About Whatnot
Whatnot was founded in 2019 by Grant LaFontaine and Logan Head, entering the "live shopping" category, a format that combines elements of traditional home shopping television with live-streamed video and real-time e-commerce transactions, a shopping format that had achieved enormous popularity in China through platforms like Taobao Live before Whatnot and other companies sought to build a comparable live shopping category within the U.S. and broader Western markets, where live shopping had historically achieved much more limited traction and cultural adoption relative to its dominant position in Chinese e-commerce.
Whatnot's platform lets sellers, ranging from individual collectors and hobbyist resellers to more established small businesses, host live video streams showing off products for sale, including collectibles such as trading cards and toys, sneakers, fashion items, and various other product categories, with viewers able to bid on items presented in a live auction format or purchase items at a fixed price directly during the livestream, creating an interactive, entertainment-oriented shopping experience that blends live video content, community interaction between the seller and viewers, and real-time e-commerce transactions within a single format, differentiating from more traditional static e-commerce listings that lack this live, interactive, and entertainment-oriented shopping experience. The company built particularly strong early traction within specific collectible categories, especially trading cards and other collectibles, where the live auction format and real-time community interaction among collectors watching a livestream has proven particularly engaging, before expanding into a much broader range of product categories beyond its original collectibles-focused niche. Whatnot has implemented seller-verification and authentication processes to its live commerce format, including seller verification and authentication processes relevant to higher-value collectibles categories where counterfeiting and item authenticity concerns are significant. The company's customers span both sellers seeking to reach engaged buyer audiences through live-streamed sales, and buyers seeking the interactive, community-oriented shopping experience live commerce provides. Whatnot has raised very substantial venture funding from investors including Y Combinator, CapitalG, and Andreessen Horowitz, positioning itself as a live shopping platform in the U.S. market.
