Risk Factors

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. Before deciding whether to purchase shares of our common stock, you should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, our consolidated financial statements and related notes and all of the other information in this prospectus. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected. As a result, the price of our common stock could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We have a history of operating losses and we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.

We incurred net losses of $15.2 million, $0.8 million and $2.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively. As of December 31, 2014, we had an accumulated deficit of $32.4 million. We may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future. We expect that our operating expenses will increase substantially as we hire additional employees, increase our marketing efforts, expand our operations and continue to invest in the development of our platform, including new services and features for our members. These efforts may be more costly than we expect and our revenue may not increase sufficiently to offset these additional expenses. In addition, as a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. Further, our revenue growth may slow or our revenue may decline for a number of reasons, including those described in these Risk Factors.

Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate, which could cause our stock price to decline.

Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate for a variety of reasons, many of which are beyond our control. These reasons include those described in these Risk Factors as well as the following:

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Fluctuations in our quarterly operating results may cause those results to fall below the expectations of analysts or investors, which could cause the price of our common stock to decline. Fluctuations in our results could also cause a number of other problems. For example, analysts or investors might change their models for valuing our common stock, we could experience short-term liquidity issues, our ability to retain or attract key personnel may diminish and other unanticipated issues may arise.

In addition, we believe that our quarterly operating results may vary in the future and that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. For example, our historical growth may have overshadowed the seasonal effects on our historical operating results. These seasonal effects may become more pronounced over time, which could also cause our operating results to fluctuate. You should not rely on the results of one quarter as an indication of future performance.

Adherence to our values and our focus on long-term sustainability may negatively influence our short- or medium-term financial performance.

Our values are integral to everything we do, and accordingly, we intend to focus on the long-term sustainability of our business and our ecosystem. We may take actions that we believe will benefit our business and our ecosystem and, therefore, our stockholders over a period of time, even if those actions do not maximize short- or medium-term financial results. However, these longer-term benefits may not materialize within the timeframe we expect or at all. For example:

The authenticity of our marketplace and the connections within our community are important to our success. If we are unable to maintain them, our ability to retain existing members and attract new members could suffer.

We have built an authentic, trusted marketplace that embodies our values-based culture, emphasizing respect, direct communication and fun. We have developed a reputation for authenticity as a result of Etsy sellers’ unique offerings and their adherence to our policies for handmade goods. We establish trust in our marketplace by emphasizing the person behind every transaction. We deepen connections among our members through our direct communication tools, seller stories on our website and our in-person events, making a personal relationship central to the member experience. As part of our community, we also strive to build meaningful connections with our members. For example, each of our employees, including

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management, is expected to perform member support rotations to help foster connections among our community and to help us better understand the needs of our members. The authenticity of our marketplace and the connections among our members are the cornerstones of our business. Many things could undermine these cornerstones, such as:

If we are unable to maintain the authenticity of our marketplace and encourage connections among members of our community, then our ability to retain existing members and attract new members could be impaired and our reputation and business could be adversely affected.

We are a Certified B Corporation. The term “Certified B Corporation” does not refer to a particular form of legal entity, but instead refers to companies that are certified by B Lab, an independent nonprofit organization, as meeting rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. B Lab sets the standards for Certified B Corporation certification and may change those standards over time. Our reputation could be harmed if we lose our status as a Certified B Corporation, whether by our choice or by our failure to meet B Lab’s certification requirements, if that change in status were to create a perception that we are more focused on financial performance and are no longer as committed to the values shared by Certified B Corporations. Likewise, our reputation could be harmed if our publicly reported B Corporation score declines, if that created a perception that we have slipped in our satisfaction of the Certified B Corporation standards.

Our growth depends on our ability to attract and retain an active community of Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers.

In order to increase revenue and to achieve and maintain profitability, we must attract new members and retain existing members. We must also encourage Etsy sellers to list items for sale and use our Seller Services and encourage Etsy buyers to purchase items in our marketplace.

We believe that many of our new members find Etsy by word of mouth and other non-paid referrals from existing members. If existing Etsy sellers are dissatisfied with their experience on our platform, they may stop listing items in our marketplace and may stop referring others to us. Likewise, if existing Etsy buyers

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do not find our platform appealing, whether because of a negative experience, lack of buyer-friendly features, declining interest in the nature of the goods offered by Etsy sellers or other factors, they may make fewer purchases and they may stop referring others to us. Under these circumstances, we may have difficulty attracting new Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers without incurring additional marketing expense.

Even if we are able to attract new members to replace members we lose, they may not maintain the same level of activity and the revenue generated from new members may not be as high as the revenue generated from the lost members. If we are unable to retain existing members and attract new members who contribute to an active community, our growth prospects would be harmed and our business could be adversely affected.

Further expansion into markets outside of the United States is important to the growth of our business but will subject us to risks associated with operations abroad.

Expanding our community into markets outside of the United States is an important part of our strategy. Although we have a significant number of members outside of the United States, we have limited experience in developing local markets outside the United States. The nature of the goods that Etsy sellers list in our marketplace may not appeal to non-U.S. consumers in the same way as they do to consumers in the United States. Also, visits to our marketplace from Etsy buyers outside the United States may not convert into sales as often as visits from within the United States, including due to the impact of the strong U.S. dollar relative to other currencies. Our success in markets outside the United States will be linked to our ability to attract local Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers to our platform. If we are not able to do so, our growth prospects could be harmed.

In addition, competition is likely to intensify in the international markets where we operate and plan to expand our operations. Local companies based in markets outside the United States may have a substantial competitive advantage because of their greater understanding of, and focus on, those local markets. Some of our competitors may also be able to develop and grow in international markets more quickly than we will.

Continued expansion in markets outside of the United States will also require significant financial investment. These investments include marketing to attract and retain new members, developing localized services, forming relationships with third-party service providers, supporting operations in multiple countries and potentially acquiring companies based outside the United States and integrating those companies with our operations.

Doing business in markets outside of the United States also subjects us to increased risks and burdens such as:

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Etsy sellers face similar risks in conducting their businesses across borders. Even if we are successful in managing the risks of conducting our business across borders, if Etsy sellers are not, our business could be adversely affected.

Finally, operating in markets outside of the United States requires significant management attention. If we invest substantial time and resources to expand our operations outside of the United States and cannot manage these risks effectively, the costs of doing business in those markets may be prohibitive or our expenses may increase disproportionately to the revenue generated in those markets.

We expect to increase our marketing efforts to help grow our business, but those efforts may not be effective at attracting new members and retaining existing members.

