The folks at Etsy don’t really need an introduction. If you haven’t heard of Etsy by now, you have definitely been living under a rock. CCE’s organizers have been Etsy members since 2005, Etsy’s very first year in business. One of us even teaches Etsy 101 classes in San Francisco (okay, I confess, it’s me).  Etsy is perhaps the single fastest and easiest way to start your business (for free!) and it’s incredibly useful for finding press and wholesale clients as well.

Okay, but we all know this stuff, right?  Well, here are a few inspirational things about Etsy you might not know:

• Solopreneurs rejoice! Etsy was conceived of by just one guy, a painter, carpenter, and photographer named Rob Kalin, who built the site with two friends, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik.  You too could create the next Etsy!
• In their first year of business, Etsy processed $166,000 in sales.  Four years later those numbers grew by more than 100,000% (holy what??) to over $180 million!
• It only took three months to bring Etsy to life, from conception to site launch.  Teachers and students: that’s only one summer vacation!

If you’re ready to begin selling your work on the web, be sure you don’t miss our Sunday session: “Selling Your Work Online” with Danielle Maveal, Etsy’s Education Coordinator.