Growth Insights From Grubhub, Eventbrite, Airbnb, & Whatnot With Casey Winters
Apr 20, 2024
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Casey Winters, Growth Advisor to marketplaces, discusses leveraging supply for demand, frequency impact on marketplaces, optimizing supply, owning demand, category expansion strategies, challenges with SaaS-first approach, network effects, prioritizing supply and demand for long-term success
Driving more demand and supply is crucial for marketplace success.
Strategic sequencing from direct to cross-side network effects enhances growth and defensibility.
Prioritizing marketplace value proposition over a SaaS-first approach is essential for success.
Deep dives
Understanding Marketplaces: Important Insights from Casey Winers
Marketplace expert Casey Winers shares valuable insights on building successful marketplaces. He emphasizes the significance of driving more demand and supply to ensure marketplace success. By focusing on connecting supply and demand, marketplaces can attract and retain users effectively. Casey stresses the importance of prioritizing features that drive more business to both supply and demand sides.
Strategic Sequencing: Balancing Direct and Cross-Side Network Effects
Casey discusses the strategic sequencing of direct and cross-side network effects in marketplaces. He highlights the value of initially leaning into direct network effects to achieve defensibility and faster growth. Transitioning to cross-side network effects can lead to higher take rates from suppliers and increased consumer-side retention. Understanding the gains from investing in direct network effects before sequencing to cross-side effects is crucial for marketplace success.
Transitioning to Marketplace Model: SaaS First Approach Evaluation
Casey challenges the effectiveness of the SaaS-first approach to building marketplaces. He cautions against starting as a SaaS business and transitioning to a marketplace model later on, citing challenges in targeting low-frequency actions and maintaining focus. Casey advises prioritizing the marketplace value proposition from the beginning to avoid potential pitfalls in transitioning from SaaS to marketplace.
Navigating silo to Marketplace: Strategic Decision Making
Casey offers strategic guidance on transitioning from a silo approach to a marketplace model. He recommends evaluating the gains from building direct network effects within the creator-to-fan community before moving towards discovery and cross-selling. By assessing emergent behaviors and balancing community and transactional value propositions, the transition to a marketplace can be strategically sequenced.
Optimizing Marketplace Strategy: Lessons for Future Success
Through the podcast episode, Casey Winers provides valuable lessons for marketplace success. He underscores the importance of prioritizing user growth, supply-demand connection, and marketplace value propositions over features. By focusing on driving more demand and supply, marketplace founders can enhance their chances of building successful and sustainable platforms.
Insights on Marketplace Transition: From Community to Discovery
Casey shares insights on transitioning from community-focused models to marketplace discovery. He advises prioritizing direct network effects within creator-fan communities to enhance defensibility and growth. By carefully evaluating emergent behaviors and strategic sequences, marketplace founders can optimize their transition to a broader marketplace model.
The Everything Marketplaces podcast is an audio version of our group chats. This episode is with Casey Winters, who's a Growth Advisor to marketplaces like Whatnot and Bounce and was most recently the Chief Product Officer at Eventbrite. He’s also worked with marketplaces like Faire, Hipcamp, Airbnb, Thumbtack, and many more. Casey is a leading mind when it comes to product & growth for marketplaces and frequently publishes posts about them on his blog.
