I recently attended the Sharing Economy Global Summit 2022 in London, sponsored by Marketplace Risk. The conference brought together people from around the world to talk about the opportunities, operational challenges, regulatory environment, and societal implications of the “sharing economy,” i.e., individuals renting or “sharing” their assets with others. This…

How do marketplace operators determine if they have product/market fit? The first thing to realize is that product/market fit is not an exact measure; it’s more of a general benchmark for marketplace operators (and software entrepreneurs in general) to determine where to focus their early-stage product and customer development efforts…

During the dot-com days of the early 2000s, marketplaces sprouted up in a variety of markets, particularly B2B markets, and most of them failed. Why? There’s a longer story that can wait for a future article, but the short version is that these early marketplace operators thought that by simply…

Let’s now look at the first area to consider for product/market fit for marketplaces: the markets. There are certain conditions under which marketplaces are uniquely positioned to solve problems between prospective buyers and sellers. …

I had an opportunity recently to facilitate a discussion at The Marketplace Conference 2021, on one of the more complex topics for managing digital marketplaces: determining product/market fit. (Note: “marketplace,” unless otherwise noted, refers to a digital marketplace). It was an engaging discussion that surfaced many of the unique challenges…

For the better part of my career, I have worked for digital marketplace businesses serving as a general manager, growth leader, product manager and strategy consultant. The digital marketplace is a particularly complex business structure, and in these roles, I have had my share of successes, misfires and “in-betweens.” …