to give me this name because I always felt like the artisans did as much to lift me up as I did them, and I can already tell that the Etsy community is a place where people lift each other up every day. While I'm sure there are far too many international buyers and sellers to get to know you all, please feel free to convo me if you'd like to share some thoughts.

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it. Check out our series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!).

For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

About Us: Jason Seger aka jasonmseger

2008-08-13T12:12:00-05:00

Jason aka jasonmseger works on the Support Team here in Brooklyn, but he drawls his lovely Virginian accent and makes us all hanker for the South. He's patient, thorough and compassionate — qualities that are needed when working in customer support. He often writes hand written notes to members who have had a bad experience on Etsy.

MP4 | Youtube | Blip.tv | Subscribe in iTunes

A video we found on the internet!

Jason Fun Facts:

All of his friends actually call him Jay, but because we already had an admin named Jay, we forced him to be Jason (Jay is actually Jared, but we'd forced him to be Jay because we already had Jared). (It's also said that Jason looks like Christine aka Iheartmoustaches's father, so she calls him "Dad").
Jason is a musician and writes country-folk songs with his girlfriend. You can hear his music on his MySpace page and in his Etsy Shop JSeger.
He loves vintage clothing and can rock high waters with a light rockabilly flair.
He also loves old timey music and the Kinks.
He had a full-ride scholarship to college for his baseball playing skills.
Jason is great at accessorizing and he often wears hats and vests. Perhaps his best known accessory is his penchant for hot, women's sunglasses.
Jason is sort of a luddite, and according to Mary, prefers the original invention to new versions — for example, record players to iPods.
His first Alchemy request was for an exact replica of a vintage pair of pants that he already owns. He actually sent this favorite pair of cords to the seller to measure exactly and make him a new pair.
He is a huge fan of Old Bay Seasoning and will flavor any food with it.

Jason communing with nature:

Mini-Jason (with devil eyes and crazy feet):

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Below you'll find some of Jason's favorites.

About Us: Erin aka ErinHaldrup

2008-07-30T12:00:00-05:00

Erin aka ErinHaldrup works on the Support Team and was one of the first Etsy employees after Matt and Emily joined the founders. She hails from Indiana originally and went to painting school here in New York City.

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As a New Orleans enthusiast, Erin did a number of Storque posts with videos about her trips there post-Katrina, her visits with some Big Easy Etsy sellers, and her time living there before the hurricane.

Erin is very passionate about Etsy. She's a painter herself and spends her free time in the studio, and she's a huge advocate for fine art on Etsy, as Anda pointed out. Her sensitive soul always prompts her to think about customer support issues from the artist's perspective.

Erin Fun Facts:

Erin and Tim were dramatically evicted (along with everyone else in the building) after only having lived in their Bushwick apartment for three days. After that experience, Erin vowed to never rent again and bought an apartment.
She likes tie-dye.
Tim and Erin have been friends since high school.
Erin once dined with her hero, Lou Reed.
She went to the Super Bowl in 2002 to see another one of her heroes, Bono.
During Pet week, Erin brought her budgie birds, Elvis and Priscilla, into the office.
Her favorite painter is Max Beckmann.
She is an amateur ballerina.
As quite the jetsetter, she has been to Japan, England, Italy, and even attended a wedding in India.
Erin got really mad at me (Vanessa) when I added a joke to her cloth maxi pad Etsy Find.
According to Jim, she has possibly the loudest cell phone ring in the office.

As you can see, she was an equestrienne in middle school:

Adorable babe:

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We are posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it. For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Below you will find some of Erin's favorites.

Introducing Maria Thomas

2008-07-22T18:14:00-05:00

UPDATE: Maria Thomas is now Etsy's Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Read more about her role and other additions to the Etsy team in this post from July 2008.

[The following was originally published on April 22, 2008.]

We're super excited to introduce Maria to everyone. She's our new Chief Operating Officer (COO). At the moment she's in the Southern hemisphere, taking a brief break before jumping into Etsy. So in the meantime, here's a video portrait we shot just before she left.

MP4 | Blip.tv | Youtube | Subscribe in iTunes

Find out more about the Etsy admin in our About Us series.

Music by Eric Beug.

Etsy Announcement: New Roles at Etsy Inc.

2008-07-22T15:39:00-05:00

Dear Etsians,

Here are a couple important news items, from Rob and Maria.

