Etsy, who some have called E-Bay's "funky little sister," is moving to Hudson's Cannonball Factory in the coming months, shifting a portion of its business center from Brooklyn, where the entity was founded by three NYU students in 2005, and adding 50 local jobs, according to a letter sent to local business people by Etsy principal Rob Kalin on January 17. "I started Etsy to create opportunities in the world -- for myself, for small business owners, for people who make things, people who find things, and more," Kalin wrote in his e-mail on MOnday. "I love that we are be able to bring jobs to Hudson. Right now we're working to get things setup. (As of this email, the building doesn't even have heat! But that's happening quickly.) Our plan is to start with customer support positions, and grow from there. Etsy HQ will remain in Brooklyn, and I hope to grow our Hudson office to 50 employees or more. Jobs at Etsy come with a salary, benefits (medical, dental, vision) paid for in full by the company (including family plans). We'll be posting actual job descriptions soon."

A huge online marketplace stuffed with handmade, one-of-a-kind products, Etsy is named for a term found in Frederico Fellini's classic art film, 9 1/2, and now features 100,000 creators and designers worldwide selling everything from jewelery to jumpers through the site. Etsy tripled its gross sales in 2008 to $90 million, while simultaneously becoming as much a community as an e-commerce site, with actual and virtual meetups organized by location (Singapore, Saskatchewan), medium (papier-mâché, mosaic), and interest area (Chainmailers Guild, Lizards and Lollipops). The company just noted that the company just came off its best month ever, selling $41.1 million of goods in December, 10.1% higher than November's $37.3 million... and over 2,152,992 items. 468,814 new members joined the Etsy community in the month, up 70,603, or 17.7%, from November.

"My family is from New York (from Tarrytown up to Syracuse), and I've spent many a night in a lean-to amongst the Catskills," Kalin wrote, explaining his fast-rising company's latest move. "Etsy currently employs 175 people, most of them in our Brooklyn office. As we continue to grow, it makes a lot of sense to me to open up an office in Hudson.
I love the town, we found an incredible building (thank you Chris at the Cannonball Factory, and Theresa at Keystone for helping), and as everyone here knows -- better than I do, I'm sure -- there are so many great people."

Talk about a perfect match for Hudson's core of small retail businesses, as well as the region's fast-changing profile.