Article

The Supply Features Trap Of Marketplaces

Gilad Horev · Reforge Blog Free Advanced

This warns you against a specific mistake that happens after you correctly anchor on supply: building every feature suppliers ask for until you are running a service tool instead of a marketplace. It matters here because a narrow, well defined supply ICP can tempt you to over serve that one side at the expense of matching them to demand. Read it once supply is defined and you are tempted to keep customizing for them.

  • Building every feature your defined supply side requests can quietly turn your marketplace into a service tool
  • Tie supply investment back to marketplace transaction volume, not supplier satisfaction alone
  • A precise ICP does not mean building everything that ICP asks for

The question it answers

  1. How do I define an ideal customer for a two-sided marketplace where I have to pick two of them?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  3. Market size is meaningless until you know exactly who you're for, and Lenny turns that into a concrete, repeatable ICP exercise... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~15 min read How to identify your ideal customer profile (ICP) Lenny Rachitsky
  4. Video · ~25 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky
  5. For a two-sided marketplace, the first real decision is which side to define and win first, and this essay makes the case... NFX Essay · Long read (about 25 minutes) 19 Tactics to Solve the Chicken-or-Egg Problem and Grow Your Marketplace James Currier
  6. This is the most concrete answer to which of your two customers to define first, built from interviews with 17 major... Lenny's Newsletter Article · Long read (about 20 minutes) How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business, Part 2: Cracking the Chicken-and-Egg Problem (Supply vs. Demand) Lenny Rachitsky
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →