The return of IPOs to marketplace land

Hot off the presses, this is the 47th edition of The Marketplace Snippet curated by Irene, Mathias and Jeroen on behalf of the Speedinvest Marketplaces & Consumer team 🔥

In this edition:

• A recap from our 2023 Marketplace Conference
• Can technology help us belong?
• New & Improved: The ultimate scorecard to rate your marketplace idea
• AI-led products and the future of marketplaces

More on these topics and additional thought-provoking discussions below.

If you’ve missed past newsletters or simply can’t get enough, catch up on recent editions here.

MPC 2023: It’s a Wrap!

Sadly (and happily), it’s a wrap for this year’s Marketplace Conference. We will have to wait another year for the next edition of our favorite event for marketplace-lovers, but we are humbled and proud to share that this year’s conference was a roaring success!

We are extremely grateful that hundreds of  marketplace aficionados found their way to Berlin for a sunny day of networking and knowhow sharing on all things marketplaces, network effects and platform businesses. We owe a special thanks to our amazing speakers that joined us sharing their precious insights, as well as to our partners Pentalog, FJ Labs, Lemonway, Schibsted, and Best Nights VC who made this incredible day possible.

We hope you enjoyed the event, content, and networking as much as we did and we look forward to hosting you again next year! In the meantime, if you want to catch up on all the content you might have missed (or just can’t get enough of it), all recorded sessions will soon become available on our youtube channel. Like and subscribe so you don't miss any of the sessions! 🚀

We know you can’t wait a whole year without networking with your Marketplace community. With that in mind, we are already planning our next Marketplace Meetup, which will take place in the US 🇺🇸. Stay tuned for more.

Insights From Marketplace Operators

What lies ahead in fashion and circular economy?

Manish Chandra, CEO and Founder of Poshmark, talks the future of fashion in the latest episode of This Week in Startup. She touches on the circular economy, fast fashion, and what’s new in online shopping and the future of Poshmark.

Can technology help us belong? 💟

Big problems require great solutions. In a world where loneliness represents a major obstacle to happiness, technology is here to bring a change. Hugo Amsellem, Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor, maps the 160+ companies that make us belong.

On building and learning 📚

Gagan Biyani, CEO and Founder of Maven, recaps his insights and learnings after three years building Maven –– his third startup –– reconting the good, the bad, and the ugly of growth timing, listening to your customers, brand recognition, and much more.

Marketplaces can still go PUBLIC 🦄

In a long-standing public market desert, Instacart’s IPO offers a glass of cool water, showing that strong late-stage startups can still go public in style. But what are the main takeaways of the company’s public offering?

The right role… in the right startup?

Dan Hockenmaier, Head of Strategy and Analytics at Faire, breaks down the top three metrics he would look at when evaluating a new role and especially a new company (and none of them is top line growth!).

Insights From Marketplace Investors

Evaluate your business with our new and improved Network Effects Scorecard

Our very own Philip Specht and Sameer Singh have developed the next generation of our scorecard to help marketplace founders evaluate their business idea and build a better, more resilient business: What do you score?

From our talks at the Marketplace Conference…

If you’re up for a podcast, listen here to the latest episode of Jan Thomas’ Startup Insider (in German) featuring our own Mathias Ockenfels, recorded live at our Marketplace Conference last week!

Make your board meetings around the real thing

Tom Loverro, General Partner at IVP, breaks down his recommendations on how to make your board meetings around the REAL issues and enable your investors to bring added value to the table.

AI is still all the rage…

• Seth Rosenberg, General Partner at Greylock, talks about his thesis for the next wave of AI-first products and gives some hints on how founders can stay ahead of the curve.
  
• Bart Dessaint and Wass Ayouch, Investors at Mosaic, look into the next decade’s marketplaces and the impact that AI and Large Language Models will have on their offering, business models and the nature of their network effects.

News From Our Portfolio

Lapse is taking off 🚀

We have been incredibly happy and also a little bit proud to witness Lapse’s growth in the past month. The invite-only disposable camera app is currently second in Free Apps in Apple’s App Store. If you’re an Instagram or TikTok lover (or even if not), we recommend giving it a try!

Our founders’s way up:

• Matti Niebelschütz, Founder and CEO of CoachHub, got featured in McKinsey’s Insights. Take a look at his reflections on his journey to $330M in funding and all the small steps that can bring you (and your company) to the big picture.
• Kilian Kaminski, Founder of Refurbed, discusses his journey from founding the company in Vienna to being featured in Fobes’ 30 under 30 and shares his views and hopes for the future of the company (video in German).

New Investments in Marketplaces Around the Globe

FoodTech, EdTech, HealthTech, Sustainability and much more…

With 20 deals announced, including Metaloop and JOKR, and $800M+ in funding, September 2023 marketplace deal activity is ramping up again after the summer break.

Join Us!

We are always on the lookout for top-tier talent! Have a look at our open positions at Speedinvest and across our portfolio.

___

Thanks for reading our newsletter this month and we hope you enjoyed this issue.

If you liked the content in this newsletter, why not share it with friends? 😉