Crack the early‑stage marketplace gap where too few buyers and sellers sap value. Use targeted seeding, subsidies, and trust to reach liquidity fast.
What is the marketplace ‘cold start’ problem at its core?
No mobile app icon
Too few participants on each side to create valuable matches
Insufficient server capacity
Lack of brand colors
Which tactic most efficiently seeds early liquidity?
Rely on virality alone
Launch in all categories at once
Spend on broad brand ads
Concentrate on a narrow niche and geography first
When deciding which side to subsidise, which rule of thumb helps?
Always charge supply first
Never subsidise to avoid cost
Lower the barrier for the side with higher price sensitivity or scarcer supply
Subsidise both sides equally
Which trust mechanism lifts conversion most in early phases?
Legal threats off‑platform
Manual approvals with long delays
Verified profiles, reviews, and guarantees on‑platform
Hidden star ratings
What is a practical KPI for escaping cold start?
Total signups all‑time
Ad impressions served
Emails collected
Match rate within a target response time in the seed niche
Which play reduces disintermediation risk as you scale from cold start?
Offer in‑platform payments, insurance, and dispute resolution
Ban all messaging
Allow only cash
Ignore post‑transaction experience
To keep quality high while growing, what should you do first?
Set category standards and automated quality checks
Open unvetted categories
Remove all onboarding to move faster
Raise take‑rate before product‑market fit
Which expansion path preserves liquidity during growth?
Replace subsidies overnight
Add adjacent sub‑categories where existing users benefit
Jump to unrelated categories immediately
Global rollout without ops
Which early growth loop best compounds out of cold start?
Removing service guarantees
Satisfied matches create reviews and referrals that attract more users
Random giveaways
Price hikes with no added value
What is a healthy sign that you can reduce subsidies after cold start?
Rising cancellations post‑match
Spike in CAC from broad ads
Review volume dropping
Stable match quality and time with organic growth in the seed niche
Starter
You know the concepts; focus on niche seeding and balancing both sides.
Solid
Good—apply subsidies, standards, and early trust loops to boost matches.
Expert!
Excellent—your playbook compounds liquidity while curbing spam and leakage.
