How to Build a Digital Marketplace?

[Shrimpfriedrice]

Hello entrepreneurs!

After being in the rainwater harvesting niche for the past 2ish years, I have noticed bigger (i.e., more lucrative, scalable, time-removed) opportunities than I have been doing so far (writing books). One of the most interesting is that people often come to me via email or FB group asking for a referral or recommendation.

"Does anyone know of a rain barrel installer in the Mojave Desert? I can't find anybody."

"Does anyone know of a metal roofer they recommend in Central Tennessee?"

"I'm a real estate broker with a property with a rainwater cistern. Do you know anyone who would be interested in purchasing this property?"

This has really got my gears spinning. With this area being new and difficult to understand, rainwater people want to be connected to other rainwater people. From my research, I know that the rainwater harvesting industry, especially in the US, is still nascent (basically what solar power was 10 years ago), and growing, but scattered. People could call a plumber to help them install a rain tank, but not every plumber knows how to. People could call a roofer, but not every roofer installs metal roofs. Brokers/realtors could sell their property to anybody but may feel more confident selling their property to someone willing to understand rainwater as their water source.

People are tired of calling service providers, only to find out they don't take on rainwater projects, have no clue how to, or don't know anybody who does. But, I can also tell you, there are tons of service providers that would be more than happy to take on rainwater projects too (either they specialize in rainwater, tank cleaning, metal roofing, rainwater knowledge...). I want to connect the demand to the supply.

Right now, rainwater needs consolidation, like an Angie's List.

I asked one of my readers if she would use a digital service like this. She said yes. I can spend the next few months doing more research. How does one do research to learn the viable $$$ in an idea? I've already sold 10k books...but this is technically different, right?

Ok, as someone with zero experience in tech, but deep knowledge in the niche and close to the rainwater consumer, how would you establish this rainwater Angie's List? (Assuming the idea is viable. Am I putting the cart before the horse?) What tech stacks are needed? Where do people find software developers? Would you buy an existing platform and use it as a template for your own? How do you research pricing models? What do startup teams in this space look like?

I'd love to even get a general idea of the "what's" in order to visualize what the timeline for creating a project like this would be. I can start to scope what the transition from my book venture to this venture could look like. Thank you! Renee

 

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[Andy Black]

Hello entrepreneurs!

After being in the rainwater harvesting niche for the past 2ish years, I have noticed bigger (i.e., more lucrative, scalable, time-removed) opportunities than I have been doing so far (writing books). One of the most interesting is that people often come to me via email or FB group asking for a referral or recommendation.

"Does anyone know of a rain barrel installer in the Mojave Desert? I can't find anybody."

"Does anyone know of a metal roofer they recommend in Central Tennessee?"

"I'm a real estate broker with a property with a rainwater cistern. Do you know anyone who would be interested in purchasing this property?"

This has really got my gears spinning. With this area being new and difficult to understand, rainwater people want to be connected to other rainwater people. From my research, I know that the rainwater harvesting industry, especially in the US, is still nascent (basically what solar power was 10 years ago), and growing, but scattered. People could call a plumber to help them install a rain tank, but not every plumber knows how to. People could call a roofer, but not every roofer installs metal roofs. Brokers/realtors could sell their property to anybody but may feel more confident selling their property to someone willing to understand rainwater as their water source.

People are tired of calling service providers, only to find out they don't take on rainwater projects, have no clue how to, or don't know anybody who does. But, I can also tell you, there are tons of service providers that would be more than happy to take on rainwater projects too (either they specialize in rainwater, tank cleaning, metal roofing, rainwater knowledge...). I want to connect the demand to the supply.

Right now, rainwater needs consolidation, like an Angie's List.

I asked one of my readers if she would use a digital service like this. She said yes. I can spend the next few months doing more research. How does one do research to learn the viable $$$ in an idea? I've already sold 10k books...but this is technically different, right?

Ok, as someone with zero experience in tech, but deep knowledge in the niche and close to the rainwater consumer, how would you establish this rainwater Angie's List? (Assuming the idea is viable. Am I putting the cart before the horse?) What tech stacks are needed? Where do people find software developers? Would you buy an existing platform and use it as a template for your own? How do you research pricing models? What do startup teams in this space look like?

I'd love to even get a general idea of the "what's" in order to visualize what the timeline for creating a project like this would be. I can start to scope what the transition from my book venture to this venture could look like. Thank you! Renee

How will you generate a steady stream of leads?

What do you do when you get a lead?

 

[Shrimpfriedrice]

How will you generate a steady stream of leads?

What do you do when you get a lead?

