AI Summary
5 min readGrant LaFontaine, co-founder of Whatnot, sold a holographic Pokémon card for $10 in elementary school. The buyer mailed a money order, which LaFontaine cashed at the post office before shipping the card. That transaction, he says on the a16z Show, is the “true origin story” of Whatnot—a marketplace that now sees users spend roughly 95 minutes per day on its platform. LaFontaine and co-founder Logan Head didn’t set out to build a live-commerce giant. They built an authenticated Funko Pop marketplace in late 2019, only stumbling into live shopping after watching their own users hack together sales on social video. Whatnot has since expanded into more than 100 categories, processing over $8 billion in sales in the past year alone.
The Accidental Discovery of Live Commerce
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Origin Story: From Pokémon Cards to Whatnot** - Grant recounts selling a holographic Pokémon card on eBay as a child, mailing a money order, which he calls the "true origin story" of Whatnot.
- 2 (04:29) **The Real Founding Moment: A Tokyo Bar and a Bunch of Domains** - Grant explains how he and co-founder Logan drunkenly bought 30-40 domain names in Tokyo in January 2019, but nothing happened for months until October 2019.
- 3 (06:36) **How "Whatnot" Was Named for Half a Bitcoin** - Grant shares the hilarious story of naming the company, from the first terrible domain "alwayslegit.com" to buying "whatnot.com" for half a Bitcoin ($5,000).
- 4 (09:46) **Ignorance as an Asset: Not Knowing the Market** - Grant explains that their lack of knowledge about the massive live commerce market in Asia was an advantage, allowing them to focus on user experience over market-building.
- 5 (12:49) **The "Shopping Mall" Experience vs. Intent-Based E-commerce** - Grant compares Whatnot to visiting a retail store or mall, where discovery and entertainment are paramount, unlike traditional e-commerce which requires knowing exactly what you want.
- 6 (15:06) **The Market Opportunity: Closing the Gap with Asia** - Discussion of the massive gap between live commerce in Asia (30-40% of all commerce) and the US (single digits), and why Grant believes this gap will inevitably close.
- 7 (19:55) **The Underrated Supply Side: Empowering Small Businesses** - Grant emphasizes that Whatnot's most exciting dynamic is enabling small businesses, from one-person operations to those doing over $100M in revenue.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
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.
Grant 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.
They 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.
Resources:
Follow Grant LaFontaine on X: https://x.com/GrantLaFontaine
Follow David George on X: https://x.com/DavidGeorge83
Follow Whatnot on X: https://x.com/whatnot
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