Ravelry is Showered with Money and Love from Its Fans

Ravelry is the perfect site for Etsy fans and has been one of our favorite startups.  As it also happens to demonstrate one of the best examples of self propelled viral growth.  In its recent “Ravelraiser” fundraiser event, Ravelry fans showered it with both money and love.

"In 3 weeks, 3,457 Ravelers have donated a total of $71,000 to Ravelry. Not only did we receive an amazing financial boost, we also received a flood of love. About 800 people wrote up really wonderful and amazing notes in the 10 Lousy Bucks group’s 'Why I gave' thread."

"Jess and I are still reading all of the kind words - it feels so good to know that people are really happy about Ravelry. The stories are all different! We never imagined that so many people would come to our site and get so much out of it."

Although Ravelry has over 100,000 members, it still operates in Beta mode. And since the Beta version operates on a cost neutral basis, there seems to be no rush with an official launch.

"Ravelry does earn money. Advertising and affiliate programs cover our monthly costs and our paychecks but your donations have really allowed us to do more than just keep things running."

The fate of the donation money is revealed by the founders in their Unraveled blog.

See also this video report and an extensive interview with the founders

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.