It looks like I have some new followers.
For those that don't know me outside of posting about marketplaces, I'll intro myself here.
I'm a marketplace founder (most recently Studiotime), now working with & investing in marketplaces.
I started the Everything Marketplaces
Love what a founder told me earlier today:
"I bootstrapped to make mistakes and learn. I went on to raise venture capital when I was ready to capitalize on the lessons."
I’m excited to share some big news.
Today we’re announcing Marketplace Capital (
@marketplacevc
), which is our new $10M venture fund for backing early stage marketplaces.
Here’s more about it & why I’m so excited:
Every 2-3 months I spend some time rereading The Cold Start Problem by
@andrewchen
I've lost count of how many times I've done so by now, but I always have new notes & learnings from it every time I do.
I highly recommend reading it if you're starting a marketplace, since it
I just launched my first guide (or book), The Guide To No Code Marketplaces!
It’s everything you need to know about building & running a no code marketplace.
It’s years of experience, learnings, and insights packed into 30+ pages and completely FREE.
Carrd (
@carrd
) is a simple, yet powerful no code tool.
Here’s how I used it to build a niche community & site with resources that’s generated 5-figures in revenue 👇
Finally spending time diving into the new
@stripe
1099 reporting integration for Connect accounts & have to say this is a game changer for marketplaces.
The Payable acquisition & integration was such a great move by Stripe and both myself & other marketplace founders thank you.
The second edition of The Guide To No Code Marketplaces is now live!
It's 50+ pages packed with everything you need to know about building, launching, & scaling a marketplace using no code.
The best part is that I’m making it free.
If you're not paying attention, the
@Airbnb
product releases are a masterclass on how to roll out new features & updates while speaking directly to your users.
Each release gets better, but the latest one with
@bchesky
speaking directly to hosts really raised the bar.
"Our overnight success took 1,000 days."
This quote by
@bchesky
is a great reminder for founders to not give up when starting a marketplace & it gets challenging.
Excited to finally share what I’ve been working on the past few months.
Everything Marketplaces (
@marketplaceshq
) is a community for marketplace founders & operators.
Today’s our big day & we just launched!
If you're a founder that's struggling, alone this Christmas evening, and need someone to talk to my DM's are open.
I've been through a lot and while I'm not intending to give advice, I'm offering an open ear & someone to chat with during what might be tough times.
If I could go back to learn about one thing before starting a marketplace, it would be SEO.
It sounded dated to me and wasn't the latest growth tactic though, so I overlooked it.
After scaling a few marketplaces now, it's clear how important it usually is for growth.
Who's actively investing in early stage marketplace startups right now?
Reply below if you are sharing stage, check size, & the best way for founders to reach you.
Starting a thread to help marketplace founders raising right now.
Just backed an awesome marketplace founder by making my first $100k+ investment.
Most of my previous investments have been smaller angel checks or through syndicates, so it feels good to be able to do more.
Not only that, but this is through a new fund...more on that soon!
Had a great chat with the
@stripe
Connect team today about no & low code marketplaces.
I’m always impressed by their eagerness to hear from operators & get feedback on what they’re building.
Excited for the future of no & low code marketplaces with payments becoming easier!
First-time marketplace founder: "What are some of the best ways to acquire supply, then demand that scale?"
Second-time marketplace founder: "How can I get one side of the marketplace to invite the other?"
2+ years after first putting
@bchesky
on my bucket list for group chat guests, it looks like it's actually going to happen.
We're working on scheduling this now, so I can't wait for what should be an incredible chat with Brian on marketplaces!
Spent some time rereading The Cold Start Problem by
@andrewchen
this weekend, which I couldn’t recommend more.
This is the my 3rd copy, since I keep giving it to other marketplace founders.
Another great top 100 marketplaces report by
@a16z
@future
There are lots of changes, trends, & new breakouts with the wild year we've had in the world of marketplaces.
I’ve been heads down working on the new & improved Everything Marketplaces (
@marketplaceshq
) the past few months.
I’m excited to finally share it today & for our big relaunch.
Here’s what's new 👇
I'm going back to watch the recording again (5+ times now) from our recent group chat with John Armstrong from
@ReibusInternat1
and there are so many incredible insights, learnings, & takeaways.
This is a must watch for anyone building a B2B marketplace.
Every time I use
@AngelList
to send out a new syndicate deal, I'm reminded of how great the product experience is.
A big thanks to the team for continuing to ship product that makes running a syndicate & backing awesome founders possible.
I’m excited to share some big news today for the Everything Marketplaces (
@marketplaceshq
) community.
We just launched our syndicate, so we can now back some of the incredible founders & marketplaces in the community with capital.
Here’s more & why I’m so excited about it 👇
Most of you know how much I love The Cold Start Problem by
@andrewchen
& that I've been sending copies to founders over the past few months.
There are now 100+ more en route, which we'll be giving away to everyone at our marketplace meetup during
#LATechWeek
What a year 2020 has been & I never thought that I'd start a community that would quickly grow to 425+ amazing marketplace founders & leaders.
Here's a snapshot of our
@marketplaceshq
newsletter with a 2020 recap & first year in review that went out this morning.
One of the most challenging things about marketplaces is that they take time.
Most stop doing the manual that's required to jumpstart them after a short period of time.
If you keep going though, the reward when the flywheel kicks in makes it all worth it.
A few more copies of The Cold Start Problem arrived just in time for our marketplace meetup later today.
Excited to hang & talk marketplaces with everyone soon!
I was just going through the latest
@a16z
marketplace 100 list again & it's cool to see how many we now have in the Everything Marketplaces (
@marketplaceshq
) community.
