Live-shopping startup Whatnot intends to expand its new Seattle location following a $225 million funding round announced this week.
The company plans to hire more than 75 employees in the region over the next six months, tripling its current local headcount, across product, engineering, and related roles.
Whatnot opened its downtown Seattle office earlier this year. The Los Angeles-based company, now valued at $11.5 billion (up from $5 billion a year ago), characterized the Seattle expansion as one of its largest talent investments to date.
Founded in 2019, Whatnot’s platform combines e-commerce and livestream entertainment. Sellers host live video shows on the Whatnot app or website, auctioning or selling products in real time. Buyers can watch, chat, and bid directly during live streams.
Media outlets have described the trend as “QVC for the TikTok era.” Whatnot competes against platforms like TikTok Shop and Seattle-based e-commerce giant Amazon’s Amazon Live.
Whatnot facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers, and manages payments, logistics, and safety features. The company generates revenue by taking a commission, typically around 8%, on sales made by sellers ranging from independent entrepreneurs to established retailers.
Whatnot more than doubled live sales on its platform this year, to $6 billion. Buyers spend more than 80 minutes per day on Whatnot’s live shows, according to the company. Whatnot is not profitable.
Some of its fastest-growing categories include beauty, women’s fashion, handbags, electronics, antiques, coins, golf, snacks, and live plants.
The company’s Seattle office focuses on product and engineering, including areas such as machine learning, marketplace integrity, and trust and safety. Whatnot has 900 employees across its workforce.
Dan Bear, vice president of engineering, and Kelda Murphy, vice president of talent acquisition, are both based in Seattle. Bear previously opened Seattle offices for Snap, Hulu, and CloudKitchens.
Whatnot is among more than 130 companies that operate satellite offices in the Seattle region, tapping into the area’s technical talent pool.
The company has 31 open positions on its jobs page. It is hosting an engineering and product networking event in Seattle on November 4.
The $225 million funding round at $11.5 billion valuation representing more than doubling from $5 billion a year prior demonstrates extraordinary investor confidence in live shopping despite the company’s unprofitability, with the valuation surge reflecting belief that Whatnot is capturing a transformative commerce trend before mainstream adoption accelerates.
The Seattle expansion tripling local headcount to 75+ employees within six months indicating aggressive growth pace typical of well-funded startups racing to scale before competition intensifies, with the rapid hiring suggesting Whatnot views Seattle’s technology talent pool as essential to building the technical infrastructure supporting its platform.
The downtown Seattle office location placing Whatnot in the urban core where technology workers cluster, with the geographic choice facilitating recruitment from Amazon, Microsoft, and other major employers whose personnel seek startup opportunities without relocating from the Puget Sound region.
The Los Angeles headquarters with Seattle satellite office reflecting common startup strategy where companies maintain Southern California or Bay Area primary locations while establishing engineering outposts in Seattle to access talent without requiring all employees to relocate to expensive coastal markets.
The 2019 founding date indicating Whatnot launched just before the pandemic, with the timing proving fortuitous as COVID lockdowns accelerated e-commerce adoption and created demand for interactive online shopping experiences replacing in-person retail browsing.
The platform combining e-commerce and livestream entertainment representing convergence of two powerful trends where shopping becomes content and sellers become entertainers, with the model transforming transactional purchasing into social experiences where audiences engage with personalities rather than simply browsing product listings.
The real-time auction and sales format during live video shows recreating the urgency and excitement of physical auctions, with the synchronous format creating scarcity psychology where buyers must act immediately or lose opportunities to competitors watching the same stream.
The “QVC for the TikTok era” characterization capturing how Whatnot modernizes television home shopping for mobile-native generations, with the platform replacing scheduled TV broadcasts and phone orders with on-demand mobile streaming and in-app purchasing accessible anytime anywhere.
The competition against TikTok Shop and Amazon Live positioning Whatnot against technology giants with vastly larger resources, with the David-versus-Goliath dynamic requiring Whatnot to differentiate through superior seller tools, buyer experience, or niche category focus that behemoths cannot easily replicate.
The Seattle location’s particular significance given Amazon’s dominance of traditional e-commerce, with Whatnot’s expansion into Amazon’s hometown market representing bold statement that live shopping represents distinct category where the retail giant’s legacy advantages don’t guarantee victory.
The transaction facilitation, payment processing, logistics, and safety features representing full-stack platform approach where Whatnot provides comprehensive infrastructure enabling sellers to focus on content creation rather than operational complexities, with the vertical integration creating switching costs preventing sellers from easily migrating to competing platforms.
The 8% commission rate positioning Whatnot’s take rate below some e-commerce platforms while still generating substantial revenue from high-volume sales, with the percentage representing balance between attracting sellers with favorable economics and funding the company’s significant operational and development costs.
The seller diversity ranging from independent entrepreneurs to established retailers demonstrating Whatnot’s appeal across different business scales, with the breadth indicating the platform serves both individual hobbyists selling collectibles from home and professional merchants moving substantial inventory through live format.
The $6 billion annual live sales doubling representing massive gross merchandise value flowing through the platform, with the transaction volume demonstrating that live shopping has progressed beyond experimental novelty to significant commerce channel even if Whatnot itself remains unprofitable while reinvesting in growth.
The 80+ minutes daily buyer engagement per user representing extraordinarily high platform usage exceeding typical social media metrics, with the time spent indicating that live shopping creates addictive entertainment value beyond utilitarian purchasing where users watch shows for enjoyment even when not buying.
The unprofitability despite $6 billion GMV reflecting typical venture-backed growth company economics where aggressive expansion and customer acquisition spending exceed current revenues, with investors accepting losses as acceptable if the company achieves market leadership before competitors can establish comparable positions.
The fastest-growing categories including beauty, fashion, handbags, electronics, antiques, coins, golf, snacks, and live plants demonstrating Whatnot’s breadth beyond traditional collectibles, with the category expansion indicating the live format works for diverse product types rather than being limited to niche hobbyist goods like trading cards and memorabilia.
The Seattle office focus on product, engineering, machine learning, marketplace integrity, and trust and safety indicating the location handles sophisticated technical challenges rather than routine development, with the specialization suggesting Whatnot views Seattle as premium engineering hub worthy of complex problem-solving rather than commodity coding work.
The 900-employee total workforce representing substantial organization for a six-year-old company, with the headcount indicating Whatnot has progressed beyond lean startup phase to scaled operation requiring significant personnel across technology, operations, customer support, and business functions.
Dan Bear’s experience previously opening Seattle offices for Snap, Hulu, and CloudKitchens demonstrating Whatnot hired an executive with specific expertise establishing satellite engineering locations, with the track record suggesting the company learned from those ventures’ successes and failures in attracting Seattle talent.
The 130+ companies operating Seattle satellite offices creating intense competition for technical talent, with Whatnot’s arrival adding another bidder to labor market where Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Google, and numerous startups already compete for limited pool of experienced engineers and product managers.
The 31 open positions and November 4 networking event demonstrating active recruitment efforts, with the combination of job postings and in-person gathering representing standard startup playbook for building employer brand and connecting with potential candidates through both online listings and personal relationships.
Seattle’s strategic importance as technology talent hub where companies can access engineering expertise without San Francisco or New York cost structures, though Puget Sound compensation and living expenses have risen substantially as remote work and satellite offices have increased competition for local talent.
