

How I run a bootstrapped marketplace with 11 sites and 5,000 vendors – by myself - limedaring
http://www.limedaring.com/articles/how-i-run-a-marketplace-with-eleven-different-properties-and-5000-vendors

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earlyriser
Hey limedaring, this post is great with lots of information. I bought your
book in KS and you have all my admiration as an entrepreneur. Marketplaces are
really hard to start for the egg-chicken problem, I know this first hand, and
it's difficult to stay motivated as a founder.

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limedaring
Thanks!

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limedaring
Happy to answer any questions anyone has about bootstrapping, running a
marketplace, trying and failing to raise money, etc.!

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acconrad
Would love to learn about those very early stages in cold emailing. Do you
find this can work for any business vertical - I want to cold email places vs
cold calling them since it's so much faster, but I fear that the owners may
not use or check their emails that much. Any recommendations on scaling this
quickly? What was your success rate of emails that lead to replies or sign
ups?

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limedaring
I'm lucky in that wedding vendors primarily work online, so they're always on
email. Other businesses in other verticals, probably not. This vertical was a
good fit for me because I would do anything to avoid making a phone call (too
introverted for that.)

I honestly don't remember my success rate as it's been a long while, but I
want to say it was at least 25%. Keep in mind I was pitching a free product
that vendors are already used to (there are TONS of wedding vendor
directories.)

As for scaling, no idea. Some CRMs allow you to mass-send email but I worry
about those - feels scummy, though maybe I should just get over that feeling
and try it out.

Good luck!

