All guidesMarketplaces
The Marketplace Liquidity Playbook
What we learned building our own one-fee restaurant marketplace — supply onboarding, demand acquisition, hotspot density.
Why most marketplaces stall
Marketplaces only work when both sides show up — with enough density, in enough overlapping geographies, at enough overlapping times. Most early-stage marketplaces solve for one side and assume the other will follow. They won't.
What we'd do today
Pick three hotspot zip codes and saturate supply there before opening demand at all.
Use AI to score and prioritise supply onboarding — not just by size, but by how complementary they are to existing inventory.
Build the operations dashboard before the consumer-facing app. Liquidity is an ops problem first.