From Rob:

I am happy to announce that, with high hopes and expectations, Maria is now Etsy's CEO. My new title at Etsy is Chief Creative Officer (CCO), a nice loose moniker that will allow me to focus on what I'm best at: product work and long-term, big-picture thinking.

I will also be spending time developing Etsy.org, a non-profit organization that will focus on the educational side of how to make a living making things. (Lots more details about this are coming soon. Right now, it's in the planning stages.)

I've been filling many roles since Etsy began, all of them new to me in some way. It's been an incredible and exhausting education, much of it public. Watching Maria, with her experience and expertise, has enabled me to make this decision. I'm excited to get back to what I enjoy most, and maybe even work less than seven days a week for the first time in a long time.

From Maria:

I am thrilled to announce that Chad Dickerson will join Etsy in Brooklyn as Chief Technology Officer September 1, 2008. As Etsy’s CTO, Chad will be the company’s top technology executive and will join Rob, me and the Etsy team in helping to shape Etsy’s strategic direction, development, and future growth. Chad will manage our entire technical organization, including application development, network infrastructure and quality assurance. He will report to me.

In my recent “Long View” article, I spoke about seeking “…a few talented, experienced people to join Etsy and help us more quickly and successfully do things we’ve never done before, while continuing to celebrate Etsy’s creative, quirky and independent culture.” Chad is the first of these few folks. He’s an experienced leader of technical teams and a home brewer!

Chad joins us from Yahoo! where he has spent the last three years leading technical teams in innovative product development. He is currently Senior Director for Yahoo!’s Brickhouse & Advanced Products team, a group outside of Yahoo’s! corporate structure designed to be more nimble and customer-focused. In this role Chad heads up a cross-functional team of engineers, designers, and product managers who incubate and launch Web-based, high availability, consumer-facing products.

Before Yahoo!, Chad was CTO at InfoWorld Media Group / IDG for five years and before that, CTO at Salon.com for three years. In both CTO roles, Chad was the senior executive responsible for technology strategy and execution.

Chad started his Web career as an Internet Developer and Gopher Administrator at "The News & Observer" (http://www.newsobserver.com/) in Raleigh, NC. He is a Tar Heel native, and his parents will be very pleased to have him back on the east Coast.

Read more about Chad at his blog: http://www.chaddickerson.com/
Here is his corresponding announcement.

Welcome, Chad. We're happy to have you.

Here's the forum thread, if you'd like to discuss the news.

About Us: Peter Corrie

2008-06-18T15:20:00-05:00

Pete aka PeteCorrie is an artist (he sells work out of his shop TUBULARIST) and works on the Etsy Labs team: he's kind of our offline admin. He keeps us all sorted and comes up with ways to make the office flow in an environmentally friendly way. Pete is a sort of a tattooed — and very handy — angel of fixing things over here at the Labs.

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We'll be posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Etsy-wide Communications: Summary of April 25, 2008 Community Chatt

2008-05-06T11:32:00-05:00

Hi there Sellers!

Last Friday's Virtual Labs' Community Chatt with Matt, (and marymary, Vanessa, TeenAngster and HeyMichelle) was about ways to get important information out to our sellers. This was a great brainstorming session, and we gathered some ideas that we're very excited about!

Please see the minutes of the Communications Chatt to see what we talked about!

This Week's Chatt (with Rob)
Topic:
Sellers expanding their shops: employees, outsourcing, and how this impacts *handmade*

Some successful sellers are telling us that they need employees to keep expanding their handmade Etsy businesses. Please come to discuss this important topic! Chatt special guest Rob aka Rokali, founder and CEO of Etsy, will be leading this one. Not to be missed!

Agenda:
For those selling handmade goods: Are employees necessary for a seller to "make a living making things"? Are the items still "handmade"?

What sort of hired help is needed for handmade sellers? Is *what* potential employees do for the shop relevant?

Does the number of employees that a business has impact whether the shop belongs on Etsy? If so, how many is too many?

Are different rules necessary for sellers of commercial supplies and vintage goods? Are employees acceptable for these types of shops?

What sort of information do you need (for example, links to information about employment law) to grow a business that includes employees?

Should sellers who are outsourcing, involved in collectives, and employing people be approved by Etsy? What sort of approval process would you be interested in?

About Community Chatt With Matt:
Each week Etsy admin Matt invites you to join us for a live, online discussion of topics of interest to the Etsy community. Our intention is to give buyers and sellers alike the opportunity to speak directly and candidly to Etsy Admin. We listen, take notes, and make sure that everybody who wants to gets a chance to speak. We can always be reached at community@etsy.com with more ideas and suggestions.

