What Grant LaFontaine has said about Whatnot
7 quotes · 1 episode · Sep 21, 2026
Grant LaFontaine, Canadian entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of the live-shopping marketplace Whatnot, has been quoted on Whatnot 7 times in 1 episode of My First Million, most recently on September 21, 2026. Each quote below is verbatim and links to the moment it was said.
In their words
LaFontaine said he avoids focusing on the company's valuation because Whatnot is only six and a half years in with much left to do.
“we started this thing six and a half years ago. There's still a lot of work to do”
My First Million: Whatnot founder: This is the future of e-commerce (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 1:00
LaFontaine said he funded the earliest work himself with roughly $100,000 to $200,000 in savings, paying check by check.
“Yeah, probably, I don't know, $100,000, $200,000 in the bank. Okay. Not including my 401k”
My First Million: Whatnot founder: This is the future of e-commerce (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 8:56
LaFontaine said the company maintains an extreme bias to action because doing things is how you learn, provided you admit mistakes and change course.
“we try and have an immense bias to action because you just learn things by doing things”
My First Million: Whatnot founder: This is the future of e-commerce (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 10:02
LaFontaine said Whatnot deliberately defined itself as user-driven rather than vision-driven, staying willing to change the idea if users did not love it.
“One of the things we always said is we're not a sort of vision driven company. We're a user driven company”
My First Million: Whatnot founder: This is the future of e-commerce (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 13:50
LaFontaine said Whatnot did about 30 sales in its first month of December 2019, many of them mispriced items.
“So sort of the journey for us was December 2019, we started it, and I bet you we did 30 sales”
My First Million: Whatnot founder: This is the future of e-commerce (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 29:21
LaFontaine gave the revenue trajectory as $2.3 million in total sales at the end of 2020, rising to $163 million the following year with about 100 employees.
“By December of 2020, we sort of ended the year at $2.3 million in total sales”
My First Million: Whatnot founder: This is the future of e-commerce (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 34:58
LaFontaine said Whatnot has multiple sellers doing well over nine figures, with its largest operation growing from three or four people to 150–200 built almost entirely on the platform.
“It's now probably 150 to 200 people, almost completely built on Whatnot”
My First Million: Whatnot founder: This is the future of e-commerce (Sep 21, 2026) · Listen from 58:36
Episodes
Whatnot founder: This is the future of e-commerceMy First Million · Sep 21, 2026 · 1 h 2 min
Whatnot co-founder Grant LaFontaine tells Shaan Puri and Sam Parr how a Funko Pop marketplace became a $20 billion live-commerce company.