Marketplaces connect two sides — buyers and sellers — and their core challenge is liquidity: enough of both sides, reliably transacting. Get it right and network effects compound; get it wrong and both sides leave.
Neither side shows up without the other. Solutions include seeding one side, subsidising the constrained side, or starting hyper-local to reach critical mass fast.
Value grows as more participants join — but only if you manage quality. Bad actors on one side poison the other.
Identify which side is harder to acquire and design the product around growing it. In B2B healthcare, trusted supply is often the constraint.
A decade inside a B2B healthcare marketplace taught me that liquidity is a product feature: assortment, fulfilment reliability, and trust are what actually make buyers return.
Find the constrained side, obsess over its experience, and protect quality — that's how marketplaces defend themselves.
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