HobbyDB
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
Some sections are still being researched2 / 4
Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
hobbyDB was a Boulder, Colorado platform for collectors and enthusiasts to research, document and showcase their collections. Users uploaded images and recorded data about their collectibles, built wish lists, received alerts when wanted items went up for sale, and used a marketplace to list items for sale. Co-founded by Christian Braun and Andrew Adamides (with Alexandra Lindsay joining as head of marketing in 2015), it graduated from the Techstars accelerator in summer 2015 and aimed to catalog the entire collectibles industry — from Hot Wheels cars and Star Wars figurines to stamps — via controlled crowdsourcing with trained curators.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Co-founders Christian Braun and Andrew Adamides moved to the US to create hobbyDB and assembled an advisory board of collectibles experts.
- Techstars
hobbyDB graduated from the Techstars accelerator in summer 2015, hired a third co-founder and head of marketing, and integrated the web's largest Hot Wheels database, tripling its traffic.
- Catalog growth
The catalog grew to more than 275,000 database entries with data from over 30 collectible brand partners including Kidrobot and Minichamps.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.