Maintaining and promoting awareness of our marketplace and broader platform is important to our ability to retain existing members and to attract new members. We believe that much of the growth in our member base to date has originated from word-of-mouth referrals and other organic means, as our historical marketing efforts and expenditures have been relatively limited. Going forward, we intend to invest more in marketing, with a particular focus on bringing more Etsy buyers to our platform. We anticipate that our marketing initiatives may become increasingly expensive as competition increases, and generating a meaningful return on those initiatives may be difficult. Also, the marketing efforts we implement in the future may not succeed as we have limited marketing experience. Even if we successfully increase revenue as a result of these efforts, that additional revenue may not offset the expenses we incur.

Our marketing efforts currently include search engine marketing and display advertising, as well as search engine optimization, social media usage, mobile “push” notifications and email. We obtain a significant number of visits via search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo!. Search engines frequently change the algorithms that determine the ranking and display of results of a user’s search, and those changes can negatively affect the placement of links to our marketplace and, therefore, reduce the number of visits to

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our marketplace. We also obtain a significant number of visits through email advertising. If we are unable to successfully deliver emails to our members or if members do not open our emails, whether out of choice, because those emails are marked as low priority or spam or for other reasons, our business could be adversely affected. Social networking websites, such as Facebook and Pinterest, are another important source of visits to our marketplace. As online commerce and social networking continue to evolve, we must maintain a presence within these networks. We may be unable to develop or maintain such a presence.

Our payments system depends on third-party providers and is subject to evolving laws and regulations.

Etsy buyers can pay for purchases using Direct Checkout or PayPal. In the United States and other countries where Direct Checkout is available, Etsy buyers can pay with credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers and Etsy gift cards on our platform rather than being directed to a third-party payment platform. A significant portion of our GMS is processed through Direct Checkout, and a portion of our revenue is derived from Direct Checkout.

We have engaged third-party service providers to perform underlying card processing, currency exchange, identity verification and fraud analysis services. If these service providers do not perform adequately or if our relationships with these service providers were to terminate, Etsy sellers’ ability to accept orders could be adversely affected and our business would be harmed. In addition, if these providers increase the fees they charge us, our operating expenses could increase. Alternatively, if we respond by increasing the fees we charge to Etsy sellers, some Etsy sellers may stop using Direct Checkout, stop listing new items for sale or even close their accounts altogether.

The laws and regulations related to payments are complex and vary across different jurisdictions in the United States and globally. As a result, we are required to spend significant time and effort to comply with those laws and regulations. Any failure or claim of our failure to comply, or any failure by our third-party service providers to comply, could cost us substantial resources, could result in liabilities, or could force us to stop offering Direct Checkout. As we expand the availability of Direct Checkout or offer new payment methods to our members in the future, we may become subject to additional regulations and compliance requirements.

Further, through our agreement with our third-party credit card processor, we are indirectly subject to payment card association operating rules and certification requirements, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. We are also subject to rules governing electronic funds transfers. Any change in these rules and requirements could make it difficult or impossible for us to comply.

Our ability to expand our ecosystem is important to the growth of our business.

We spend substantial time and resources creating new offerings in order to add new constituents to our ecosystem and to open new sales channels for Etsy sellers. For example, in October 2013, we expanded our ecosystem by allowing Etsy sellers to work with small-batch manufacturers. Additionally, in August 2014, we added traditional retailers to our ecosystem with the launch of our Wholesale offering, which allows Etsy sellers to sell their products to retailers on our platform.

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Our efforts to expand our ecosystem could fail for many reasons, including lack of acceptance of our offerings by existing members or new constituents, our failure to market our offerings effectively to new constituents, defects or errors in our new offerings or negative publicity about us or our new offerings. Diversifying our offerings and expanding our ecosystem to benefit our community involves significant risk. For example, these initiatives may not drive increases in revenue, may require substantial investment and planning and may bring us more directly into competition with companies that are better established or have greater resources than we do. It will require additional investment of time and resources in the development and training of our personnel and our members. If we are unable to cost-effectively expand our ecosystem, then our growth prospects and competitive position may be harmed.

We must develop new offerings to respond to our members’ changing needs.

Our industry is characterized by rapidly changing technology, new service and product introductions and changing customer demands. We spend substantial time and resources understanding our members’ needs and responding to them. For example, we are continually developing additional Seller Services, improving search and discovery functionality and enhancing the member experience. Recently, we have focused on providing additional Seller Services and tools to help Etsy sellers manage and scale their businesses. For example, in August 2014, we launched our Wholesale offering. In addition, we developed a mobile app and expanded Direct Checkout to enable an Etsy seller in the United States to use our “Sell on Etsy Reader” to accept credit card and debit card payments in person, such as at her store or her booth at a craft fair.

Our members may not be satisfied with our new offerings or perceive that the new offerings respond to their needs. Developing new offerings is complex, and the timetable for commercial release is difficult to predict and may vary from our historical experience. As a result, the introduction of new offerings may occur after anticipated or announced release dates. Our new offerings also may bring us more directly into competition with companies that are better established or have greater resources than we do.

If we do not continue to cost-effectively develop new offerings that satisfy our members, then our competitive position and growth prospects may be harmed. In addition, new offerings may have lower margins than existing offerings and our revenue may not grow enough as a result of the new offerings to offset the cost of developing them.

If the mobile solutions available to Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers are not effective, the use of our platform could decline.

Visits and purchases made on mobile devices by consumers, including Etsy buyers, have increased significantly in recent years. The smaller screen size and reduced functionality associated with some mobile devices may make the use of our platform more difficult or less appealing to members. Visits to our marketplace on mobile devices may not convert into purchases as often as visits made through personal computers, which could result in less revenue for us. Etsy sellers are also increasingly using mobile devices to operate their businesses on our platform. If we are not able to deliver a rewarding experience on mobile devices, Etsy sellers’ ability to manage and grow their businesses may be harmed and, consequently, our

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business may suffer. Further, although we strive to provide engaging mobile experiences for both Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers who visit our mobile website using a browser on their mobile device, we depend on Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers downloading our mobile apps to provide them the optimal mobile experience.

As new mobile devices and mobile platforms are released, we may encounter problems in developing or supporting apps for them. In addition, supporting new devices and mobile device operating systems may require substantial time and resources.

The success of our mobile apps could also be harmed by factors outside our control, such as:

If our members encounter difficulty accessing or using our platform on their mobile devices, or if our members choose not to use our platform on their mobile devices, our growth prospects and our business may be adversely affected.

We face intense competition and may not be able to compete effectively.