Haha uhhhhh

Ok, but for real, great questions, the juice is flowing: 1. I have a book that feeds to a growing email list that is sold via Amazon ads, podcasts, and social media. Use that to feed them into marketplace? 2. I have a Facebook group that draws people interested "organically"...market it to them there. 3. YouTube and Google ads? (I saw a solar lead generation platform do this.) 4. SEO? (Content will have to be a big part of this platform too). 5. Content on social media 6. ORGANIC WORD OF MOUTH!!!!!!! :B

My idea of the interface would be like Airbnb: sign up here as a guest (customer) or sign up here as a host (business). When a curious business clicks the sign up, the sign up would include information on how the platform grows your business by x% in y time with cheery testimonials and why this platform is specifically made by and for rainwater professionals.

 

[Andy Black]

Haha uhhhhh

Ok, but for real, great questions, the juice is flowing: 1. I have a book that feeds to a growing email list that is sold via Amazon ads, podcasts, and social media. Use that to feed them into marketplace? 2. I have a Facebook group that draws people interested "organically"...market it to them there. 3. YouTube and Google ads? (I saw a solar lead generation platform do this.) 4. SEO? (Content will have to be a big part of this platform too). 5. Content on social media 6. ORGANIC WORD OF MOUTH!!!!!!! :B

My idea of the interface would be like Airbnb: sign up here as a guest (customer) or sign up here as a host (business). When a curious business clicks the sign up, the sign up would include information on how the platform grows your business by x% in y time with cheery testimonials and why this platform is specifically made by and for rainwater professionals.

What did you do with the leads that came through already?

What will you do the next time a lead comes through?


Maybe change your goal from building a marketplace to connecting people?

This might help:

HOT! - MINDSET - Stop Building Stuff

Stop Building Stuff (Originally posted here and then here.) I worked for a company that was building a content creation platform. I worked for a startup that was building a new social network. I worked for another company that was building a call centre. I've had many many clients that were...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

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[Dufresne85]

Most of these kind of websites start with a simple excel sheet / airtable / google sheets etc and by manually connecting companies to leads. If you notice that your website really is useful, you could automate it and really build something.

You can monetize by letting companies (that do waterprojects) pay for the ability to react to leads (people that have a project). The leads post their project on your marketplace for free, the company with an active monthly subscription (or credits that expire) can react.

If people are currently coming to you for recommendations, that is a great starting point. How many ask you for a recommendation and in which timeframe? I recommend watching a few of these videos by sharetribe to learn more about marketplaces https://www.youtube.com/@Sharetribe

 

[Shrimpfriedrice]

Maybe change your goal from building a marketplace to connecting people?

Andy, thank you for cleaning the lens. I needed that!

Ultimately, you're right. I suppose I jumped straight to the solution without understanding the customer and problem well enough yet.

If I'm following, the best thing to do is to best connect 1 person's request for a professional (or a professionals request to a customer) over and over again. This is true...

Then perhaps my question is then...given the connection is made, and the laborious task gloriously solved, how does one come to scale making these connections? And then making money from it?

Or rather...I want a bigger fish to fry than just selling books. How can I collect data to understand which avenue to pursue to grow the business...connecting people, selling products, or selling a course? (Or a mix of the 3???)

 

[Andy Black]

Then perhaps my question is then...given the connection is made, and the laborious task gloriously solved, how does one come to scale making these connections? And then making money from it?

Do it by regularly by hand before you simplify/automate/optimise/scale?

 

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[Shrimpfriedrice]

Do it by regularly by hand

Thank you Andy...I see what you mean by this...but I currently am doing this...

I have been calling and emailing and Facebook messaging and sending out email blasts. Very manual. This is why it seems useful to automate this.

 

[Shrimpfriedrice]

Most of these kind of websites start with a simple excel sheet / airtable / google sheets etc and by manually connecting companies to leads. If you notice that your website really is useful, you could automate it and really build something.

You can monetize by letting companies (that do waterprojects) pay for the ability to react to leads (people that have a project). The leads post their project on your marketplace for free, the company with an active monthly subscription (or credits that expire) can react.

If people are currently coming to you for recommendations, that is a great starting point. How many ask you for a recommendation and in which timeframe? I recommend watching a few of these videos by sharetribe to learn more about marketplaces https://www.youtube.com/@Sharetribe

This is an extremely useful post!!! Thank you so much!

I do think yes, starting with the simple Excel/Airtable is the way to go. Start putting it together. Give it to my email list to see what they think.

Share tribe is definitely useful. Thank you for sharing!!

 

[Shrimpfriedrice]

This is an extremely useful post!!! Thank you so much!