@bchesky
I keep saying it, but it's incredible to see how you've continued to not just speak with your users, but listen to them while operating at scale.
You're setting the bar for what it's like to be a marketplace founder & also leading by example!
This is a really helpful post by
@omooretweets
on the
@a16z
@future
blog covering marketplace GMV retention.
I'd highly suggest all marketplace founders reading as it goes into detail on why it's so important, how to measure it, benchmarks, & more.
Just a reminder that we've started investing in some amazing founders & marketplaces with the Everything Marketplaces (
@marketplaceshq
) syndicate.
You can request to back & invest with us via
@AngelList
There have been some really great posts & thoughts shared around the creator economy (
@ljin18
@briannekimmel
@nbashaw
)
Who's been sharing about & exploring the community economy?
Marketplace founders:
If you're building a marketplace that helps people make extra income or businesses generate additional revenue, they'll probably need you even more in 2023.
Keep this in mind if you need extra motivation right now.
Every interaction I have with the
@stripe
team & support is a reminder of what exceptional customer support is like.
All of us in the startup world can take notes & learn from them.
1 year ago today I set up a Slack group, Twitter, and started Everything Marketplaces (
@marketplaceshq
)
Since then, we’ve:
-Grown to 550+ marketplace founders & leaders
-Hosted 50+ chats & workshops
-Helped founders raise
-Built the go-to marketplace community & support network
A few things I would go back to tell myself when first starting a marketplace:
1. Building initial supply & demand is a manual process
2. Constrain more
3. Solve for the hard side
4. What works in one category or market might not work in others
5. Liquidity is what matters
Cool seeing
@CircleApp
launch today & generating quite the interest.
Looks like it has a lot of potential and can be added to the no code toolkit:
Selling online
@Shopify
Marketplaces
@sharetribe
Community
@CircleApp
No code is on the rise & starting is getting easier!
Are you a marketplace founder & fundraising right now?
If so, reply below sharing more.
I’d love to start a thread to help build up some visibility for those that are!
Excited to finally share what I’ve been working on the past few months.
Marketplace School is our new online course for the Everything Marketplaces (
@marketplaceshq
) community to help founders learn how to build, launch, & scale a marketplace startup.
Want to see some examples of live marketplaces that were built using no code?
I made a directory of no code marketplaces that were built using
@sharetribe
@webflow
and
@bubble
You can also see their tool stacks, integrations, and more.
I've been busy & here's a few things I've recently launched for marketplaces:
Marketplace guides & tutorials
Co-founder match
Investor database
Jobs board
+ more coming soon
Marketplace predictions for 2022:
-The rise of B2B marketplaces
-Niche marketplaces start layering on financial services
-Consumer marketplaces prioritize community
-Increase in M&A
-Web3 breaks the mold of how marketplaces typically build network effects
We just wrapped an incredible group chat this morning with
@andrewchen
and it was one for the books!
There were so many great questions from marketplace founders & teams, but we couldn't get to them all.
Starting a follow-up thread for Q&A with
@andrewchen
here 👇
A huge thanks to everyone that came out to our Marketplace Chat & Meetup for LA
#TechWeek
yesterday.
Our special guests
@andrewchen
@omooretweets
@azizkag
drew a crowd of 125+ for a really awesome chat that we had on marketplaces.
Here's a few pics & we'll be sharing more soon!
From the outside marketplaces may seem like they're somewhat automated & easy to scale.
When you operate one, you know how manual & operationally intense they actually are.
What does the no code movement, the rise of the solo founder & entrepreneurship, and early-stage investing with
@AngelList
Syndicates & now Rolling Funds all have in common?
They're all advancements that have (and are) facing opposition by some due to disrupting the norm.
I’ve never regretted the decision to go niche when starting a marketplace.
Looking back now, I would probably tell myself to go even more niche or narrow on a specific problem, market, & opportunity in the beginning.
2022 was the biggest year yet for the Everything Marketplaces community:
-Launched our new community & resources
-Grew to 1,500+ marketplace founders & teams
-Hosted 125+ events
-Had 10+ local meetups
-$200M+ raised by community members
+ more
This recap makes me really proud
A very special edition (
#138
) of our Everything Marketplaces newsletter just went out!
We shared our 2022 Recap & Year In Review.
Here's a preview sharing more:
The future is more marketplaces.
There are so many examples of really cool marketplaces being started shared in the replies to this.
I also wouldn't be surprised if one (or more) turn into marketplaces that we start to hear more of soon.
One of my favorite moments for the Everything Marketplaces (
@marketplaceshq
) community this past year was at our LA meetup seeing 140+ marketplace founders & leaders come together.
My goal is to do more of these local meetups in 2023.
What cities should we do them in?
It's crazy to think that a year ago today I thought lockdown boredom was why I had just spent $18 on
@GoDaddy
to buy
Less then a year later, I could never have imagined such an incredible community for those in marketplaces.
Here's to the unexpected.
One of the reasons why I’ve always loved being a marketplace founder is that the feeling of the "0-1 stage" doesn’t go away, even as you scale.
Expanding into new markets, categories, & even layering on services can feel like starting at the beginning again.
How to start a marketplace in 2022 as a non-technical founder:
Consumer marketplace- Start by building a community using
@circleapp
B2C/B2B marketplace- Use no code tools & platforms like
@webflow
@bubble
@sharetribe
The barriers to start a marketplace have been reduced
@patrickc
@stripe
A few on my wishlist:
-Hosted checkout pages & management for subscriptions
-More tax tools for Stripe Connect & marketplaces
-More Radar functionality for earlier-stage marketplaces to access
-More content & maybe workshops to help early-stage founders for Stripe Connect