Marketplace Pitch
Two-sided platforms with network effects
How to pitch a marketplace business — solving the chicken-and-egg problem, demonstrating liquidity, showing take rates, and proving network effects to investors.
Cover Slide
Company name, tagline, round info.
💡 What to Include
- Tagline should mention both sides of the marketplace
- E.g., 'Connecting X with Y'
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Only mentioning one side of the marketplace
📝 Example
TaskRabbit — Connecting busy people with skilled Taskers. Seed Round, $2M
The Problem (Both Sides)
Show the pain for BOTH supply and demand sides.
💡 What to Include
- Dedicate equal space to both sides
- Quantify friction/cost on each side
- Show the current alternatives and why they fail
- Frame it as a coordination problem
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Only showing demand-side problem
- Not acknowledging supply-side challenges
📝 Example
DEMAND: Homeowners spend avg. 4.5 hours finding reliable help for small tasks. 60% of attempts end in no-shows. SUPPLY: Skilled workers lose 30% of potential income to dead time between jobs. No reliable way to fill schedule gaps.
The Solution
How your platform solves it for both sides simultaneously.
💡 What to Include
- Show the matching mechanism
- Explain how you reduce friction vs. alternatives
- Highlight the 'magic moment' — when both sides get value
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Focusing only on the tech/app
- Not explaining the matching quality
📝 Example
TaskRabbit matches tasks with nearby skilled workers in under 60 seconds. For homeowners: Vetted Taskers, upfront pricing, same-day availability. For Taskers: Steady work, flexible schedule, fair pay, instant payment.
Market Size
Size the market from both sides.
💡 What to Include
- Show demand-side spending and supply-side earnings
- Use transaction volume × take rate for your revenue TAM
- Show market growth drivers
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Only sizing one side
- Not showing take rate math
📝 Example
Home services market: $600B (US). Online penetration: 5% and growing 25% YoY. Target: Urban households earning $75K+, spending $2,400/year on home tasks. 72M target households × $2,400 × 15% take rate = $26B revenue opportunity.
How It Works
Walk through the user journey for both sides.
💡 What to Include
- Show supply and demand journeys side by side
- Highlight key trust/safety features
- Show the payment flow
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Overcomplicating the flow
- Not showing the payment/trust layer
📝 Example
HOMEOWNER: Post task → Get matched → Confirm Tasker → Task completed → Rate & pay TASKER: Set availability → Get matched → Accept task → Complete → Get paid instantly
Business Model & Unit Economics
Take rate, GMV, and marketplace economics.
💡 What to Include
- Show GMV and take rate clearly
- Break down unit economics per transaction
- Show path from take rate to contribution margin
- Include supply-side economics (what do they earn?)
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Not showing GMV vs. revenue separately
- Hiding the take rate
- Ignoring supply-side economics
📝 Example
Take rate: 15% of task value Avg. task: $80 → Platform revenue: $12 Payment processing: $2.40 (3%) Insurance: $1.20 Contribution margin: $8.40 (70%) GMV: $2.4M/month | Revenue: $360K/month | Growing 18% MoM
Traction & Liquidity Metrics
Prove the marketplace is working — liquidity is everything.
💡 What to Include
- Key metrics: GMV, fill rate, time-to-match, repeat rate, supply utilization
- Show geographic density in launched markets
- Demonstrate the flywheel is spinning
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Showing user signups instead of transactions
- Launching in too many cities without liquidity
- Not showing fill rate
📝 Example
GMV: $2.4M/month (3x from 6 months ago) Fill rate: 87% of tasks matched within 2 hours Repeat rate: 65% of homeowners book again within 30 days Supply utilization: Taskers earn avg. $28/hour (vs. $18 doing it independently) Active in 3 cities with 85%+ liquidity in each
The Flywheel & Network Effects
Show why the marketplace gets stronger over time.
💡 What to Include
- Draw the flywheel explicitly
- Show data proving network effects (e.g., as supply grows, time-to-match drops)
- Explain local vs. global network effects
- Show same-side and cross-side effects
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Claiming network effects without data
- Not showing the flywheel diagram
- Confusing growth with network effects
📝 Example
More Taskers → Faster matching → Better experience → More homeowners → More tasks → More Taskers Proof: Cities with 100+ Taskers have 3x conversion rate vs. cities with <20. Time-to-match: 4.2 hours (month 1) → 47 minutes (month 6) in SF.
Go-to-Market
How you solve chicken-and-egg and scale.
💡 What to Include
- Explain which side you seed first and why
- Show city-by-city launch playbook
- Demonstrate playbook repeatability
- Address supply acquisition cost and strategy
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- No plan for chicken-and-egg
- 'We'll launch everywhere at once'
- Not showing supply acquisition strategy
📝 Example
Playbook: Supply-first strategy 1. Recruit 50 Taskers in target city (via partnerships with trade schools) 2. Launch with guaranteed minimum earnings for first 30 days 3. Acquire homeowners via local Facebook/Nextdoor ads 4. Hit 85% fill rate within 60 days 5. Remove guarantees, marketplace self-sustains CAC: $45 supply, $22 demand. Payback: 2 transactions.
Competition
Show competitive landscape and your moat.
💡 What to Include
- Include both direct and indirect competitors
- Show why marketplaces are winner-take-most
- Highlight local density as your advantage
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Ignoring Craigslist/informal alternatives
- Not addressing aggregator threat (Google, Amazon)
📝 Example
Thumbtack: Lead generation model (not true marketplace) Angi: Subscription-based, poor Tasker experience, low repeat rate TaskRabbit advantage: True real-time matching, instant booking, supply density in core markets creating 47-min avg. match time.
Team
Why you can build and scale a marketplace.
💡 What to Include
- Marketplace experience is critical — highlight it
- Show ops/logistics capability
- Include city launch team structure
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- No marketplace/ops experience on team
- No plan for city-level operations
📝 Example
CEO — Former Uber city launcher, scaled 12 cities CTO — Ex-Instacart, built real-time matching engine VP Operations — 8 years at Amazon logistics City launch team: 3 people per city (supply manager, demand marketer, ops coordinator)
The Ask
Funding needed and city expansion plan.
💡 What to Include
- Tie the raise to specific city launches
- Show per-city unit economics
- Define what 'Series A ready' looks like
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- No city-level expansion plan
- Not tying raise to specific milestones
📝 Example
Raising $2M Seed Use of funds: • Launch 5 new cities ($200K per city) • Engineering (real-time matching, mobile apps) • Working capital for supply guarantees Milestones: $10M GMV run rate, 8 cities, 85%+ fill rate across all markets.
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