The key idea of the video is that Whatnot, a live stream shopping platform, successfully launched their first product with a unique approach to customer feedback and engagement, resulting in significant business growth and highlighting the potential of live commerce in collectibles.

• 👀
  00:00

  Anu Hariharan interviews Grant LaFontaine, co-founder and CEO of Whatnot, a live stream shopping platform and marketplace, about their first product launch and how they went about it.
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  00:51

  Whatnot launched a successful website for buying authenticated Funko Pops using a pricing algorithm and proving their hypothesis that there were no great alternatives to buy from.

  • The speaker's first launch was a website for buying authenticated Funko pops with fake listings, using a pricing formula to purchase items off eBay and authenticate them before sending them to customers.
  • Whatnot chose Funko Pops as their collectibles category due to its large market size and used a pricing algorithm to show tens of thousands of listings.
  • The founders launched their service with the hypothesis that there were no great alternatives to buy from and were able to prove it successful despite the uncertainty in the early days.
• 💻
  03:36

  The company launched their website, struggled with customer acquisition costs, and iterated quickly to improve their product, while also developing a mobile app with a referral feature to drive efficient acquisition through word of mouth.

  • The company launched their website, advertised on Facebook, struggled with customer acquisition costs, iterated quickly to find different channels and improve their product, and received feedback within six weeks.
  • The second launch of the company was the development of a mobile app with a feature called "the drop" which incentivized users to share referral codes and content assets to drive efficient acquisition through word of mouth.
• 📱
  05:42

  💸 The app gained popularity with its drop feature and raffle tickets, while the founder collaborated with Funko Pop influencers to build trust and audience.

  • The mobile app's drop feature and raffle tickets gained momentum with increasing user participation in weekly drops after the second launch.
  • The app struggled to gain trust from users, so the founder convinced Funko Pop influencers to work with them to build trust and audience.
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  07:18

  The company started building a strong buyer base and then focused on building the sell side to increase sales for sellers.
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  08:15

  Whatnot's cross-listening tool helped sellers increase sales on both Whatnot and eBay, leveraging their community's trust and launching a live shopping feature for their fifth inflection point.

  • Whatnot built a cross-listening tool that allowed sellers to list their inventory on both Whatnot and eBay, resulting in increased sales and an inflection point for the business.
  • Early sellers on Whatnot were attracted by the positive buying experience and reputation on eBay, leading to a successful start for the platform.
  • Whatnot leveraged its strength and trust in the community to help newer sellers grow their sales on eBay, and their fifth inflection point was the launch of their live shopping feature.
• 🚀
  11:00

  Whatnot founders developed a live shopping feature to enhance their marketplace, with a focus on seamless product shipping demonstrated through their Bare Bones MVP launch.

  • The founders of Whatnot saw an opportunity to create a more engaging and integrated live video product for collectors and enthusiasts on their marketplace, leading to the development of their live shopping feature.
  • The focus is on shipping the product to consumers without any obstacles, as demonstrated by the Bare Bones MVP launch where the co-founder had to manually enter products through the command line.
• 💰
  12:35

  The speaker sold out $5000 worth of Funko Pops in a live commerce event, leading to a 120% growth in the business and a realization of the power of this new format in the Collectibles category.