Our industry is highly competitive and we expect competition to increase in the future. To be successful, we need to attract and retain both Etsy sellers and Etsy buyers. As a result, we face competition from a wide range of online and offline competitors. See “Business—Competition.”

We compete with retailers for Etsy sellers. An Etsy seller can list her goods for sale with online retailers, such as Amazon.com, eBay or Alibaba, or sell her goods through local consignment and vintage stores and other venues or marketplaces. She may also sell wholesale directly to traditional retailers, including large national retailers, who discover her goods in our marketplace or otherwise. We also compete with companies that sell software and services to small businesses, enabling an Etsy seller to sell from her own website or otherwise run her business independently of our platform, such as Square, Intuit and Shopify.

We compete to attract, engage and retain Etsy sellers based on many factors, including:

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In addition, we compete with retailers for the attention of the Etsy buyer. An Etsy buyer has the choice of shopping with any online or offline retailer, whether large marketplaces, such as Amazon.com, eBay or Alibaba, or national retail chains, such as Pottery Barn or Target, or local consignment and vintage stores or other venues or marketplaces. Many of these competitors offer low-cost or free shipping, fast shipping times, favorable return policies and other features that may be difficult or impossible for Etsy sellers to match.

We compete to attract, engage and retain Etsy buyers based on many factors, including:

Many of our competitors and potential competitors have longer operating histories, greater resources, better name recognition or more customers than we do. They may invest more to develop and promote their services than we do, and they may offer lower fees to sellers than we do. Additionally, we believe that it is relatively easy for new businesses to create online commerce offerings or tools or services that enable entrepreneurship.

Local companies or more established companies based in markets where we operate outside of the United States may also have a better understanding of local customs, providing them a competitive advantage. For example, in certain markets outside the United States, we compete with smaller, but similar, local online marketplaces with a focus on unique goods that are attempting to attract sellers and buyers in those markets.

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If we are unable to compete successfully, or if competing successfully requires us to expend significant resources in response to our competitors’ actions, our business could be adversely affected.

We may expand our business through acquisitions of other businesses, which may divert management’s attention and/or prove to be unsuccessful.

We have acquired a number of other businesses in the past and may acquire additional businesses or technologies in the future. For example, in April 2014 we acquired Jarvis Labs, Inc. (d/b/a Grand St.) and in June 2014 we acquired Incubart SAS (d/b/a A Little Market). Acquisitions may divert management’s time and focus from operating our business. Acquisitions also may require us to spend a substantial portion of our available cash, incur debt or other liabilities, amortize expenses related to intangible assets or incur write-offs of goodwill or other assets. In addition, integrating an acquired business or technology is risky. Completed and future acquisitions may result in unforeseen operational difficulties and expenditures associated with:

Moreover, we may not benefit from our acquisitions as we expect, or in the time frame we expect. We also may issue additional equity securities in connection with an acquisition, which could cause dilution to our stockholders. Finally, acquisitions could be viewed negatively by analysts, investors or our members.

Our ability to recruit and retain employees is important to our success.

We strive to attract and motivate employees, from our office administrators to our management team, who share our dedication to our community and our mission.

Some of the challenges we face in attracting and retaining employees include:

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Our ability to attract, retain and motivate employees, including our management team, is important to our success. In general, our key personnel work for us on an at-will basis. Other companies, including our competitors, may be successful in recruiting and hiring our employees, and it may be difficult for us to find suitable replacements on a timely basis or on competitive terms.

Filling engineering, product management and other technical positions in the New York City area is particularly challenging, especially in light of our distinctive technology philosophy and engineering culture. Qualified individuals are limited and in high demand, and we may incur significant costs to attract, develop and motivate them. Even if we were to offer higher compensation and other benefits, people with suitable technical skills may choose not to join us or to continue to work for us. If we are not able to maintain our engineering culture and broader company culture, then our ability to recruit and retain employees could suffer and our business would be harmed.

The growth of our business may strain our management team and our operational and financial infrastructure.

We have experienced rapid growth in our business, such as in headcount, the number of Etsy sellers and the number of countries in which we have members, and we plan to continue to grow in the future, both in the United States and abroad. For example, our headcount has grown from 251 employees on December 31, 2011 to 685 employees on December 31, 2014, an increase of 172.9%. The growth of our business places significant demands on our management team and pressure to expand our operational and financial infrastructure. As we continue to grow, our operating expenses will increase. If we do not manage our growth effectively, the increases in our operating expenses could outpace any increases in our revenue and our business could be harmed.

Continued growth could also pose other challenges, such as the need to develop and improve our operational, financial and management controls and to enhance our reporting systems and procedures. For example, in 2013 we began implementing a new enterprise resource planning, or ERP, system to enhance a variety of important functions such as invoicing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, foreign currency translation, financial consolidation and internal and external financial and management reporting matters. ERP system implementations are complex, long-term projects that involve substantial expenditures. To fully realize the benefits of the new ERP system we must also make significant changes to our business and financial processes. Our business may be harmed if the ERP system does not function as expected or does not result in the expected benefits.

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We rely on Etsy sellers to provide a fulfilling experience to Etsy buyers.

A small portion of Etsy buyers complain to us about their experience with our platform. For example, Etsy buyers may report that they have not received the items that they purchased, that the items received were not as represented by an Etsy seller or that an Etsy seller has not been responsive to their questions. Negative publicity and member sentiment generated as a result of these types of complaints could reduce our ability to attract new members or retain our current members or damage our reputation. A perception that our levels of responsiveness and member support are inadequate could have similar results. In some situations, we may choose to reimburse Etsy buyers for their purchases to help avoid harm to our reputation, but we may not be able to recover the funds we expend for those reimbursements.

Anything that disrupts the operations of a substantial number of Etsy sellers, such as interruptions in delivery services, natural disasters, inclement weather, public health crises or political unrest, could also result in negative experiences for a substantial number of Etsy buyers.

Etsy sellers rely on third-party services to deliver their orders.

Etsy sellers work with a number of third-party services such as FedEx, UPS, the United States Postal Service and Canada Post to deliver their products to Etsy buyers. Anything that prevents timely delivery of goods to Etsy buyers could harm Etsy sellers and could negatively affect our reputation. Delays or interruptions may be caused by events that are beyond the control of the delivery services, such as inclement weather, natural disasters, transportation disruptions, terrorism, public health crises or labor unrest. For example, certain delivery services were reported to have been overwhelmed by the volume of shipments during the 2013 holiday season, resulting in significant delays in delivery times. The delivery services could also be affected by industry consolidation, insolvency or government shut-downs. Although we have agreements with certain delivery services that enable us to provide pre-paid shipping labels as a convenience to Etsy sellers, our agreements do not require these providers to offer delivery services to Etsy sellers. Further, our competitors could obtain preferential rates or shipping services, causing Etsy sellers to pay higher shipping costs or find alternative delivery services. If the goods sold in our marketplace are not delivered in proper condition, on a timely basis or at shipping rates that Etsy buyers are willing to pay, our reputation and our business could be adversely affected.

