Device companies have cause to celebrate when they’re successfully funded and often cause to scramble while they make they make the thing. But then there’s the business of selling the thing beyond the backers. Grand St. was an early company to create a marketplace for independently created gadgets. facilitating connections between products that had been successfully crowdfunded and new buyers.
The company had a chance to jump from the digital to the physical world when it won an opportunity to have a popup store on New York’s Lower East Side (not far from Manhattan’s Grand St.). It was acquired by crafts marketplace Etsy the following month and its staff likely had a role in developing Etsy’s Fund program that the company launched in June. Grand St, offered items that were ready to ship, available for preorder, and in development (Beta). But its marketplace is shutting down as of October 1st. It will still offer items for sale until that date. The Grand St. site lists nearly 270 device makers that it worked with.
Other marketplaces have cropped up for crowdfunded gadgets. These have included Indiegogo itself with its InDemand program, Amazon Launchpad, and BiteMyApple.co. Crowd Supply has also sold products funded on its site since its founding.