Whatnot cofounder coded for 16 hours a day to launch $11.5 billion platform

@fortune

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Selling · SaaS › Other SaaS

Whatnot

https://sprout.link/fortunemag ↗

Why it worked

The video likely performed well because it tells a compelling origin story of a successful startup, highlighting the hard work and innovative approach of the founders. The use of a relatable product like Funko Pops and the demonstration of the platform's core features in action also contribute to its appeal.

Summary

The co-founder of Whatnot shares how he and his team launched the platform by initially selling Funko Pops. They tested both 'buy it now' and auction features, sending out emails to their community to drive initial sales and engagement.

Structure

1Coding marathon to launch platform
2Testing with Funko Pops
3Implementing 'buy it now' and auction features
4Community outreach and live launch
5Successful initial sales and reflection on the process

Product placement

The video discusses the launch of the Whatnot platform, which is a live shopping platform. The co-founder explains how they used Funko Pops as the initial products to test the platform's features, specifically the 'buy it now' and auction functionalities.

Original caption

Whatnot cofounders sold hundreds of Funko Pops within the first hours of launching. Now the live shopping platform is valuated at $11.5 billion. #Whatnot #FunkoPop #business #startup #success

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On-screen text

FOR COURTESY OF WHATNOT A 4.9 Will the Wise Mina Bobina farru94 2 questions. Until what time you going to be live, and do you have more Starwars? joe_cal @mrph7 good grab chris My hero academia? We got to test this. ASSORTED FUNKO POP #371 $70 Starting price Custom Bid: $70 FOR FOR

Transcript

He was coding. 16 hours a day, six days a week. And so he came out and he's like, Grant Lafontaine, Cofounder & CEO, Whatnot. All right, I'm done. All right, I'm done. We got to test this. And he was just really nervous it wasn't going to work. And then we grabbed all the Funko Pops we had in the house. How many Funko Pops did you have? You gathered hundreds of Funko Pops at this house in Phoenix. So we gathered them all up and at that point in time, we had a "buy it now" product feature and an auction product feature. We didn't know which one people like more. So we're like, we'll put half of them in "buy it now." and half of them for auctions. We sent an email to a few people in the community and then put the live, live. Went in front of the camera. All right, here's what I got everyone. This is the live experience. We're just I'm going to run this show. Here's all the stuff we have. Let's see what happens. So what happened? We sold every Funko Pop 2.5 hours in, just tired. It was like 11:00 at night. That would have been more Funko Pops been able to sell on eBay in a year. And so you're like, I have here, we might have made special.