Product in Marketplaces done right: from how to deal with the "cold start", to how to organize the product team - With Cliff des Ligneris (GetYourGuide)

In this Reasonable Product Interview, I had the pleasure of having Cliff des Ligneris talk about 2 sided marketplace.

Cliff is Product Lead at GetYourGuide and has been running product at several marketplaces in the past including at Doodle, Car4You, and now at Get your Guide.

We spoke about two-sided Marketplaces and why they are hard to build, (the “cold start problem) - but also why they’re a great business once you’re in. 

As Cliff said, there is not really you can do to make it easier, besides the fact that “sometimes you have to cheat. You have to find the chat code to create one so that the other side. Because you can’t do both at the same time, it’s just impossible”. Cliff also shared some concrete tips and experience doing this kind of “cheating” to bootstrap a marketplace against an established incumbent.

We went on discussing how to create the right team setup for a marketplace business, and why this will have to change over time anyway. 

Finally, we spoke about being a PM in Europe vs in the US. In Europe, there are just fewer people to look at in terms of best practices, which requires PMs and aspiring PMs to be even more proactive in grabbing the skills and way of thinking that you need to be a great PM.

Cliff shared with us what he gives as “PM tools” to his new hires, and what he expects from them to get “up to speed”. 

The most important piece of advice from Cliff to become a PM?  “think twice before you you actually decide you want to be a PM, it’s hard!”

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