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What to build, when to build it, and how to scope your MVP.
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Crunchbase highlighted five under-the-radar funding deals spanning robotics training data, satellite tracking, low-carbon cement, mobile game discovery, and agricultural waste conversion. The rounds ranged from $3M to $30M and cut across wildly different industries. What connects
YouTube Music has launched a tiered labeling system to identify AI-generated tracks on its platform. Songs are now categorized as 'Fully Gen AI,' 'Partly Gen AI,' or 'No Gen AI,' with labels visible directly on the player page. The move follows similar actions by Apple Music, Spo
Jessica Herrin, founder of direct-sales brand Stella & Dot, launched Marklo in 2025 — an AI-powered marketing planning tool for consumer brands built on Shopify. The startup raised $5 million in seed funding led by Forerunner Ventures. Marklo aggregates sales, inventory, and mark
Brendan Wallace, co-founder and CEO of Fifth Wall — one of the largest real estate technology investors with $3B under management — argues that AI is fundamentally redrawing the boundaries of what counts as proptech. Vertical software built specifically for real estate is losing
At its annual Made On YouTube event, YouTube unveiled a suite of AI-powered tools aimed at creators. These include a conversational video editor that accepts natural language instructions, an AI studio assistant that analyzes channel performance and suggests optimizations, dynami
YouTube Music launched two AI-driven discovery features at its annual Made On YouTube event. The first, 'Ask Music,' allows users to describe what they want to hear in natural language — mood, context, history, or inspiration — rather than searching by song or artist name. The se
Pinterest is launching a beta feature called Restyle in the U.S. and Canada that lets users upload a photo of their room and use AI to visualize how furniture, decor, paint, lighting, and full design styles would look in their actual space. Users can pull items they've already sa
At its 2026 Developer Conference, Roblox announced a coordinated set of moves designed to simultaneously expand its supply side and its demand reach. AI-powered game creation (called 'Build') is rolling out to more markets and desktop, letting non-coders create games via natural
Before you write a line of code, you need proof that both sides of your market will actually transact — here's how to get it.
A marketplace isn't a single product with users — it's two distinct products joined by a transaction, and that changes everything about how you build and grow.
Most marketplace founders build business plans borrowed from single-sided business models — heavy on CAC and LTV, light on the mechanics that actually drive marketplace growth. This framework introduces five marketplace-specific KPIs — K-Factor, U-Factor, Stickiness, Significant
This foundational guide breaks down the core mechanics of building a two-sided marketplace, from defining the rake model to solving the chicken-and-egg problem, building trust infrastructure, measuring adoption, and deciding whether to build or buy. It draws on real examples from
Marketplace Studio released a free traction forecasting template designed specifically for marketplace founders. Unlike traditional business plans that project growth top-down from TAM, this model builds projections bottom-up from website traffic and conversion behavior. It track
A marketplace development agency outlines a framework for first-time marketplace founders deciding how to build their platform. The core argument is that founders must resolve three decisions before writing a single line of code: what type of marketplace to build (Minimum Lovable
Marketplace Studio published a breakdown of their prototyping methodology, centered on Design Thinking. The core argument: founders should validate product concepts through no-code, designer-led prototypes before committing developer resources. They cite an estimated 100x cost di
The article challenges the standard MVP (Minimum Viable Product) framework and argues it sets the wrong foundation for product development. It introduces the MLP (Minimum Lovable Product) as a superior alternative — one built around deeply understanding user pain points rather th
Five years of marketplace breakouts reveal a pattern: the winners didn't build bigger platforms, they built narrower, more trusted ones.
The books serious marketplace founders read reveal a pattern: the biggest leverage points are always liquidity, trust, and growth loops — not technology.
A practical FAQ for 0-to-1 marketplace founders covering the core decisions on starting, building, and scaling without getting lost in the noise.
AI isn't just for engineers — non-technical marketplace founders can deploy it strategically today to improve matching, trust, and growth.
A practical breakdown of how non-technical founders can build a peer-to-peer marketplace from scratch using the right tools, frameworks, and sequencing.
The tool you use to build your marketplace shapes your speed, cost, and trust systems — here's how to pick the right path at zero-to-one.
A structured validation framework for early-stage marketplace founders argues that the most common failure mode is building before validating. The core claim: most marketplace failures are not idea failures — they are sequencing failures. Founders invest in development before con
Marketplace Studio and Nautical Commerce published a foundational guide outlining the core principles behind building and launching a marketplace. The piece targets non-technical founders and covers vision, MVP development, financial planning, trust infrastructure, and supply-dem
NFX partners published a detailed analysis arguing that Voice AI crossed a critical infrastructure threshold in late 2024. Three converging shifts made this possible: sub-300ms latency (conversations now feel human), plug-and-play LLM integration (no custom reasoning required), a
NFX, a venture firm focused on network effects, published a comprehensive manual cataloguing 16 distinct types of network effects across five categories: direct, 2-sided, data, tech performance, and social. The research draws on over 20 years of investing and claims network effec
a16z partner Li Jin published a framework for evaluating marketplace opportunities in regulated industries, where occupational licensing restricts supply. The core argument: as easy-to-build service marketplaces get saturated, the harder regulated verticals — home services, cosme
Lenny Rachitsky, former Airbnb growth lead, published a framework identifying the four most important metrics for marketplace founders to track: fill rate, bookings growth, supply growth, and GMV growth. The piece draws on input from a dozen marketplace operators and investors in
A16z analysts examined why consumer healthcare marketplaces have failed to scale at the same rate as other industries, despite healthcare representing roughly 12% of household spending. Only four healthcare companies made their Marketplace 100 list — all focused on mental health.
A16Z partners Li Jin and Andrew Chen published a framework mapping the four historical eras of service marketplaces — from Craigslist-style listings to managed marketplaces like Opendoor — and argued that the next major wave will be marketplaces that unlock regulated service indu
NFX, a venture firm that has founded and invested in 60+ marketplaces, published its internal scoring system for evaluating marketplace businesses. The scorecard covers 23 variables across supply, demand, liquidity, and defensibility. It was designed both as an investment filter
NFX General Partner James Currier identified a structural category of company that sits between a marketplace and a social network — called a 'market network.' Examples include HoneyBook (events), AngelList (venture), Houzz (home improvement), and DotLoop (real estate). These pla
Li Jin at a16z published a comprehensive glossary of marketplace terminology covering core concepts like liquidity, take rate, disintermediation, and network effects. The piece defines structural terms (vertical vs. horizontal, B2B vs. P2P, managed vs. unmanaged) and behavioral t
Andreessen Horowitz partners Jeff Jordan, Li Jin, D'Arcy Coolican, and Andrew Chen published a framework of 13 metrics specific to marketplace businesses. The piece distinguishes marketplace measurement from general startup metrics, arguing that standard SaaS or e-commerce benchm