Tank Talks By Ripple Ventures Tank Talk: Fabrice Grinda (Founding Partner @ FJ Labs) - Investing in Marketplaces Before It's A Marketplace
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Fabrice Grinda, Founding Partner of @ FJ Labs to discuss “Investing in Marketplaces Before It’s A Marketplace”
Before starting FJ Labs, Fabrice was an incredibly successful entrepreneur having launched several startups before and after the dot-com bust in early 2000. His first startup Aucland was started by Fabrice at age 23 which grew into one of the largest auction sites in Europe. Next, Fabrice started Zingy in 2001 and grew it to $200 million in sales in four years. After selling Zingy, Fabrice launched OLX or the Online-Exchange as the Craigslist alternative for the world outside the US and grew it to over 300 million monthly unique visitors.
On the investing side, Fabrice has over $300 million in exits across 150 companies and has made over 500 angel investments in total, with an impressive track record as an early investor in Alibaba, Lending Club, Delivery Hero and Brightroll among many others.
Today you will get to hear Fabrice's tips and tricks on how marketplace startups should tackle challenges. You will hear his thoughts on supply/demand dynamics, SaaS tools in a marketplace, Payment infrastructure and the importance of frequency in building a marketplace.
Fabrice’s Book Recommendations
Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker, PhD
Lifespan - Why We Age and Why We Don't Have - David A. Sinclair, PhD
Fabrice’s words of inspiration - “Whatever you think you can, begin it, boldness is magic and genius to it.”
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