
What’s Next for Marketplace Startups? - yarapavan
https://andrewchen.co/how-marketplaces-will-reinvent-the-service-economy/
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pmart123
I would say Zocdoc is the best example of B2C company tackling a regulated
industry (healthcare) through a marketplace that I have come across. It does
seem to me that more startups are tackling the professional services layer
with B2B solutions at this point. i.e. helping a lawyer process documents for
discovery or allowing a doctor to more quickly process medical images for
diagnosis.

It seems to me, physician groups, law firms, accounting firms and architecture
firms have all consolidated over the years, making B2B solutions fit better
with status quo.

I also think it is really hard for a marketplace to prevent future service
transactions from occurring offline. As anyone who has used TaskRabbit knows,
the first thing that happens is you usually get a direct number from the end
provider and a lower rate to skip the marketplace in the future.

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mrfusion
I hadn’t heard of half of these newer companies. Is there a way to stay on top
of this? Some of these seem pretty useful.

I guess this is also telling me I should catch up to the times and stop
finding contractors on Craigslist.

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ghaff
One problem, that is alluded to but not really addressed in the article, is
that so much is still offline--especially for those of us who don't live in
the middle of major metros. I'm not even sure how much of this is really a
technology problem.

I feel the general pain. There are a number of things I would be willing to
write a check tomorrow to have handled at an even semi-reasonable price if I
could just make a phone call and say "Make It So." Unfortunately my really
good contractor retired and the last contractor I found (through Lowe's) did a
generally good job in the end but was terribly uncommunicative and otherwise
difficult to deal with.

I have various companies and individuals who do stuff for me but, in general,
finding someone to do some semi-defined task for me is painful and I don't
really expect that to change.

~~~
all2
I thought services like Angie's List were a way to circumvent the 'finding a
_____ guy/gal' for some job.

How do you envision a perfect service functioning?

~~~
ghaff
Ask your neighbors for a recommendation?

I actually don't mean to be facetious. I'm just not sure that finding a good
general contractor is as amenable to a tech fix as getting a driver from point
A to point B. Where the post lost me was implying that Uber for X was part of
a logical progression and I'm not sure it is.

I'm not sure what's available today for things like local plumbers is any
better than the Yellow Pages was 20 years ago. Especially once you get out of
high density population centers.

~~~
all2
And for a plumber I'd rather a) do it myself if I can, or b) ask family for a
recommendation.

I see your point. Trust is a key issue, I think.

~~~
ghaff
>Trust is a key issue, I think.

Yes. And that's also the business challenge with these listing services. Once
you find that A+ plumber you'll just work with them off-list. (For cookie
cutter jobs, I've been happy enough just using the Yellow Pages but for
something more complex and ill-defined I'd rather have someone I know and
trust.)

That was my biggest annoyance about the contractor I had for my last big job.
I would have loved to have a new contractor person in my Rolodex but nope.
Just too hard to deal with.

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EGreg
_”If you’re a founder who is looking to take on the challenge of tackling more
complex services and bringing them online, we’d love to hear from you.”_

Hear from us how? Does this just mean “apply to YC”?

~~~
csa
This sounds shitty, but if you have to ask, then you’re probably not the
person they are looking for.

People with legit founder tenacity and skills will find a compelling way to be
introduced to these folks — note that a16z is always looking for promising
founders.

~~~
EGreg
Yes, it does sound a bit shitty, but only because it seems to shame the
founder rather than just point out that the venture capital business is run a
certain way (including with each one advertising and buiding their own
ecosystem and network and brand). Why do you think there is a constant culture
of blaming of startup founders for not working 20 hour days or not having
enough “hustle” skills or “tenacity” because they didn’t get through to a VC
or land VC funding? In the 1960s-90s that was a bit like blaming musicians for
not being discovered by the A&R department of the record labels. Only a few
can make it that way, the rest today use Spotify / Patreon / YouTube etc. and
are discovered and approached later.

I like A16Z a lot. But I am curious, what is your background, did you have the
founder tenacity, do you know founders that had it, that easily got meetings
with partners of VC firms? Do you think anyone could do it if they didn’t live
in the Valley? To me, a compelling way to be introduced is to have your app
already out and being used by everyone and making money. Before you approach a
VC.

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mbesto
> 4\. The Managed Marketplace Era (Mid-2010s)

In the context of VC investing (outsize returns, $1B valuation targets) this
is such a joke, because these types of companies will never reach software-
like margins. Their scale is almost entirely correlated to HR count, thus
affecting DCF numbers.

That being said, these companies absolutely deserve a chance as heavily tech-
enabled business services firms reduce a lot of undesired waste in their
business processes...it's just not appealing from a VC perspective.

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btown
Unless this parallels a thesis that AI will in turn allow HR costs to scale
sub-linearly as these companies grow...

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mbesto
Except no one's proven that to work yet. For the same level of investment
dollars, you'd be better off buying a mom-and-pop service company and throwing
the software in there.

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afpx
“...while services make up 69% of national consumer spending...”

69% seems like a huge number considering that many people that I know can’t
afford most services. What is the definition of a ‘service’? And, did he
possibly mean all services, not just consumer services?

~~~
ghobs91
According to wikipedia: "Activities in the service sector include retail,
banks, hotels, real estate, education, health, social work, computer services,
recreation, media, communications, electricity, gas and water supply."

Retail, banking (loans), education, healthcare, energy, all very large
portions of the average persons expenses.

