I am the CEO/Co-founder of an online marketplace where consumers post jobs and contractors leave bids. Every contractor we talk to tells us its a great idea and they would pay for leads, but we have yet to have anyone actually purchase a subscription to our site. We have a chicken/egg scenario where we need people to post jobs but we have to have contractors with active subscription to bid on the jobs. With no revenue right now, how do I bring awareness to my page (marketing) and how to I get contractors to purchase a subscription (sales)? Our site has been live for over a year. Everyone we talk to on both sides say this is a great idea and they love it. But reality doesn't seem to be playing out the way right now. I am trying to decide if I need to throw in the towel. I really don't want to but at the same time I am running out of personal capitol to throw at this.
In a two-sided marketplace, it's critical you create liquidity as fast as possible. Before focusing on you're going to monetize the service, it's crucial that you test the core interaction such that you know you have a scaleable business.
You've tried to test an idea around selling subscriptions that seems to have given you what you need to know. Contractors are unwilling to pay you upfront for the promise of leads.
I would strip out that requirement, and make sure that contractors are willing to bid on the contract using your site for free. If that piece can't be validated, there are bigger problems. But if it's validated, you can then look at other revenue experiments, the most obvious being to charge a small fee per each job accepted through your service.
I'm happy to look at the site and in a brief call, talk to you about how you can ensure the core concept is validated by user actions and how to test multiple revenue experiments to find the right model for your marketplace.
There are many other ways to experiment with pricing once you know that both sides
Answered 10 years ago
Access 20,000+ Startup Experts, 650+ masterclass videos, 1,000+ in-depth guides, and all the software tools you need to launch and grow quickly.
Already a member? Sign in