E-commerce startup Grand St. moved out of its invite-only mode today, allowing everyone to browse and shop the new gadgets that appear on the site daily. It’s also launching a new collection of goods that have previously appeared on the site and will always be for sale.
Grand St. considers itself a marketplace for “creative technology,” basically taking advantage of the explosion in hardware and gadgets that have emerged from makers and independent manufacturers over the last several years. The idea was to curate all the most interesting goods that have been produced and make them available to a broader group of customers.
The e-commerce site typically features one new piece of technology per day and sells those goods for 10 days or until they sell out — whichever comes first. It’s been operating in an invite-only mode since early this year, sending daily email newsletters to customers about the newest products to become available. After testing things out and feeling good about its ability to control inventory and ensure fast deliveries to users, it’s now open to anyone who wants to sign up, register and browse its goods.
In addition to launching publicly, Grand St. has unveiled a “Collection” of goods that it will make available to customers all the time, rather than disappear after a certain period of time. The Grand St. Collection will feature products that have previously been featured on the site and have proven to be popular with customers and were worth bringing back for the long haul.
Most products in the Collection are things that are hard to find or aren’t available on typical e-commerce sites like Amazon.com or in brick-and-mortar stores. That includes stuff like the Pax Vaporizer, the Bosavi Headlamp, and the Blink Steady Bike Light. The Collection is launching with 11 items, but more will be added as time goes on.
Grand St. has raised $1.3 million in funding from investors that include First Round Capital, with participation from David Tisch, Gary Vaynerchuk, betaworks, Collaborative Fund, MESA+, Quotidian Ventures, and Undercurrent.