I do think yes, starting with the simple Excel/Airtable is the way to go. Start putting it together. Give it to my email list to see what they think.

Share tribe is definitely useful. Thank you for sharing!!

I found this great article from Sharetribe on how to validate a marketplace idea. How to validate your marketplace idea (and trust the results) | Marketplace Academy

Definitely will spend some time doing the research and continuing to manually connect people while collecting the data. Interviewing these biz's I'm working with will also be a great start.

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

 

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[Bence Ur]

I have no idea about this rainwater market, you need to test your assumptions, creat an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

I have built a small, local online travel agency where I list accommodations, here is how I have done it:

First you need the supply side, so in your case the rainwater professionals. Just search on google for these rainwater professionals then add them to your website for free, without asking them. This is what I did with my marketplace, no one said "hey, what are you doing, I don't need free advertising, remove me!"

Don't ask them because no one is interested in a marketplace with zero traffic, no one will join should you ask them.

So just keep adding these professionals manually. You need a unique profile for each professional with unique content in order to establish SEO traffic. So don't just copy and paste their information. You need to write unique text for each listing. And create a separate URL under your domain for each professional.

Of course you need your own domain name, WordPress is free and can do this marketplace thing.

Then start to generate leads for these professionals you have added manually. Don't charge them anything. After the first lead ask them to join your marketplace, because only the first lead is free. Then they must pay for subsequent leads. Or pay you commission. Then keep working on increasing your traffic. SEO is your one of your best traffic sources.

 

[Shrimpfriedrice]

I have no idea about this rainwater market, you need to test your assumptions, creat an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

I have built a small, local online travel agency where I list accommodations, here is how I have done it:

First you need the supply side, so in your case the rainwater professionals. Just search on google for these rainwater professionals then add them to your website for free, without asking them. This is what I did with my marketplace, no one said "hey, what are you doing, I don't need free advertising, remove me!"

Don't ask them because no one is interested in a marketplace with zero traffic, no one will join should you ask them.

So just keep adding these professionals manually. You need a unique profile for each professional with unique content in order to establish SEO traffic. So don't just copy and paste their information. You need to write unique text for each listing. And create a separate URL under your domain for each professional.

Of course you need your own domain name, WordPress is free and can do this marketplace thing.

Then start to generate leads for these professionals you have added manually. Don't charge them anything. After the first lead ask them to join your marketplace, because only the first lead is free. Then they must pay for subsequent leads. Or pay you commission. Then keep working on increasing your traffic. SEO is your one of your best traffic sources.

This is super helpful, thank you!!! I could also see charging a commission for the project (i.e., I don't get paid if you don't get paid). What do you do?

I also wonder, you can build these marketplaces on WordPress? I would like this to be slick (really up the ante on the value prop), and there actually exists a marketplace (kinda) called https://rainwaterharvesting.com that looks like it was made in Wordpress (and doesn't look very good).

I do like how I might as well add people...but I've been studying marketplaces though. Successful ones I admire do a lot of vetting beforehand so that trust is built for the consumers. Consumers come to that marketplace because it is associated with quality. That is a current problem actually, you could technically hire any plumber to help you with rainwater, but you have no clue what their experience/success in rainwater specifically is.

I really appreciate this feedback!!! Please let's discuss more!

 

[Bence Ur]

This is super helpful, thank you!!! I could also see charging a commission for the project (i.e., I don't get paid if you don't get paid). What do you do?

I also wonder, you can build these marketplaces on WordPress? I would like this to be slick (really up the ante on the value prop), and there actually exists a marketplace (kinda) called https://rainwaterharvesting.com that looks like it was made in Wordpress (and doesn't look very good).

I do like how I might as well add people...but I've been studying marketplaces though. Successful ones I admire do a lot of vetting beforehand so that trust is built for the consumers. Consumers come to that marketplace because it is associated with quality. That is a current problem actually, you could technically hire any plumber to help you with rainwater, but you have no clue what their experience/success in rainwater specifically is.

I really appreciate this feedback!!! Please let's discuss more!

Charge commission or a fixed fee per lead, you need to test which works better.

Yes I recommend WordPress, it is very flexible, there are a lot of free and paid plugins. But initially just add the providers manually and use simple forms. Then when you receive a lead, just contact the providers manually (in the first version).

List every provider you can, the consumers can choose based on their services, pricing, reviews etc. For example there is a WordPress plugin which can display the existing Google reviews of another businesses. Some people would hire a provider with bad reviews anyway, because some consumers are just looking for the cheapest option. I wouldn't filter out the providers with bad reviews, let the consumers decide. Let every flower bloom.

 

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