Marketplace growth
📖 3 min readUpdated 2026-04-19
Marketplaces need supply AND demand. Growth = solving cold start then building liquidity, then scale.
Cold start
- Pick a narrow niche
- Fake one side if needed (manual concierge, curated inventory)
- Grow one side first
Liquidity metrics
- Match rate
- Time to match
- Supply/demand balance
Network effects
Each new user makes the product more valuable for others, the moat.