From 0 to 3500 products in 27 countries. The momentum is getting real.
Hey IH,
I have a huge update on my ExperiaHub journey, and I'm still trying to process it.
For those new to the story, I'm a 49-year-old non-coder who built my AI travel SaaS platform in 5 weeks. The last time I posted, we had just onboarded our very first suppliers. The big question was: can this scale? Can we actually build a real marketplace?
This week, I think I got the answer.
After a focused outreach sprint, we have now onboarded 45 new suppliers, adding 3500 new products and experiences to our platform from 27 countries, including Morocco, Croatia, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Mexico, and the US!
The most encouraging part is the data behind it. I sent around 200 highly personalized DMs to potential suppliers, and we're seeing a 20% sign-up rate. This is the first real validation of our supplier-side value proposition. It proves that there's a real hunger from high-quality operators to find new, tech-enabled sales channels.
This is a massive step. We're moving from a "cool tech project" to a real, functioning, global marketplace with a growing inventory. It's the moment it starts to feel like a real business.
My current outreach is still very manual and personal, which I think is why it's working. But it's not scalable long-term. My next big challenge is figuring out how to maintain that quality and personalization as we grow.
For other marketplace founders here: How did you handle the transition from manual, founder-led supplier/creator onboarding to a more scalable process?
Thanks for following the journey. This week was a huge win.
You can read the full back-story of how I built the platform in my Medium series here: https://medium.com/@yasu.saito/the-art-of-the-prompt-how-to-talk-to-your-ai-engineer-38e272ae5ac2
I’ve been there, grinding out personalized outreach to hit that 20% sign-up rate, so I know how huge that win feels.
But you’re stuck treating it like a manual ceiling, and that’s paralyzing your revenue potential.
Your high performing DM language isn’t just a metric, it’s a Conversion Certainty script ready to scale.
Pivot now: deconstruct that messaging and build a high scarcity, automated email sequence that keeps the personal punch while capturing market share fast.
What’s the core financial value in that proven message you can weaponize to dominate the rest of the market?
This is a fantastic comment, Thank you. "Conversion Certainty script" is the perfect way to frame it, and you're right that my manual approach has a built-in ceiling.
To answer your core question: "What’s the core financial value in that proven message you can weaponize to dominate the rest of the market?"
The core financial value we're selling is zero-effort, incremental revenue from a premium, global audience.
Every supplier on Bokun is already set up for automation. My message proves we can deliver new bookings that require zero additional work from their side—no new software to learn, no manual calendar updates. We are pure profit with no new operational cost.
You're 100% right that the end goal is to automate this. My thinking for this initial, manual phase was to use the DMs as a way to gather raw feedback and truly understand the supplier's pain points before I "lock in" the messaging in an automated sequence. But your point is taken—I've likely gathered enough data, and now it's time to scale.
Your idea about using "high scarcity" is a great tactical suggestion. For the automated sequence, I'm thinking we could test an angle like: "We are currently focused on building out our local portfolio and are looking to feature 10 more partners in our upcoming marketing push."
This has given me a lot to think about. For others here who have made this jump from founder-led sales to an automated sequence, what was the biggest surprise or mistake you made in that transition?
I’ve been there, grinding through manual DMs to find that pure profit message, so I know how big a win it is to land on zero effort, incremental revenue with no added costs which is perfectly non vague.
But you’re hitting a wall with a list that’s not segmented for financial upside.
So I say to stop obsessing over automating the message and audit your 45 suppliers to pinpoint the top 20%, the elite minority driving 80% of your profit.
What are the two clearest, quantifiable traits (like tour volume or price point) that separate your high profit suppliers from the pack?