In this interview excerpt, the speakers discuss the launch strategy for a local marketplace, emphasizing an initial geographic constraint to Manhattan and Brooklyn. They explain that the decision was driven by a hunch about where high-quality, mass‑market (branded) supply would be abundant. The conversation then shifts to what factors are considered when launching and expanding into new markets, setting up a deeper exploration of market‑selection criteria and expansion tactics.
Marketplaces that are local in nature, typically, you know, constrained to, you know, one kind of market, you know, to essentially kind of, you know, get those first kind of transactions going and, you know, the flywheel spinning. So, you know, did you initially constrain?
Yeah. So we were a New York company for a very long time. So we were very constrained and actually really focused in Manhattan and Brooklyn initially, just, you know, just had a hunch around supply, like where the good supply is coming, quote unquote, good supply, like mass market, you know, branded supply. And then expanded from there.
Yeah. So I'd be curious to learn a little bit more about that, you know. So what all goes into, you know, I guess like launching and expanding into a new market?
So we've definitely learned through the— along the way. We've had a few false starts as well. So I think it's the key to be ready to launch in another market. You first need to understand like the supply and demand, like what are your key drivers for supply and demand? Do you have a diversified set of channels that you can, you know, use and replicate? Because also not everything is going to work. Like if you only have 1 or 2 acquisition channels that work for you in one market, that means you're not ready actually to move to another market. Like you need to have, you know, 4 to 5 diversified channels that, you know, consistently, you know, okay, if I invest X, whether it's dollars or time, I will— my return will be Y. We tried to launch in DC actually a couple, maybe 3 years after we launched. And we thought we had our diversified channels at the time and quickly, you know, launched and with kind of the same theory and, you know, tried to hack Craigslist and did all these things. So we got the listings, but we couldn't get the demand. So first, make sure you have your diversified set of acquisition channels. 2, understand the market dynamics, right? Like even when you're deciding which market to go to, you know, what are those, what's the, what's your criteria as far as like launching in the market? And we've refined that over time. So we looked at our data, we've looked at our, you know, what are the commonalities from our customers who use us? And then we tried to look at like demographic and, you know, income data, for example, in other markets and also logistics data to launch.