Our reputation may be harmed if members of our community use unethical business practices.

Our emphasis on our values makes our reputation particularly sensitive to allegations of unethical business practices by Etsy sellers or other members of our community. Our policies promote legal and ethical business practices, such as encouraging Etsy sellers to work only with manufacturers who do not use child or involuntary labor, who do not discriminate and who promote sustainability and humane working conditions. However, we do not control Etsy sellers or other members of our community or their business practices and cannot ensure that they comply with our policies. If members of our community engage in illegal or unethical business practices or are perceived to do so, we may receive negative publicity and our reputation may be harmed.

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Failure to deal effectively with fraud could harm our business.

Although we have measures in place to detect and reduce the occurrence of fraudulent activity in our marketplace, those measures may not always be effective.

For example, Etsy sellers occasionally receive orders placed with fraudulent or stolen credit card data. Under current credit card practices, we may be liable for orders placed through Direct Checkout with fraudulent credit card data even if the associated financial institution approved the credit card transaction. Although we attempt to detect or challenge allegedly fraudulent transactions, we may not be able to do so effectively. As a result, our business could be adversely affected. We could also incur significant fines or lose our ability to give members the option of paying with credit cards if we fail to follow payment card industry data security standards or fail to limit fraudulent transactions conducted in our marketplace.

Negative publicity and member sentiment resulting from fraudulent or deceptive conduct by members or the perception that our levels of responsiveness and member support are inadequate could reduce our ability to attract new members or retain existing members and damage our reputation.

If sensitive information about our members is disclosed, or if we or our third-party providers are subject to cyber attacks, our members may curtail use of our platform, we may be exposed to liability and our reputation would suffer.

We collect, transmit and store personal and financial information provided by our members, such as names, email addresses, the details of transactions and credit card and other financial information. Some of our third-party service providers, such as identity verification and payment processing providers, also regularly have access to member data. In an effort to protect sensitive information, we rely on a variety of security measures, including encryption and authentication technology licensed from third parties. However, advances in computer capabilities, increasingly sophisticated tools and methods used by hackers and cyber terrorists, new discoveries in the field of cryptography or other developments may result in our failure or inability to adequately protect sensitive information. The preventive measures we take to address these risks are costly and may become more costly in the future.

Like all online services, our platform is vulnerable to power outages, telecommunications failures and catastrophic events, as well as computer viruses, break-ins, phishing attacks, denial-of-service attacks and other cyber attacks. Any of these incidents could lead to interruptions or shutdowns of our platform, loss of data or unauthorized disclosure of personally identifiable or other sensitive information. Cyber attacks could also result in the theft of our intellectual property. If we gain greater visibility, we may face a higher risk of being targeted by cyber attacks. Advances in computer capabilities, new technological discoveries or other developments may result in cyber attacks becoming more sophisticated and more difficult to detect. We and our third-party service providers may not have the resources or technical sophistication to anticipate or prevent all such cyber attacks. Moreover, techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to systems change frequently and may not be known until launched against us or our third-party service providers. Security breaches can also occur as a result of non-technical issues, including intentional or inadvertent breaches by our employees or employees of our third-party service providers.

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We and our third-party service providers regularly experience cyber attacks aimed at disrupting our and our third-party service providers’ services. If we or our third-party service providers experience security breaches that result in marketplace performance or availability problems or the loss or unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information, people may become unwilling to provide us the information necessary to set up member accounts. Existing members may also decrease their purchases or stop listing new items for sale or close their accounts altogether. We could also face potential liability and litigation, which may not be adequately covered by insurance. Any of these results could harm our growth prospects, our business and our reputation.

Our business depends on network and mobile infrastructure provided by third parties and on our ability to maintain and scale the technology underlying our platform.

The reliability of our platform is important to our reputation and our ability to attract and retain members. As our number of members, volume of traffic, number of transactions and the amount of information shared on our platform grow, our need for additional network capacity and computing power will also grow. The operation of the technology underlying our platform is expensive and complex, and we could experience operational failures. If we fail to accurately predict the rate or timing of the growth of our platform, we may be required to incur significant additional costs to maintain reliability.

We also depend on the development and maintenance of the Internet and mobile infrastructure. This includes maintenance of reliable Internet and mobile networks with the necessary speed, data capacity and security, as well as timely development of complementary products.

Third-party providers host much of our technology infrastructure. Any disruption in their services, or any failure of our providers to handle the demands of our marketplace could significantly harm our business. We exercise little control over these providers, which increases our vulnerability to their financial conditions and to problems with the services they provide. If we experience failures in our technology infrastructure or do not expand our technology infrastructure successfully, then our ability to attract and retain members could be adversely affected, which could harm our growth prospects and our business.

Our business depends on continued and unimpeded access to the Internet and mobile networks.

Our members rely on access to the Internet or mobile networks to access our marketplace. Internet service providers may choose to disrupt or degrade our members’ access to our platform or increase the cost of such access. Mobile network operators or operating system providers could block or place onerous restrictions on our members’ ability to download and use our mobile apps.

Internet service providers or mobile network operators could also attempt to charge us for providing access to our platform. Although the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, recently approved new rules that would prohibit Internet service providers from charging content providers higher rates in order to deliver their content over certain “fast traffic” lanes, these rules will not go into effect until later this year and could be subject to legal challenge or statutory preemption, which could delay or prevent

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implementation. If the FCC’s rules are not implemented, our business could be adversely impacted. Outside of the United States, government regulation of the Internet, including the idea of network neutrality, may be developing or non-existent. As a result, we could face discriminatory or anti-competitive practices that could impede both our and Etsy sellers’ growth prospects, increase our costs and harm our business.

Our business is subject to a large number of U.S. and non-U.S. laws, many of which are evolving.

We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and around the world, including those relating to traditional businesses, such as employment laws and taxation, and newer laws and regulations focused on the Internet and online commerce, such as payment systems, privacy, anti-spam, data protection, electronic contracts and consumer protection. These laws and regulations are continuously evolving, and compliance is costly and can require changes to our business practices and significant management time and effort. Additionally, it is not always clear how existing laws apply to the Internet as many of these laws do not address the unique issues raised by the Internet or online commerce.

