Next on the Web 2.0 keynote speaker list was Maria Thomas of www.etsy.com with her talk The DIY Guide to Growing a Company.

If never heard of Etsy before – Your place to buy & sell all things handmade, interesting site. Most companies start small, and stay small. Only 0.1 of 1% grow to any size (e.g. > $250 Million) Esty, this year has 100M in revenue, Amazon is about $2 billion.

The opening lines included the message “Don’t loose the essence of who you are, and what you want to achieve.” and the term Filotimo.

Filotimo (Greek)

• Operating with integrity
• a clarity of purpose
• a sense of social responsibility

It was an interesting point about qualifications “I got my Internet Degree at Amazon.com, then building digital media business at NPR – National Public Radio.”

Some more quotes from this discussion.

• Listen to end user, but be clear about when you want to go.
• Set you goals, communicate them, measure them.
• Practice Filimato – Keep it human.
• Go behind the resume, talk to people, be direct, be honest. Believe in employees.
• Understand that small decisions and impact bigger decisions.
• Just because your a DIY company doesn’t mean you have build everything.
• Get products out the door, get them out fast.
• It takes an effort of will, and a very good process to do this well.
• The perfect is enemy of good enough.
• Launch products off at platform and build more quickly.
• The marketplace has social, it’s personal, it’s playful.
• Visits to etsy become habit forming, it makes connections to real people with unique products.