How to seed your marketplace
The earliest days in a marketplace are a tricky time. As I’ve discussed before, there’s a chicken and egg problem when it comes to supply and demand: customers need supply, and suppliers need customers. But it’s nearly impossible to ramp up supply and demand in lock step. We’ve found that in most cases it’s best […]
What’s the right business model for your marketplace?
I recently came across a good story about pivoting and how hard it can be to find the right monetization model for your marketplace. Thumbtack is a platform that helps people find service professionals (photographers, painters, home contractors, movers, etc.). My friend (and Thumbtack CEO) Marco Zappacosta described how the company first tried transaction fees, then a […]
Why there won’t be an Uber in every vertical
The success of Uber has inspired hundreds of startups to call themselves the “Uber of X, Y, or Z.” There are now apps to order groceries, have you car washed, get legal counsel, and much more. Uber is part of a broad category of on-demand mobile services. Thanks to smartphones and cloud computing, it’s easier than […]
The data we use to evaluate marketplace traction
At Version One, we love marketplaces and platforms. Over 50% of our portfolio companies fall into this category including our recent investments in Headout (a mobile-first marketplace for last-minute travel experiences) and VarageSale (a mobile-first community-driven Craigslist). We’re often asked what we look for in a marketplace. While there are many factors to consider (Bill […]
V1’s latest investment: Headout, a last minute marketplace for tours, activities and experiences
We’re thrilled to announce our newest investment: Headout, an on-demand mobile concierge that helps travellers discover and book last-minute activities during vacations at great prices. Headout makes discovering new cities easy and spontaneous. As frequent travelers, we have been watching this space for a while, but most players took a web-first, mobile-second approach. Web-first doesn’t […]