Startup marketplaces are hard, but they are also massively valuable if you can just figure how the heck to build them! I have been asked a lot for the advice, sources
to read and the like, by prospective savvy founders that want to learn before they start down the narrow, winding road. Invariably what I provide are a series of links to quality blogs like Bill Gurly, Josh Breinlinger, Fabrice Grinda etc., but there isn’t a cohesive body of knowledge to prime comprehension.
Fortunately, in November 2015, a VC called VersionOne (obviously American) put together a super 56 page guide to startup marketplaces. Whilst it is not in-depth enough to imbue actionable learnings, per se, it really it is quite terrific for neophytes to gain a comprehension of history, key drivers and levers and things to watch out for as startups start and evolve and face inevitable competition.
This guide has been updated twice with the current version being released in 2020.
There is not much benefit to you for me to extract a tl;dr here, and synthesize key points. The reality is if you want to get smart, you need to put in the work and learn a lot. This guide is not the definitive one stop shop, but it covers all the key points for you to know what you don’t know that you don’t know yet, to fill in the blanks. If you are building a startup marketplace, or thinking about building one, this is a fantastic place to start.
If you read it and find there are gaps and things that could be expounded upon, they have asked for feedback so they can build upon it. You can see the original post here.
Happy new year! Make it a prosperous one.
VersionOne Startup Marketplace Guide
[pdf-embedder url=”https://wordpress-153384-440792.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Guide-to-Marketplaces-Third-Edition.pdf” title=”Guide to Marketplaces-Third Edition”]Short version presentation
This is a presentation they wrote in 2015. I don’t see that they made one in 2020.