For example, laws relating to online privacy are evolving differently in different jurisdictions. Federal, state and non-U.S. governmental authorities, as well as courts interpreting the laws, continue to evaluate the privacy implications of the use of third-party “cookies,” “web beacons” and other methods of online tracking. The United States, the European Union and other governments have enacted or are considering legislation that could significantly restrict the ability of companies and individuals to collect and store user information, such as by regulating the level of consumer notice and consent required before a company can employ cookies or other electronic tracking tools.

Some providers of consumer devices and web browsers have implemented, or have announced plans to implement, ways to block tracking technologies which, if widely adopted, could also result in online tracking methods becoming significantly less effective. Any reduction in our ability to make effective use of such technologies could harm our ability to personalize the experience of Etsy buyers, increase our costs and limit our ability to attract new members and retain existing members on cost-effective terms. As a result, our business could be adversely affected.

In some cases, non-U.S. privacy, data protection, consumer protection and other laws and regulations are more restrictive than those in the United States. For example, the European Union traditionally has imposed stricter obligations under such laws than the United States. Consequently, the expansion of our operations internationally may require changes to the ways we collect and use consumer information.

Existing and future laws and regulations enacted by federal, state or non-U.S. governments could impede the growth or use of the Internet or online commerce. It is also possible that governments of one or more countries may seek to censor content available on our platform or may even attempt to block access to our platform. If we are restricted from operating in one or more countries, our ability to attract or retain members may be adversely affected and we may not be able to grow our business as we anticipate.

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We strive to comply with all applicable laws, but they may conflict with each other, and by complying with the laws or regulations of one jurisdiction, we may find that we are violating the laws or regulations of another jurisdiction. Despite our efforts, we may not have fully complied in the past and may not in the future. If we become liable under laws or regulations applicable to us, we could be required to pay significant fines and penalties, and we may be forced to change the way we operate. That could require us to incur significant expenses or to discontinue certain services, which could negatively affect our business. Additionally, if third parties with whom we work violate applicable laws or our policies, those violations could result in other liabilities for us and could harm our business.

We may be unable to protect our intellectual property adequately.

Our intellectual property is an essential asset of our business. To establish and protect our intellectual property rights, we rely on a combination of trade secret, copyright, trademark and, to a lesser extent, patent laws, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions. The efforts we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not be sufficient or effective. We generally do not elect to register our copyrights or the majority of our trademarks, relying instead on the laws protecting unregistered intellectual property, which may not be sufficient. In addition, our copyrights and trademarks, whether or not registered, and patents, may be held invalid or unenforceable if challenged. While we have obtained or applied for patent protection with respect to some of our intellectual property, we generally do not rely on patents as a principal means of protecting intellectual property. To the extent we do seek patent protection, any U.S. or other patents issued to us may not be sufficiently broad to protect our proprietary technologies.

In addition, we may not be effective in policing unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Even if we do detect violations, we may need to engage in litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights. Any enforcement efforts we undertake, including litigation, could be time-consuming and expensive and could divert our management’s attention. In addition, our efforts may be met with defenses and counterclaims challenging the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights or may result in a court determining that our intellectual property rights are unenforceable. If we are unable to cost-effectively protect our intellectual property rights, then our business could be harmed.

We may be subject to claims that items listed in our marketplace are counterfeit, infringing or illegal.

Although we do not create or take possession of the items listed in our marketplace by Etsy sellers, we frequently receive communications alleging that items listed in our marketplace infringe third-party copyrights, trademarks, patents or other intellectual property rights. We have intellectual property complaint and take-down procedures in place to address these communications, and we believe such procedures are important to promote confidence in our marketplace. We follow these procedures to review complaints and relevant facts to determine whether to take the appropriate action, which may include removal of the item from our marketplace and, in certain cases, closing the shops of Etsy sellers who repeatedly violate our policies.

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Our procedures may not effectively reduce or eliminate our liability. In particular, we may be subject to civil or criminal liability for activities carried out by Etsy sellers on our platform, especially outside the United States where we may be less protected under local laws than we are in the United States. Under current U.S. copyright law and the Communications Decency Act, we may benefit from statutory safe harbor provisions that protect us from liability for content posted by our members. However, trademark and patent laws do not include similar statutory provisions, liability for these forms of intellectual property is often determined by court decisions. These safe harbors and court rulings may change unfavorably. In that event, we may be held secondarily liable for the intellectual property infringement of Etsy sellers.

Regardless of the validity of any claims made against us, we may incur significant costs and efforts to defend against or settle them. If a governmental authority determines that we have aided and abetted the infringement or sale of counterfeit goods or if legal changes result in us potentially being liable for actions by Etsy sellers on our platform, we could face regulatory, civil or criminal penalties. Successful claims by third-party rights owners could require us to pay substantial damages or refrain from permitting any further listing of the relevant items. These types of claims could force us to modify our business practices, which could lower our revenue, increase our costs or make our platform less user-friendly for our members. Moreover, public perception that counterfeit or other unauthorized items are common in our marketplace, even if factually incorrect, could result in negative publicity and damage to our reputation.

We may be subject to intellectual property claims, which are extremely costly to defend, could require us to pay significant damages and could limit our ability to use certain technologies in the future.

Companies in the Internet and technology industries are frequently subject to litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. We periodically receive notices that claim we have infringed, misappropriated or misused other parties’ intellectual property rights. To the extent we gain greater public recognition, we may face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property claims. Third-party intellectual property rights may cover significant aspects of our technologies or business methods or block us from expanding our offerings. Any intellectual property claim against us, with or without merit, could be time consuming and expensive to settle or litigate and could divert the attention of our management. Litigation regarding intellectual property rights is inherently uncertain due to the complex issues involved, and we may not be successful in defending ourselves in such matters.

In addition, some of our competitors have extensive portfolios of issued patents. Many potential litigants, including some of our competitors and patent holding companies, have the ability to dedicate substantial resources to enforcing their intellectual property rights. Any claims successfully brought against us could subject us to significant liability for damages and we may be required to stop using technology or other intellectual property alleged to be in violation of a third party’s rights. We also might be required to seek a license for third-party intellectual property. Even if a license is available, we could be required to pay significant royalties or submit to unreasonable terms, which would increase our operating expenses. We may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology, which could require significant time and expense. If we cannot license or develop technology for any allegedly infringing aspect of our business,

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we would be forced to limit our service and may be unable to compete effectively. Any of these results could harm our business.

We may be involved in litigation matters that are expensive and time consuming.

