Ravi Mehta Sharing Parting Marketplace Advice

14 Jun 2024 · 1 min

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1:25

In this monologue, Ravi Mehta reflects on his early experiences with marketplaces such as TripAdvisor and offers guidance for founders. He emphasizes that the marketplace model is a means to satisfy customer needs, not the product itself. Central to his advice is the jobs‑to‑be‑done framework: customers care only about getting their job done, regardless of whether it’s via a marketplace, direct seller interaction, or AI. Mehta advises entrepreneurs to first define the customer need, then assess how a marketplace can uniquely deliver it, leveraging typical marketplace strengths—price competition, broader selection, and discovery assistance. He recommends viewing the business as a consumer‑driven (or B2B‑first) company that uses the marketplace as a lever, rather than positioning the marketplace as the core identity.

Chapters

If you could go right back to before, you know, you entered the world of marketplaces, maybe at TripAdvisor, you know, what would you tell yourself about them specifically? I think a number of things. One is to be really clear about the customer, the customer need, you know, because ultimately the marketplace is the model, but it's not really the product from the customer's perspective. I think the idea of jobs to be done is really important and, You know, ultimately the customer doesn't care if they get that job done through a marketplace, if they get it done by transacting directly with a seller, if they get it done by AI. And so really important, I think, is to put that customer need first and then to understand how does being a marketplace really help deliver on that customer need. And oftentimes there's a price advantage, right? Because by being a marketplace, suppliers can compete. There's a selection advantage. You can have lots of different things available for that customer. There's some advantages around discovery. So a person may not know exactly what they want and a really broad marketplace can help them figure that out. So I think to think about yourself as a consumer business or a customer-driven business if it's B2B first, and then as a marketplace, as a lever to deliver on that rather than to think about yourself centrally as a marketplace business.