You can view minutes from past meetings HERE.

Discuss the Chatt with Rob in this forum thread.

About Us: Jorge

2008-03-20T18:39:00-05:00

UPDATE: Jorge no longer works for Etsy. Keep in touch, Jorge. We love you!

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We are posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

UPDATE: Jorge has his ear pierced 9 times.

Jorge aka jorgelo is one of the kinder/gentler engineers at Etsy. He's a mellow fellow (except for his love of extreme sports! Hint: search "Xterra Rollover" on Youtube.) and has a really adorable dog named Clementine who he sometimes brings to the Etsy Labs. It's also rumored that this tender-hearted guy is a vegan as well as a self-professed "crazy cat lady." (He owns five!) How could you not love this man we know as Jorge?

Since he's one of the engineers who we get to see on a regular basis (he doesn't work from home), this means we get to see his ninja skills in real life! Speaking of ninja skills...Sledding while practicing archery while wearing shorts in the dead of winter??? This man is crazy talented.

Tiny Venezuelan!

See all posts in this About Us series. Here are some of his favorites below...

Introducing a New Series: All about Etsy FAQs

2008-01-10T19:26:00-05:00

Here we are at the beginning of a brand new year, reflecting on the business that Etsy has become and strategizing on where the company will go in 2008. And we know Etsians have been doing the same, so we've been pricking up our ears. There are certain frequently asked questions that often come up when talking with Etsians and reading the forums. We decided to run a new Storque series as a way to communicate our answers to Etsians: All about Etsy FAQs.

These FAQs won't so much walk you through technical how-tos or do double duty for site Help and the site FAQs, though we will be pointing you to that info where appropriate. Rather, this series is meant to give voice to some of the thought processes that admin have gone through and that have informed our planning as we look forward to 2008. Our hope is that being transparent with our processes and the way the company is structured will give you a better sense of the inner workings of Etsy.

Friday January 11
Vanessa: About the Storque
Sara: About the Teams

Monday January 14
Mary: About the Etsy Labs
Emily: About Customer Support

Tuesday January 15
Kelly: About Developing Ideas into Site Features
Annette: QA

Wednesday January 16
Matt: About Etsy Advertising

Thursday January 17
Lauren: About the Etsy Community
Lauren: About Etsy Policy

Monday January 21
Mary, Michelle, Lauren: About the Virtual Labs/Workshop/Chat

Tuesday January 22
Sarah: About the Law

Wednesday January 23
Chris: About Engineering

On another (more personal level), you can also get to know the admin in a fun little series called About Us: Etsy Admin.

About Us: SarahSays, Etsy's Legal Counsel

2007-09-03T19:00:00-05:00

As a child I was always creating things. My supportive parents signed me up for classes at our local art gallery. I remember having visions of glue and glitter in my head as I walked with my mother to the art classroom. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the metalsmithing studio. I caught a glimpse of the torch, the anvils, the saws, and the metal. I knew I had to join this class.

The gallery’s rule was that a student must be at least twelve years old to take a metalsmithing class. And so I waited. I completed classes in ceramics, painting, and drawing, but on breaks, after a visit to the vending machine, I would find myself wondering over to the jewelry studio window wishing that I were older. The moment I turned twelve, I was signed up for my first metals class.

Although I loved jewelry making from the very beginning, I knew that this was not my career path. My passion for art led a curiosity of the legalities of creating art and, to be honest, a slight paranoia concerning my own intellectual property rights. I was intrigued by all things which combined law, art, and helping artistic and entrepreneurial people. To address these interests I decided I would become an attorney. However, my art was too important to me to lay dormant while I completed my legal education. I chose Skidmore College for my undergraduate degree because I could take metalsmithing classes without majoring in studio arts. I chose Syracuse University College of Law for a similar reason.

I believe life presents two types of opportunities: opportunities that are earned, and opportunities that are created. My final year of law school I created an opportunity to combine my passion for art and my passion for law. I wrote a book on intellectual property rights of jewelers as an independent study with my favorite professor. I submitted the book to two publishers; one publisher actually loved my concept.

After I graduated law school and my brain thawed from the dreaded Bar Examination, I entered into negotiations with the publisher. In my eyes, the publisher wanted too much control over my book. And then I had an epiphany: I did not need a publisher to publish a book and help artists.

