So you want to start a marketplace for telephones from the 1940’s, because you think its a great niche market and can be an excellent business opportunity. That may very well be the case, but it’s going to cost you upwards of EUR 50 000 to develop the software to give it a try and simply launch your Centurian Telephones Company.
Unfortunately, building market places is tough and having the actual software ready is only the first and perhaps the easiest step. From then on, you have to do a lot of work to make sure it takes off. For most, this initial investment is such a big hurdle that it in itself is off putting.
This is where Sharetribe comes in. They are a marketplace for marketplaces, much like ArcticStartup is a startup about startups. Basically if you still want that marketplace, you can go to Sharetribe and start one in minutes. As Juho Makkonen, the CEO of the company, put it, they are the: “Shopify for Marketplaces.” So yes, you can now create your niche marketplace or Airbnb for dog hotels.
The company has been around for a while, and even travelled around the world, but it seems that after two pivots, they have finally settled on a clear path.
As most do, the change of direction comes out of customer demand. Makkonen told us that many were coming to them and asking if they could create a marketplace of their own using Sharetribe. To pursue this new goal, they raised funding from Reaktor POLTE, with the support of TEKES, totalling €120 000. The investment is targeted towards building a better product and focus on sales.
“Reaktor’s investment allows us to concentrate fully on our clients and speed things up. Their experience and expertise in building delightfully simple yet powerful software is an asset we love to tap into,” says Makkonen,
One example that Makkonen provided us with was a marketplace of collectable toy cars. Not just any toy cars, mind you, they have to be from the Disney Movie “Cars”. You may be laughing, but the community has 60 000 uniques visiting their site every month so selling and trading toy cars does not seem so strange anymore, does it?
What marketplace would you want to create? Let us know in the comments.
Top Image Courtesy of Shutterstock // Bazaar
