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November 7, 2014

Marketplace Wrap-up

pink staircase

Earlier this month we announced our investment in Minted, an online crowdsourcing marketplace that connects consumers with the world’s best independent fine artists and designers.

On the heels of that news, I’d like to share some thoughts I’ve put together on marketplace development and best practices.  I hope these articles are useful to you.

Below please find excerpts from the articles and links to the full text.

FAST COMPANY: 3 WAYS YOU CAN RISE ABOVE THE NOISE IN A CROWDED MARKET

IF THESE PRINCIPLES OF BUILDING A BUSINESS WORKED FOR NETFLIX AND WARBY PARKER, THEY CAN WORK FOR YOUR STARTUP

It’s undeniable that technology has impacted the way we build brands.  The good news about the digital age is that it’s a lot cheaper and less risky to launch a business-to-consumer business because you can move past traditional retail distribution channels.

WIRED: THREE TRAITS OF SUCCESSFUL ONLINE MARKETPLACES

Successful online marketplaces don’t just focus on features and the underlying technology platform; they go to great lengths to bring outsized value to their buyers and sellers. There’s an extent to which this is true of any platform that connects buyers and sellers — people gravitate to the marketplaces where there is more opportunity. But the winners tend to have some common characteristics, ones that are not shared by all online marketplaces, which make their businesses highly defensible.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN WIRED

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