The Hunt, a Social Commerce Site, Draws Celebrity Interest

Tim Weingarten, the founder and chief executive of The Hunt, remembers how he shopped for clothes in the days before the ubiquity of the Internet.

“I used to tear pages out of a magazine in terms of things I wanted to buy,” Mr. Weingarten said. “But now, I’ll see a blazer I like on a social networking site rather than in a catalog or in a store.”

Trouble is, he said, it’s not always easy to figure out where a chic outfit or pair of sunglasses posted on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or Tumblr is available for sale. Shoppers are always asking themselves where they can find that item or something similar that meets their budget.

Last summer, Mr. Weingarten introduced an early version of The Hunt, his answer to that dilemma, with the formal introduction following in January.

The Hunt is a shopping site where members upload photographs of items they want and ask the community of users to help them identify the item or similar ones. “The community acts as your personal stylist,” he said.

It has “a couple thousand members” but draws a million people to the site each month, according to the company.

Mr. Weingarten says that The Hunt is part of a quickly changing wave of e-commerce sites like Fab, The Fancy, Svpply, and Wanelo that revolve around visual-heavy shopping experiences.

Of course, the mother of all these visual-browsing sites is Pinterest, but the reclusive start-up does not yet have an e-commerce model in its software. Which is why Mr. Weingarten, among others, believe that he can corner this burgeoning industry, which does not yet have a clear victor. The Hunt is still testing revenue models, but the company believes that collecting affiliate fees on transactions could be lucrative.

Previously, The Hunt raised $2 million during its initial seed round earlier this year. On Tuesday, the company announced it had raised an additional $700,000 in seed financing, led by a roster of celebrities and figures from the entertainment world, including Ashton Kutcher’s A-Grade investment firm and RedOne, the Grammy-winning producer behind Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez.

Mr. Weingarten says the celebrities won’t simply be product pushers and promoters. He expects them to help give product directions and improve the site’s usability as the company continues to grow.

“As people spend more time in front of photos and on these Web sites,” he said. “How we shop and what we shop for is going to be transformed.”