In order to build a scalable marketplace, you need to have an acquisition channel that scales. And typically, that is not just paid advertising or sales because that's really expensive. We did email marketing, a thumbtack, we did some echenegan's with Craigslist back in the day, which I'm happy to talk about. The next generation has to find kind of the next growth hack.
Today we chat with Jonathan Swanson, cofounder of Thumbtack, Athena, and Powerset. We cover a ton of ground - starting with the Sunday idea club that led to Thumbtack, how to scale a marketplace, and how to choose ideas you'd happily spent a decade on. Next, we jump into the science of delegation - the idea at the core of Athena. Jonathan talks through how to delegate to an EA, when to start with one, a system of delegation that creates asymmetric upside and what type of founders should consider it.