Sparsh Mehta Sharing Parting Marketplace Advice

12 Jul 2024 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:55

In this interview excerpt, Sparsh Mehta is asked what he would tell his past self before joining the marketplace startup Belong. He repeats his earlier advice of going “eyes wide open” – recognizing that building an operationally complex marketplace is extremely challenging but also uniquely rewarding if executed well. He then highlights the flip side: a certain level of delusional optimism is essential, because excessive realism can deter founders from attempting the hard problem. Mehta reflects on the tension between these mindsets, noting that with more experience he now better knows which mistakes to avoid while still convincing himself that success is possible.

Chapters

Actually, I had one last question for you. I know I asked it last time, you know, if you could go right back to before you joined Convoy, what would you tell yourself about marketplaces? But I guess, you know, for today's, you know, kind of final question, you know, what would you tell yourself if you could go back to right before you joined Belong?
It's a great question. And I remember my answer from last time, and I want to give the same answer as the problem, but I guess maybe there's some insight in that. And my answer last time was, Almost like go eyes wide open. It's too damn challenging, right? Building an operationally complex marketplace is very difficult, but that is also the opportunity because if you do it, no one else is putting in that work to make it happen. And you then will put yourself in a position where you could win the market, right? As long as you have the right team, and vision behind it. So there is a piece of that and I find myself wanting to tell myself that like, go eyes wide open. But then there is also the flip side of that, which is the beauty of it, of not going eyes wide open. And I've heard founders give this feedback as well. And I think it's very true about marketplaces because they're difficult, right? Almost the delusion that it can be done Is the only way you will make it happen. Because if you're too aware about how difficult it's going to be, you might not do it. You likely won't do it. And I think there's a lot of founders that have said, I wouldn't do it again, right? But it's the delusion of thinking you can, and that's important. So I don't know what the right balance is between those 2, and maybe I'm getting more jaded with each experience, but I try to find a way. To convince myself that it can be done still. But at least I have more experience now to know what mistakes to avoid.