13 years ago, it became much much easier for an individual person to create a brand and sell what they made online. That was right when I started Moop, immersed myself in the world of cyber shops and PayPal buttons and Etsy and live journal blogging. I wasn’t alone in this. Many of my cohorts in business started around the same time. We learned everything as we went, responding to things like Facebook (which wasn’t much of a thing at that point in time yet. We were all coming off of Friendster at that point in time, haha!), blogging was super new and then Twitter came along and changed the world, and then Instagram came along and changed the world again. Through all of this, all of us were also changing the world. The entire Maker economy changed in that moment in time and suddenly tons of people who made things as a side gig, turned their craft into full time gigs.
I was part of that. Moop became my full time business on our first Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend in 2007. It changed our world. And from there, I started treating Moop as the business that it was. I hired, I invested in equipment, I moved into more space, I moved to a new city, I had amazing support from friends and family around me, and piece by piece, I built this into the ever growing business we are now. I’m typing this as I sit in a storefront in Seattle. Our second retail location for these few months, communicating daily with my incredible team in Pittsburgh, exploring this new city that has shown us so much love and received mine in return.
I can’t say enough, you all have made my life so amazing. Thank you for telling me how our bags have made your lives so much better. It means the world to me and everyone who helps me make things little business happen.
So much gratitude,
Wendy
