Has anyone had any success or failure with building a Marketplace?

I've built and ran for 1+ year (the source code is here ) and now I don't like marketplaces ideas because with marketplaces you always have "egg or chicken" problem. Also you should market to both sides. My conclusion is that with marketplaces you should aim to become a leader. Otherwise it can be very hard to compete against established players.

1. one viable strategy I found is to provide online tool / app that is useful for supplier.

2. tried the monetization via ads but it was not working well. I think that the monetization strategy depends on your business model and the churn rate you have.

3. It is hard but probably the more narrow niche you have the better. The downside is that the niche's size could be too small.

4. check Sharetribe's marketplace academy. They have great articles about marketplaces. Sharetribe's founder also wrote a book

Hi Everyone,

Mid this year, I launched two sided marketplace for homecooked meals. My suppliers are homechef and small catering business. I am not considering success or failure at this stage as too short period.

1. My strategy to first gets as many suppliers on board as possible. I used both social media and phone to get them on board. Provide them business tips.

2.Charge 15% commission.

3. Infact i am looking for tips to measure scalability and marketing ideas as food marketplace are too competitive.

Hey there! I am running https://mentorcruise.com, launched early this year, so it might be too early to label it as success or failure. We are currently on ~ $2000 MRR, with a take rate of 15%, that means I get around $300 in my own pocket. Growing every month.

1. Going the 'not scalable' approach. I knew it was necessary to recruit kick ass mentors, so I personally reached out to them through Twitter. Took me around 3 months to get a mailing list of around 100 mentors together. On launch around 20 of them registered. Today, there are around 65 mentors.

2. A take rate (processing fee) of 15% on every transaction.

3. Being personal and growing in a niche (in my case, Tech)

4. You really need to focus on both sides. I had my supply ready, but the customers didn't come in by themselves. You need a way to keep the suppliers busy, or they will walk away.

Marketplaces are hard. Really, really hard. But when they grow, they grow extremely fast without you doing too much. It's awesome, but it takes a lot of effort.

I've built some landing pages to test the waters on a few marketplace ideas.