Recording of the Everything Marketplaces Group Chat #174 (10/29) with Matt Bendett, who’s the Co-founder of Peerspace. Peerspace is one of the largest marketplaces to book spaces & venues for activities & events like photo shoots, weddings, meetings, pop-ups, and more. Peerspace has also raised over $39M+ in capital from top investors like Foundation Capital and Google Ventures.
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0:05 Intro
‍1:07 Matt's background
‍3:41 The founding story & first steps for starting Peerspace
‍7:34 How Peerspace solved the cold start problem
‍14:34 How Peerspace built unique supply across categories
‍20:54 How demand evolved on Peerspace
‍22:51 How monetization & revenue changed at Peerspace
‍27:02 How adding value through add-on services & insurance helps prevent disintermediation
‍28:40 Learnings & tips for founders building operationally complex marketplaces
‍35:30 The fundraising journey for Peerspace
‍38:57 Group Q&A on marketplace trust & safety
‍42:26 Group Q&A on prioritizing customer service
‍46:22 Group Q&A on marketplace experimentation & testing with expansion
‍51:56 Group Q&A on prioritizing customer feedback
‍56:15 Parting marketplace advice
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Expansion blog post referenced: https://www.everythingmarketplaces.com/post/key-marketplace-expansion-learnings-lessons‍
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Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bendett
Peerspace: https://www.peerspace.com
Mike (Yoroomie) on Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/yoroomie
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You can also find this group chat in audio format as an episode on our Everything Marketplaces podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also connect with marketplace founders & leaders from our group chats in the Everything Marketplaces community.