In Depth

How to build and scale winning marketplaces | Casey Winters (Eventbrite, Pinterest, Grubhub)


Listen Later

Casey Winters is a legendary advisor on scaling, product and growth. He’s worked with companies like Airbnb, Faire, Canva, Whatnot, Thumbtack, Tinder, and Reddit. Until recently, Casey was the Chief Product Officer at Eventbrite, and has also led growth and product teams at Pinterest and Grubhub.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

  • What every marketplace founder should think about
  • Why marketplaces are different
  • Finding product market fit
  • Key ingredients to scaling a marketplace
  • Strategies for acquiring demand and supply
  • Referenced:

    • Airbnb: https://airbnb.com/
    • Bill Gurley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billgurley/
    • Blue Apron: https://www.blueapron.com/
    • Booking.com: https://www.booking.com/
    • DoorDash: https://www.doordash.com/
    • eBay: https://ebay.com/
    • Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/
    • Expedia: https://www.expedia.com/
    • Faire: https://www.faire.com/
    • Fermat Commerce: https://www.fermatcommerce.com/
    • Grubhub: https://www.grubhub.com/
    • Lyft: https://www.lyft.com/
    • Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/
    • Postmates: https://postmates.com/
    • Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/
    • Simon Rothman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonrothman/
    • Square: https://squareup.com/
    • Tony Xu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xutony/
    • Turo: https://turo.com/
    • Uber: https://www.uber.com/
    • Zillow: https://www.zillow.com/
    • Where to find Casey Winters

      • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseywinters/
      • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/onecaseman
      • Website: https://caseyaccidental.com/
      • Where to find Brett Berson:

        • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/
        • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/brettberson
        • Where to find First Round Capital:

          • Website: https://firstround.com/
          • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
          • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround
          • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
          • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast
          • Timestamps:

            (00:00) Introduction

            (02:30) Ingredients for a successful marketplace

            (05:34) Creating scalable growth loops

            (08:42) Emerging marketplaces in 2024

            (10:56) 2 ways to acquire supply and demand

            (15:39) What’s unique about building a marketplace

            (18:27) When to focus on the demand side

            (23:10) Who to hire

            (26:22) Finding sticky customers

            (26:27) What Grubhub should’ve done

            (30:19) Uber versus Lyft

            (34:23) One thing all marketplace founders should know

            (34:45) Finding product market fit

            (40:45) Single versus multi-category marketplaces

            (43:02) When to expand

            (44:22) The best low-frequency marketplace

            (46:00) The product is supply, not software

            (50:48) No value in car-sharing

            (56:11) Improving supply and demand over time

            (61:04) The “setup, aha, and habit” framework

            (66:27) Avoid these marketplace mistakes

            (71:16) 2 people who influenced Casey’s thinking

            ...more
            View all episodesView all episodes
            Download on the App Store

            In DepthBy First Round

            • 4.8
            • 4.8
            • 4.8
            • 4.8
            • 4.8

            4.8

            57 ratings


            More shows like In Depth

            View all
            This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

            This Week in Startups

            1,276 Listeners

            a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

            a16z Podcast

            1,058 Listeners

            The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

            The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

            523 Listeners

            The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

            The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

            175 Listeners

            Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

            Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

            2,286 Listeners

            Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

            Masters of Scale

            3,991 Listeners

            Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

            Y Combinator Startup Podcast

            226 Listeners

            Grit by Kleiner Perkins

            Grit

            187 Listeners

            The Logan Bartlett Show by by Redpoint Ventures

            The Logan Bartlett Show

            187 Listeners

            No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

            No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

            127 Listeners

            Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast by swyx + Alessio

            Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast

            70 Listeners

            AI and I by Dan Shipper

            AI and I

            30 Listeners

            AI + a16z by a16z

            AI + a16z

            32 Listeners

            Lightcone Podcast by Y Combinator

            Lightcone Podcast

            20 Listeners

            Training Data by Sequoia Capital

            Training Data

            43 Listeners