Fab Co-Founder Bradford Shellhammer Lands at eBay

Bradford Shellhammer, the creative mind beyond shopping sites Fab.com and the short-lived Bezar.com, has taken a role at eBay, he said in a Facebook post on Thursday. Shellhammer said he’s joining eBay’s “innovation team” where he will run “curation and merchandising.”

Shellhammer is probably best known for co-founding Fab.com, a discount site for funky home decor and accessories that rapidly gained a cult following before imploding amid unsustainable growth and selling for a small fraction of its valuation.

Shellhammer eventually went on to launch another shopping site, Bezar.com, in early 2015, which looked a lot like Fab, but with tighter curation and more emphasis on the designer beyond each item. He sold it in a small transaction to shopping site AHALife after being unable to secure more outside investment to keep running the business independently. Bezar had raised $2.25 million in a seed funding round.

In eBay, Shellhammer is joining a company that has for the last couple of years pursued initiatives aimed at curating the best of its massive product catalogue into browsable collections, and surfacing them to the right people based on their browsing habits.

“EBay has always been close to my heart and much of what inspired building Fab.com and Bezar was grounded in my decades-old hunts for unique products on eBay (Grace Jones records, Eames shell chairs, Herman Miller picnic posters),” Shellhammer wrote. “So in a way it’s sort of a homecoming to me, as eBay is the world’s biggest and best marketplace for people like me: passionate collectors searching for unique finds at amazing prices.”

I am excited to announce that I have joined eBay’s innovation team heading up Curation and Merchandising. I will be working from both the eBay San Francisco and NYC offices, living between two cities I love. eBay has always been close to my heart and much of what inspired building Fab.com and Bezar was grounded in my decade’s old hunts for unique products on eBay (Grace Jones record, Eames shell chairs, Herman Miller picnic posters). So in a way it's sort of a homecoming to me, as eBay is the world’s biggest and best marketplace for people like me: passionate collectors searching for unique finds at amazing prices. When I met the eBay team I knew I’d found a team of comrades, inspired people dedicated to building innovative new ways to shop and empowering sellers all over the globe. My role at eBay will be focused on building new initiatives within the company, centered around telling stories, spotting trends, curating unique goods, and delighting customers. eBay was the first online place I ever shopped. I am thrilled to be part of the team. Here are some of them!

A photo posted by Bradford Shane Shellhammer (@youngbradford) on Mar 24, 2016 at 5:34pm PDT