The book I wrote in law school has transformed into my current book “Copyright for Artists.” This book contains information on U.S. intellectual property protection options and step-by-step U.S. copyright registration instructions. The book is specifically tailored to visual artists—written in plain English—and it contains many examples, frequently asked questions, charts, and links to forms. Much of the book is influenced by Etsy forum threads. I will sell my book in PDF form on Etsy as soon as it is complete.

I also write articles and speak on the topic of intellectual property rights of artists. My most recent article is in August’s Bead&Button Magazine. Click here to read the article.

The purpose of my Storque column is to address intellectual property issues. If there is a topic you want me to address, submit the idea through the Storque. Please understand that I cannot provide legal advice concerning a specific situation. If you need specific advice, consult a licensed attorney in your area. However, I can provide general legal information concerning an issues.

I’m very excited to have this opportunity to combine my passions for law and art and to help the amazing artistic and entrepreneurial community of Etsy.

This information is for educational and informational purposes only. The content should not be construed as legal advice. The author and Etsy, Inc. disclaim all responsibility for any and all losses, damages, or causes of action that may arise or be connected with the use of these materials. Please consult a licensed attorney in your area with specific legal questions or concerns.

Etsy Alumni: Charles aka winenutnyc

2007-05-28T16:10:00-05:00

UPDATE: Charles has moved on from Etsy, but we know his heart remains with us. We miss you, Charles! Thank you for being there in the early days.

MP4 | Youtube | Blip.tv | iTunes

Charles Smith aka winenutnyc works on the Business Operations Team here at Etsy. Charles arrives early to work with a spring in his step. He's business savvy and passionate about Etsy, providing us with stats, strategic planning advice, pay checks (Mmmm, paychecks). Sellers, look for his monthly Statistics posts on the Storque; you're gonna love it. He's also father to two of the cutest little kids in Brooklyn and Twitters the funny things they say.

Charles Fun Facts:

He's a wine connoisseur.
He has solar panels on his green roof.
He used to work at a TV news station (his family is in the news business) and thus he's a pro in front of a camera.
He is a crazy good poker player and he won $650 in one hand of Black Jack in Las Vegas recently.
We videotaped him singing a mean "My Sharona" while playing Rock Band, but we won't post it and embarrass him.
He used to work for Macy's.
Matt says Charles beat Malcom Gladwell at chess.
If you hit him over the head with a mallet he turns into 100 tiny leprechauns (according to Jim).

Apparently, he's no longer on friendly terms with his prom date:

It's so funny how he has the same expressions, even as a grown-up:

You can read more articles by Charles here. Below are some of his favorites...

Etsy Alumni: Paul aka pasilveira

2006-08-06T11:39:00-05:00

UPDATE: Farewell, Paul! We will miss you and we wish you the best with your new job.

Paul aka pasilveira is on the Engineering Team where he works on System Operations. The Sys Ops engineers work with the databases and the servers — the framework on which all of us rely. He is very vocal and passionate about keeping Etsy up and running — and has even been known to go head to head with Etsy founder and engineer Haim, a very intimidating debater, about the best Sys Ops methods.

Notice how Etsy hasn't been crashing at all lately? Paul is one member of the team that keeps Etsy operating as smoothly as possible. He's also working hard with Haim, Dusten, Ian, CB, George, and Joe P to move our servers to a new — more optimized — space. These guys don't get enough credit ... because if they're doing their jobs well, you don't notice what they're doing!

MP4 | Youtube | Blip.tv | Subscribe in iTunes

Paul Fun Facts:

Paul is from the town next to where Vanessa grew up in Southern Massachusetts.
Despite living in North Carolina for many years, he has a detectable New England accent (which is how Vanessa identified him as a "Masshole.")
He moved to North Carolina because the weather is so awful in New England.
Bob pointed out he uses ellipses ALL of the time!
He plays hockey.
He's a Red Sox fan.
According to Joe P., he likes to use "deltas" to describe standard deviations in a graph.
His management style is closest to Scrum.
He is very susceptible to Etsy Office Plague.
He loves his coffee from Dunkin Donuts and he's certain the secret to the DD is a constant 200 degrees.
He has a daughter, twin boys and another baby on the way.
Paul is of Portuguese descent and we think he can speak Portuguese though we need Beth aka bethela to confirm that.

Thank you, Paul, for digging this baby picture out of your parents' closet. Very, very cute.

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We've been posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

Below you'll find some of Paul's favorites and also some special sellers from North Carolina.