Article · 8 min read

How Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy Attracted Their First 1,000 Customers

Michael Blanding · Harvard Business School Working Knowledge Free Intermediate

A short research backed breakdown of how three marketplace giants solved the cold start problem by hand. You will see that all three focused on one side of the market first and went offline to recruit it, Etsy scouring craft fairs and Airbnb photographing listings in person. Useful if you are building anything two sided.

  • Marketplaces won by getting supply first, then customers
  • Etsy recruited its best sellers in person at craft fairs before going online
  • Getting the right early users matters as much as getting many
Open on library.hbs.edu ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. How did real successful startups actually land their first customers?
  2. I run a two-sided marketplace. Do I get my first customers by starting with supply or demand, and how do I avoid the empty-restaurant problem?

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