Etsy CEO Josh Silverman Announces Exit Ahead Of Q3 Earnings Report
Etsy has announced CEO Josh Silverman will be stepping down at the end of the year with current President and Chief Growth Officer, Kruti Patel Goyal, taking the helm to lead the marketplace in 2026.
The executive switch up was revealed in a company press release ahead of today's Q3 earnings report:
BROOKLYN, N.Y., Oct. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Etsy, Inc. (NYSE: ETSY), which operates two-sided online marketplaces that connect millions of passionate and creative buyers and sellers around the world, today announced a leadership transition plan. Etsy's current President and Chief Growth Officer, Kruti Patel Goyal, will become Chief Executive Officer and will join Etsy's Board of Directors effective January 1, 2026.
This appointment comes as Josh Silverman has decided to step down as CEO, effective December 31, 2025. To provide continuity through this transition, Silverman is expected to serve as Executive Chair through December 31, 2026. Fred Wilson, who has served as the Chair of Etsy's Board since 2017, will step down as Chairman, but will continue to serve on Etsy's Board.
Josh Silverman said, "After over 8 years as Etsy's CEO, I've decided that this is the right time for me to hand over the leadership baton to the next generation. It has been an honor to lead Etsy and help foster creativity and self-expression in a world increasingly shaped by automation."
"Kruti is fabulously talented, and is the right leader to guide the business forward. In addition to her tremendous success as CEO of Depop, over the past year Kruti has evolved and led Etsy's strategic growth initiatives, which has led to improving top-line performance. She'll bring deep experience, a strong understanding of our customers, and a clear, forward-looking vision for Etsy's future as our next CEO."
"I remain confident in Etsy's continued growth—not only because of our unique marketplace, but because of the talented people behind it."
Silverman's tenure at the company has seen mixed results from pandemic highs to recent year's struggles with declining Gross Merchandise Sales and Active Buyers, activist investor Elliott Management taking a large stake in the company, tariff turmoil, and failure of his "house of brands" strategy with the sell off of subsidiaries Elo7 and Reverb.
Liz Morton
The news is also not surprising in light of Silverman's recent stock sales which have totaled over ~$26M in 2025 and comes after other executive shake ups announced last month.
Liz Morton
And there's another executive departure that didn't make it in today's announcement - VP & GM Seller Services Chirag Patel has left Etsy to join Shopify as VP Product & GM Money.
Silverman earned $17.9 million in total compensation in 2024 (including a salary of $660,000), 84 times the median compensation of all of its employees ($214,827, not including the CEO).
He will remain an employee of Etsy and will receive an annual base salary of $420,000 during the Executive Chair Term, ending at the end of 2026 and will also receive an $8 million equity award.
Patel Goyal will receive a base salary of $700,000 per year and will receive a promotion equity award with a fair value of $16 million, according to an SEC filing.
Kruti Patel Goyal says she is "honored and excited to step into the CEO role at Etsy at such a pivotal time," adding "As customer needs continue to evolve, Etsy will too — but we'll do it in a way that stays true to who we are, leaning into what makes us different: human connection, our sellers' creativity, and a distinctly personal shopping experience. I believe that we have been on the right track this year in our efforts to return our core marketplace to GMS growth and deliver value to our community and our shareholders."
Sellers will likely having some interesting questions for the soon to be new CEO at the upcoming Ask Me Anything event that will be hosted by Patel Goyal on November 4th.
And while subsidiary Depop continues its growth streak, the main Etsy marketplace continues to struggle with Q3 highlights reported today:
Performance highlights for the Etsy marketplace include:
- GMS was $2,432.6 million, down 2.4% year-over-year and down 3.2% on a currency-neutral basis.
- GMS transacted on the Etsy App grew 5% year-over-year, and represented approximately 46% of GMS.
- Active sellers totaled 5.5 million, a 10.9% year-over-year decrease, but up modestly on a sequential basis, consistent with the expected impact of the seller set-up fee implemented in April 2024. The percentage of total active sellers with a sale increased year-over-year in the third quarter.
- Active buyers totaled 86.6 million, down 5.0% year-over-year, and down 0.8% sequentially. We reactivated 6.6 million buyers in the quarter, a 3.8% increase from the number of buyers reactivated in the prior year, and up 0.8% sequentially. During the quarter, Etsy acquired 4.8 million new buyers, and our trailing twelve month count of habitual buyers was 6.0 million at quarter end.
- GMS per active buyer on a trailing twelve month basis was $121, down 1.6% year-over-year. This metric improved sequentially, and the year-over-year decline moderated.
Performance highlights for the Depop marketplace include:
- GMS was $292.1 million, up 39.4% year-over-year, an acceleration from the prior quarter. New user growth and improvements to buyer conversion were primarily responsible for 59% year-over-year GMS growth in the United States. Australia also saw strong momentum, driven by more than 100% year-over-year growth in new user signups, supported by increased investments in paid marketing activity.
- Depop active sellers totaled 3.0 million, a 40.8% increase year-over-year; active buyers were up 38.8% to 6.6 million.
Stay tuned for more details of Etsy's Q3 205 performance and executive changes after today's earnings call at 5:30 AM Pacific/8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