In addition to intellectual property claims, we may become involved in other litigation matters, including class action lawsuits. Any lawsuit to which we are a party, with or without merit, may result in an unfavorable judgment. We also may decide to settle lawsuits on unfavorable terms. Any such negative outcome could result in payments of substantial damages or fines, damage to our reputation or adverse changes to our offerings or business practices. Any of these results could adversely affect our business. In addition, defending claims is costly and can impose a significant burden on our management.

Our software is highly complex and may contain undetected errors.

The software underlying our platform is highly complex and may contain undetected errors or vulnerabilities, some of which may only be discovered after the code has been released. We rely heavily on a software engineering practice known as “continuous deployment,” meaning that we typically release software code many times per day. This practice may result in the more frequent introduction of errors or vulnerabilities into the software underlying our platform. Any errors or vulnerabilities discovered in our code after release could result in damage to our reputation, loss of members, loss of revenue or liability for damages, any of which could adversely affect our growth prospects and our business.

We are subject to the terms of open source licenses because our platform incorporates open source software.

The software powering our marketplace incorporates software covered by open source licenses. In addition, we regularly contribute source code to open source software projects and release internal software projects under open source licenses, and we anticipate doing so in the future. The terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. courts and there is a risk that the licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to operate our marketplace. Under certain open source licenses, we could be required to publicly release the source code of our software or to make our software available under open source licenses. To avoid the public release of the affected portions of our source code, we could be required to expend substantial time and resources to re-engineer some or all of our software. In addition, use of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software because open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of the software. Use of open source software may also present additional security risks because the public availability of such software may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how to compromise our platform. Additionally, because any software source code we contribute to open source projects is publicly available, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights in such software source code may be limited or lost entirely, and we will be unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such contributed software source code. Any of these risks could be

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difficult to eliminate or manage and, if not addressed, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business and our members may be subject to sales and other taxes.

The application of indirect taxes, such as sales and use tax, value-added tax, or VAT, provincial taxes, goods and services tax, business tax and gross receipt tax, to businesses like ours and to our members is a complex and evolving issue. For example, as of January 1, 2015, the European Union imposed an obligation on marketplaces to collect and remit VAT on sales of automatically-downloaded digital items, and we are in the process of implementing such collection and remittance procedures. Significant judgment is required to evaluate applicable tax obligations and as a result amounts recorded are estimates and could change. In many cases, the ultimate tax determination is uncertain because it is not clear how existing statutes apply to our business or to Etsy sellers’ businesses. One or more states, the federal government or other countries may seek to impose additional reporting, record-keeping or indirect tax collection obligations on businesses like ours that facilitate online commerce. For example, the U.S. Congress is currently considering the “Marketplace Fairness Act,” which would grant states the authority to require online merchants to collect sales tax on online sales at the time a transaction is completed. New taxes could also require us or Etsy sellers to incur substantial costs to capture data and collect and remit taxes. If such obligations were imposed, the additional costs associated with tax collection, remittance and audit requirements could make selling in our marketplace less attractive and more costly for Etsy sellers, which could adversely affect our business.

We may experience fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate.

We are subject to taxation in the United States and in numerous other jurisdictions. We record tax expense based on current tax payments and our estimates of future tax payments, which may include reserves for estimates of probable settlements of tax audits. At any one time, multiple tax years could be subject to audit by various taxing jurisdictions. As a result, we expect that throughout the year there could be ongoing variability in our quarterly tax rates as taxable events occur and exposures are re-evaluated. Further, our effective tax rate in a given financial statement period may be adversely impacted by changes in tax laws, changes in the mix of revenue among different jurisdictions, changes to accounting rules and changes to our ownership or capital structure. Fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate could adversely affect our business.

In January 2015, we implemented a revised corporate structure to more closely align our structure with our global operations and future expansion plans outside of the United States. Our new corporate structure changes how we use our intellectual property and implements certain intercompany arrangements, which we expect may result in a reduction in our overall effective tax rate and other operational efficiencies. The tax laws of the jurisdictions in which we operate are subject to interpretation, and their application may depend on our ability to operate our business in a manner consistent with our corporate structure. Moreover, these tax laws are subject to change. Tax authorities may disagree with our position as to the tax treatment of our transfer of intangible assets or determine that the manner in which we operate our

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business does not achieve the intended tax consequences. If our new corporate structure does not achieve our expectations for any of these or other reasons, we may be subject to a higher overall effective tax rate and our business may be adversely affected.

We rely on consumer discretionary spending and may be adversely affected by economic downturns and other macroeconomic conditions or trends.

Macroeconomic conditions may adversely affect our business. If general economic conditions deteriorate in the United States or other markets where we operate, consumer discretionary spending may decline and demand for the goods available in our marketplace may be reduced. This would cause sales in our marketplace to decline and adversely impact our business. Conversely, if recent trends supporting self-employment and the desire for supplemental income were to reverse, the number of Etsy sellers offering their goods in our marketplace could decline and the number of goods listed in our marketplace could decline. Exchange rates may also impact sales, with a strong U.S. dollar dampening demand for goods denominated in dollars from buyers outside the United States.

Even without changes in economic conditions, the demand for the goods listed in our marketplace is dependent on consumer preferences. Consumer preferences can change quickly and may differ across generations and cultures. If demand for the goods that Etsy sellers offer in our marketplace declines, our business would be harmed. Trends in socially-conscious consumerism and buying locally could also shift or slow to the detriment of our business. Our growth prospects would also be hampered if the shift to online and mobile commerce does not continue.

The terms of our debt instruments may restrict our ability to pursue our business strategies.

We do not currently have any obligations outstanding under our credit facility. However, our credit facility requires us, and any debt instruments we may enter into in the future may require us, to comply with various covenants that limit our ability to take actions such as:

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These restrictions could limit our ability to pursue our business strategies. If we default under our credit facility and if the default is not cured or waived, the lenders could terminate their commitments to lend to us and cause any amounts outstanding to be payable immediately. Such a default could also result in cross defaults under other debt instruments. Our assets and cash flow may not be sufficient to fully repay borrowings under all of our outstanding debt instruments if some or all of these instruments are accelerated upon a default. Moreover, any such default would limit our ability to obtain additional financing, which may have an adverse effect on our cash flow and liquidity.

We may need additional capital, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all.

We believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments, together with cash generated from operations and available borrowing capacity under our credit facility, will be enough to meet our anticipated cash needs for at least the next 12 months. However, we may require additional cash resources due to changed business conditions or other developments, such as acquisitions or investments we may decide to pursue. If our resources are insufficient to satisfy our cash requirements, we may seek to borrow funds under our credit facility or sell additional equity or debt securities. The sale of additional equity securities could result in dilution to our existing stockholders. Borrowing funds would result in increased debt service obligations and could result in additional operating and financial covenants that would limit our operations. It is also possible that financing may not be available to us in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all.

If our insurance coverage is insufficient or our insurers are unable to meet their obligations, our insurance may not mitigate the risks facing our business.

We contract for insurance to cover a number of risks and potential liabilities. Our insurance policies cover areas such as general liability, errors and omissions liability, employment liability, business interruptions, data breach, crime, product liability and directors’ and officers’ liability. For certain types of business risk, we may not be able to, or may choose not to, acquire insurance. In addition, we may not obtain enough insurance to adequately mitigate the risks we face or we may have to pay high premiums and/or deductibles for the coverage we do obtain. Additionally, if any of our insurers becomes insolvent, it would be unable to pay any claims that we make.

We are an emerging growth company and the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies may make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an emerging growth company as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we intend to take advantage of some of the exemptions from the reporting requirements applicable to other public companies. For example, we intend to take advantage of the exemption from the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements and the exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments. It is

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possible that investors will find our common stock less attractive as a result of our reliance on these exemptions. If so, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.0 billion or (c) in which we become a large accelerated filer, which means that we have been public for at least 12 months, have filed at least one annual report and the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the last day of our then most recently completed second fiscal quarter, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.

Operating as a public company will require us to incur substantial costs and will require substantial management attention. In addition, our management team has limited experience managing a public company.

As a public company, we will incur substantial legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. For example, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended, or the Exchange Act, the applicable requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. The rules and regulations of Nasdaq will also apply to us following this offering. As part of the new requirements, we will need to establish and maintain effective disclosure and financial controls and make changes to our corporate governance practices. We expect that compliance with these requirements will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming.

Most of our management and other personnel have little experience managing a public company and preparing public filings. In addition, we expect that our management and other personnel will need to divert attention from other business matters to devote substantial time to the reporting and other requirements of being a public company. In particular, we expect to incur significant expense and devote substantial management effort to complying with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We will need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge.

Our management will not be required to evaluate the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until the end of the fiscal year for which our second annual report is due. If we are unable to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy of our financial reports.

As a public company, we will be required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal controls. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that we evaluate and determine the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Beginning with our second annual report following this offering, we will be required to provide a management report on

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internal control over financial reporting. When we are no longer an emerging growth company, our management report on internal control over financial reporting will need to be attested to by our independent registered public accounting firm. We do not expect to have our independent registered public accounting firm attest to our management report on internal control over financial reporting while we are an emerging growth company.

If we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, we may not detect errors on a timely basis and our financial statements may be materially misstated. In addition, our internal control over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all errors and fraud. Because of the inherent limitations in

all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected.

If there are material weaknesses or failures in our ability to meet any of the requirements related to the maintenance and reporting of our internal controls, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and that could cause the price of our common stock to decline. In addition, we could become subject to investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities, which could require additional management attention and which could adversely affect our business.

As described below we currently have two material weaknesses, which we are in the process of remediating.

We currently have identified two material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting that, if not corrected, could result in material misstatements of our financial statements.

In connection with the audit of our financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2014, we identified two material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is defined as a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

First, we determined that we did not have adequate procedures and controls to appropriately account for certain non-income tax-related expenses and comply with the related filing requirements. Second, we determined that we did not have adequate cut-off procedures to ensure the timely recording of certain period-end accruals.

These two material weaknesses resulted in misstatements of expenses in prior periods that were immaterial to previously issued annual financial statements but in combination were material to certain interim periods. The impact of these material weaknesses resulted in the revision of our consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2013, for the three months ended March 31, 2013, the three and six months ended June 30, 2013, the three and nine months ended September 30, 2013, the three months ended December 31, 2013 and the three months ended September 30, 2014. The impacts of these material weaknesses also resulted in the restatement of our consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2014, the three and six months ended June 30, 2014 and the nine months ended September 30, 2014.

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Neither we nor our independent registered public accounting firm has performed an evaluation of our internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In light of the material weaknesses that were identified, we believe that it is possible that additional material weaknesses and control deficiencies may have been identified if such an evaluation had been performed.

We are working to remediate the material weaknesses. We have taken steps to enhance our internal control environment and plan to take additional steps to remediate the material weaknesses. Specifically:

The actions that we are taking are subject to ongoing senior management review as well as audit committee oversight. Although we plan to complete this remediation process as quickly as possible, we cannot at this time estimate how long it will take, and our efforts may not be successful in remediating these material weaknesses. In addition, we will incur additional costs in improving our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to successfully remediate these material weaknesses or if we identify additional material weaknesses, we may not detect errors on a timely basis. This could harm our operating results, cause us to fail to meet our SEC reporting obligations or Nasdaq listing requirements on a timely basis, adversely affect our reputation, cause our stock price to decline or result in inaccurate financial reporting or material misstatements in our annual or interim financial statements.

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Our business could be adversely affected by natural disasters, public health crises, political crises or other unexpected events.

Natural disasters and other adverse weather and climate conditions, public health crises, political crises, such as terrorist attacks, war and other political instability, or other unexpected events, could disrupt our operations, Internet or mobile networks, or the operations of one or more of our service providers. For example, when Hurricane Sandy struck New York in October 2012, although our data centers were unaffected, our headquarters in Brooklyn was closed for five days, and we experienced a heavy volume of member support requests which required us to devote additional resources to handle those requests. Events of this type could also impact Etsy sellers’ ability to continue producing goods for sale in our marketplace. In addition, such events could negatively impact consumer spending in the affected regions. If any of these events occurs, our business could be adversely affected.

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Risks Related to This Offering and Ownership of Our Common Stock

The price of our common stock could be volatile and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above our initial public offering price. Declines in the price of common stock could subject us to litigation.

There has not been a public market for our common stock prior to this offering and an active trading market may not develop following this offering. Even if such a market does develop, it may not be sustainable. If trading in our common stock is not active, you may not be able to sell your shares quickly, at the market price or at all. The initial public offering price for the shares was determined by negotiations between us and the representative of the underwriters and may not be indicative of prices that will prevail in the trading market following this offering. In addition, the trading prices of the securities of technology companies have historically been highly volatile. Accordingly, the price of our common stock could be subject to wide fluctuations for many reasons, many of which are beyond our control, including those described in these Risk Factors and others such as:

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In addition, if the market for technology stocks or the stock market in general experiences a loss of investor confidence, the price of our common stock could decline for reasons unrelated to our business, results of operations or financial condition. The price of our common stock might also decline in reaction to events that affect other companies, even if those events do not directly affect us. Some companies that have experienced volatility in the trading price of their stock have been the subject of securities class action litigation. If we are the subject of such litigation, it could result in substantial costs and could divert our management’s attention and resources, which could adversely affect our business.

We have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds from this offering and may not use them effectively.

The principal purposes of this offering are to increase our visibility, create a public market for our common stock and facilitate our future access to the public equity markets. We currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital and general corporate purposes, including continued investments in the growth of our business. We also intend to use $300,000 of the proceeds of this offering to partially fund Etsy.org, a Delaware non-profit organization that we formed in January 2015. We may use a portion of the net proceeds to fund the build-out of our new corporate headquarters. In addition, we may use a portion of the net proceeds received by us from this offering for acquisitions of other complementary businesses, technologies or other assets. However, we have no current understandings, agreements or commitments for any specific material acquisitions at this time. Except with respect to Etsy.org, we have not yet determined the manner in which we will allocate the net proceeds we receive from this offering. As a result, our management will have broad discretion in the allocation and use of the net proceeds. See “Use of Proceeds.”

The failure by our management to allocate or use these funds effectively could harm our business. Pending their use, we may invest the net proceeds we receive from this offering in a manner that does not produce income or that loses value. Our ultimate use of the net proceeds from this offering may vary substantially from their currently intended use.

We do not intend to pay dividends on our capital stock, so any returns will be limited to increases in the value of our common stock.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the operation and expansion of our business. Accordingly, we do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. In addition, our ability to pay cash dividends on our capital stock is restricted by the terms of our credit facility and is likely to be restricted by

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any future debt financing arrangement we enter into. Any return to stockholders will therefore be limited to increases in the price of our common stock, if any.

Our directors, executive officers and principal stockholders beneficially own a substantial percentage of our stock and will be able to exert significant control over matters subject to stockholder approval.

Our directors, executive officers, greater than 5% stockholders and their respective affiliates will hold in the aggregate approximately 56.4% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock following this offering, assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of our common stock from the selling stockholders in this offering. Therefore, these stockholders will continue to have the ability to influence us through their ownership position, even after this offering. If these stockholders act together, they may be able to determine all matters requiring majority stockholder approval. For example, these stockholders will be able to control elections of directors, amendments of our charter documents or approval of any merger, sale of assets or other major corporate transaction. This may prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our capital stock that other stockholders may feel are in their best interests.

If you purchase our common stock in this offering, you will incur immediate and substantial dilution.

The initial public offering price is substantially higher than the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our common stock of $1.16 per share as of December 31, 2014. Investors purchasing common stock in this offering will pay a price per share that substantially exceeds the net tangible book value per share. As a result, investors purchasing common stock in this offering will incur immediate dilution of $12.34 per share, based on the initial public offering price of $15.00 per share, the midpoint of the price range on the cover page of this prospectus.

This dilution is due to the substantially lower price paid by our investors who purchased shares prior to this offering as compared to the price offered to the public in this offering. In addition, as of December 31, 2014, there were outstanding options to purchase 11,525,279 shares of our common stock with a weighted average exercise price of approximately $5.34 per share and warrants to purchase 203,030 shares of our common stock (including preferred stock on an as-converted basis) with a weighted average exercise price of approximately $1.32 per share. The exercise of any of these options or warrants would result in additional dilution. As a result of the dilution to investors purchasing shares in this offering, investors may receive less than the purchase price paid in this offering in the event of our liquidation. See “Dilution.”

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market by our existing stockholders following this offering could cause the price of our common stock to decline.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We cannot predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing price of our common stock.

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All of our executive officers and directors and the holders of substantially all of our capital stock are subject to lock-up agreements with the underwriters of this offering that restrict the stockholders’ ability to transfer shares of our common stock for periods of at least 180 days, and for a portion of the shares, 270 and 360 days from the date of this prospectus. The lock-up agreements limit the number of shares of common stock that may be sold immediately following this offering. Subject to certain limitations and based on our capitalization as of December 31, 2014, approximately 50,263,564 shares will become eligible for sale upon expiration of the 180-day lock-up period, approximately 23,682,809 additional shares will become eligible for sale upon expiration of the 270-day lock-up period and approximately 23,682,809 additional shares will become eligible for sale upon expiration of the 360-day lock-up period. In addition, based on our capitalization as of December 31, 2014, 8,964,807 shares issuable upon exercise of outstanding options and 105,586 shares issuable upon exercise of outstanding warrants will also be eligible for sale upon expiration of the 180-day lock-up period. We intend to register all of the shares underlying outstanding options and any shares underlying other equity incentives we may grant in the future for public resale under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. Accordingly, these shares will be able to be freely sold in the public market upon issuance to the extent permitted by any applicable vesting requirements and the lock-up agreements described above. Sales of stock by these stockholders could adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.

Certain holders of shares of our common stock have registration rights. See “Description of Capital Stock—Registration Rights.” Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in the shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act, except for shares held by our affiliates as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act. Sales of securities by any of these stockholders could adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.

Future sales and issuances of our common stock or rights to purchase common stock could result in additional dilution to our stockholders and could cause the price of our common stock to decline.

We may issue additional common stock, convertible securities or other equity following the completion of this offering. We also expect to issue common stock to our employees, directors and other service providers pursuant to our equity incentive plans. Such issuances could be dilutive to investors and could cause the price of our common stock to decline. New investors in such issuances could also receive rights senior to those of holders of our common stock.

If analysts do not publish research about our business or if they publish inaccurate or unfavorable research, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that analysts publish about our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our common stock would likely decline. If few analysts cover us, demand for our common stock could decrease and our common stock price and trading volume may decline. Similar results may occur if one or more of these analysts stop covering us in the future or fail to publish reports on us regularly.

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Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, could limit attempts to make changes in our management and could depress the price of our common stock.

Provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of our company or limiting changes in our management. Among other things, these provisions:

These provisions may delay or prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace members of our management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law may delay or prevent a change in control of our company. Section 203 imposes certain restrictions on mergers, business combinations and other transactions between us and holders of 15% or more of our common stock. Anti-takeover provisions could depress the price of our common stock by acting to delay or prevent a change in control of our company.

For information regarding these and other provisions, see “Description of Capital Stock.”

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Our certificate of incorporation will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees.

Our certificate of incorporation will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees and may discourage these types of lawsuits. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions.

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