Suggestion Re: Zazzle's upcoming IPO

[Connie]

Zazzle, instead of offering your fine company to outside investors who will destroy your vision, please consider a "Creator-owned" company, with the Creators as the investors. We can all chip in something, and I'm sure most of the top sellers would be glad to invest more in order to keep the company thriving and their profits flowing in. In an age when more and more companies are "community-conscious," this is a no-brainer. PLEASE, support your community of Creators, and don't sell us out to Wall Street.

[Soumya]

I read about Zazzle preparing to go public (one of the hottest upcoming IPOs this year apparently, along with Reddit and Discord), a few days back and I had the same reaction. I wanted to come to the forums and post about it and just see people's reactions on this.

Those who have been veterans on Etsy know what happened to Etsy after it went public. It basically changed its core character and got destroyed completely. Now it's just a cash cow for its shareholders. I'm afraid the same will happen to Zazzle too.

I was finally starting to do well here, and then when I saw it's about to go public, I decided to not celebrate my small victory here because that's probably short-lived. Soon, new policies will come which will evidently squeeze everything out of creators' profits, leaving creators with nothing but an endless struggle. The dishonest ones will thrive, the sincere ones will slide. I have experienced this myself already, thanks to Etsy.

I guess Zazzle is not able to keep up with the demand and needs money to expand its fulfillment capacities or what. Anyway, I wish Zazzle all the best. I hope it stays awesome like it is now. It's unique and the best POD in the whole world. It's not an exaggeration. I haven't seen another POD company up till now which has the gamut of substrate printing capabilities like Zazzle. Zazzle can literally print on anything! I hope it stays awesome for creators too. Though realistically I know that's not possible because the intention behind the whole company will now change.

[MadjackGG]

I didn't know this was coming and as a pro-seller who's spent a lot of time over the last year working on my stores, this is concerning. 

[Jstonge]

Did Zazzle even inform its designers that this was coming.

[LMGildersleeve]

So starts a feeding frenzy of fear and negativity. No Zazzle didn't tell the creators because it is none of our business. I totally understand the shock of some of those finding this out. We put our time, sweat and tears into our stores etc. But I am not going to go down a path of negativity dragging me down and stopping my own creativity from earning money here on Z.

Redbubble went public and you really wouldn't have noticed if you were on Redbubble. They still have their own issues (just like Z) artists complain about too. But they did not change anything to do with earnings for the artists. All is well despite going public.

[Windy]

Creators have not been notified AFAIK. But so far there is no news to announce, from what I have read. Moves are being made and PERHAPS an IPO will occur. And it turns out that this time in market history does not seem optimal, therefore a few IPOs which are in the planning stages are being delayed anyway. So if this is ever going to happen, it's not likely to happen quickly.

As for creators chipping in so that the company would be creator owned, I am not seeing how the math on that works. The amount Citi has been told to consider is in the one to two billion dollar range. If the current owners keep most of the stock and seek only about a billion in a stock sale, that would require math such as the following:

One Thousand Creators buy in at a level of One Million Dollars each.

One Million Creators buy in at a level of One Thousand Dollars each. 

Neither of the above seems likely to me.

[KiniArt]

I’ve witnessed the devastation that can come to sellers & really hope this doesn’t happen for a very long time. It literally devastated my income when another POD site went public (cutting my income in a matter of months by about 2/3 of what I made before the changes imposed to benefit shareholders. Etsy, too, is going downhill for sellers since going public.  I’m relieved it’s not yet happening but knowing they’re even thinking about it is a great reminder to me to diversify. I learned the hard way after the old POD site went public, not to keep all my designs with one company so I won’t be as financially devastated as I was then.  Not meaning the same designs everywhere, but more than one stream of income is our only option to survive these companies that we’ve grown following the unfortunately seemingly natural progression to going public at which point they have to value shareholders over Designers.

[OrchardBerry]

@Soumya You summed it up perfectly. Having been on both Etsy and Zazzle since 2009 I always found Z to be so refreshing after having to deal with Etsy's change to "fees upon fees - take it or leave it" corporate attitude. I hope Z is able to maintain their community/helpful atmosphere.

[Jadendreamer13]

So today, you're walking along a designer's path and you come to a fork in the road. One sign directs you to a negative path and the other sign directs you to a positive path. Which path will you choose? The path where suddenly in your mind you fear that all possibilities could end, or the path where you KNOW that possibilities are endless?

I'm choosing to walk along a positive path. So, what can I do as a designer to prepare for the possibility of Zazzle going public and becoming so dissatisfied that I feel the need to move on?

• I can ensure that I have backup copies of all my artwork stored on my hard drive--and not just existing on the Zazzle design tool. 
• I can keep a library on MS Word (or some other text software) that includes the titles, tags, and descriptions I've written for each product--because recreating those items on a new platform would be time consuming.
• I can sell my artwork on another platform.
• I can license my artwork to corporations or manufacturers.
• I can sell digital downloads of my designs.

We're a creative bunch, the possibilities to make money with our artwork are endless. If one door closes, my suitcase is already packed with everything I need to travel to a new destination.

So, pack your suitcase, keep it up to date with copies of all your artwork, titles, tags, and descriptions, and stash it in the closet for a rainy day.

Then let go of limiting negative thoughts, create great designs, and have a good day.

I'm not worried about what may or may not happen to Zazzle. Whatever happens, I've got this!