{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fa16z.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fhow-whatnot-built-a-global-marketplace-DoonwHjN","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"How Whatnot Built a Global Marketplace","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/0d97354a-306b-45f5-bf26-a8d81eef47ec/ed2664df-9371-438e-8baf-dd2ee0fdde87/thea16zshow-podcastcoverart-3000x3000.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"<iframe src=\"https://player.simplecast.com/c41c8a47-7d80-4f00-88b2-37e4a98c04c1\" height=\"200\" width=\"100%\" title=\"How Whatnot Built a Global Marketplace\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"></iframe>","height":200,"description":"a16z General Partner David George is joined by Grant LaFontaine, co-founder of Whatnot, to unpack how a marketplace that started with collectibles evolved into one of the world's leading live shopping platforms.\nGrant traces the company's origins from selling Pokémon cards online as a kid to discovering live commerce by watching Whatnot's earliest customers hack together sales on social media. They discuss why Whatnot thinks less like a traditional e-commerce marketplace and more like a digital shopping mall, where discovery, entertainment, community, and commerce all happen at once. Today, users spend roughly 95 minutes a day on the platform, and most aren't even buying something on a given day.\nThey also explore how Whatnot is enabling small businesses to reach global audiences, expanding from collectibles into categories like fashion, food, and golf, and using AI to make sellers more efficient without replacing the human connection at the center of the experience.\n"}