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The Lean Marketplace: A Practical Guide to Building a Successful Online Marketplace Business
Inspired by the success of platforms such as Airbnb, Etsy or Uber? Want to know how to build an online marketplace business? This is the book for you! In this step by step guide, we will go through everything you need to know about developing your idea into a sustainable business, offering lots of practical advice and actionable ideas along the way.
This book is the result of two experts putting almost two decades of experience together, in order to create a repeatable method for creating a successful online marketplace. The applicable tactics and techniques can be studied in advance, helping you avoid the most common pitfalls.
This is what this book is about. It's a handbook for anyone building an online marketplace. The same methods will apply whether your organization is a startup, a cooperative, a non-profit, or a big brand. Not every marketplace will be as big as Airbnb and Uber, but we believe there are thousands of marketplace ideas out there that can make for great, sustainable businesses. With the help of this book, you're one step closer to building the next one.
Critical acclaim "Juho and Cristóbal have written a practical in-the-weeds guide on marketplace execution that will prove invaluable for all entrepreneurs looking to start a marketplace. No fluff, just actionable ideas." – Sangeet Paul Choudary, best-selling author of Platform Revolution and Platform Scale
"Building marketplaces can be hard. The Lean Marketplace is a very useful step-by-step guide to help entrepreneurs think through the challenges and solutions to create the next Uber or Airbnb." – Boris Wertz, Founder and General Partner, Version One Ventures
"Must read for every marketplace entrepreneur. I'm going to ask everyone in our team to read this book." – Bram de Zwart, Co-founder and CEO, 3D Hubs
"As I'm friends with both authors, I know first hand that the information in their book is hard won from long experience helping dozens of marketplaces succeed and consulting the top experts from around the world. However, the quality and comprehensiveness of the content speaks for itself. It covers all the essentials of growing an online marketplace, and in the most straightforward way possible. It is an impressively practical, must read resource for any current or aspiring marketplace entrepreneur. I can't recommend it highly enough, but please see for yourself." – Neal Gorenflo, Co-founder of Shareable
"The essential guide to building an essential marketplace." – Tristan Pollock, Co-founder, Storefront, Partner, 500 Startups
"Reading Juho's and Cristobal's advice online before launching our platform helped us save so much time and avoid the most common mistakes. If you're considering building a marketplace business, read this book first. Seriously." – Agne Milukaite, Co-founder and CEO, Cycle.land
"Envisioning, validating, building and growing a marketplace is no small the most important aspect to nailing this challenge down is all about avoiding losing time and energy in the myriad of wrong directions that can come up your way. This book is an essential guide, the lifeboat for the marketplace founder that faces the ocean of bootstrapping.
This book is the result of two experts putting almost two decades of experience together, in order to create a repeatable method for creating a successful online marketplace. The applicable tactics and techniques can be studied in advance, helping you avoid the most common pitfalls.
This is what this book is about. It's a handbook for anyone building an online marketplace. The same methods will apply whether your organization is a startup, a cooperative, a non-profit, or a big brand. Not every marketplace will be as big as Airbnb and Uber, but we believe there are thousands of marketplace ideas out there that can make for great, sustainable businesses. With the help of this book, you're one step closer to building the next one.
Critical acclaim "Juho and Cristóbal have written a practical in-the-weeds guide on marketplace execution that will prove invaluable for all entrepreneurs looking to start a marketplace. No fluff, just actionable ideas." – Sangeet Paul Choudary, best-selling author of Platform Revolution and Platform Scale
"Building marketplaces can be hard. The Lean Marketplace is a very useful step-by-step guide to help entrepreneurs think through the challenges and solutions to create the next Uber or Airbnb." – Boris Wertz, Founder and General Partner, Version One Ventures
"Must read for every marketplace entrepreneur. I'm going to ask everyone in our team to read this book." – Bram de Zwart, Co-founder and CEO, 3D Hubs
"As I'm friends with both authors, I know first hand that the information in their book is hard won from long experience helping dozens of marketplaces succeed and consulting the top experts from around the world. However, the quality and comprehensiveness of the content speaks for itself. It covers all the essentials of growing an online marketplace, and in the most straightforward way possible. It is an impressively practical, must read resource for any current or aspiring marketplace entrepreneur. I can't recommend it highly enough, but please see for yourself." – Neal Gorenflo, Co-founder of Shareable
"The essential guide to building an essential marketplace." – Tristan Pollock, Co-founder, Storefront, Partner, 500 Startups
"Reading Juho's and Cristobal's advice online before launching our platform helped us save so much time and avoid the most common mistakes. If you're considering building a marketplace business, read this book first. Seriously." – Agne Milukaite, Co-founder and CEO, Cycle.land
"Envisioning, validating, building and growing a marketplace is no small the most important aspect to nailing this challenge down is all about avoiding losing time and energy in the myriad of wrong directions that can come up your way. This book is an essential guide, the lifeboat for the marketplace founder that faces the ocean of bootstrapping.
212 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 28, 2018
206 people are currently reading
380 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 12, 2020
One of the best business books I read in the past 2 years!
I’m building a marketplace and I got the chance to see first-hand how hard it is to do so. The book helped me realize and validate the things I did right, but it also brought up the flaws in my approach as well as tons of things to do in the future.
I am 100% sure that applying the things I learned from this book to building and growing www.weremote.eu will help tremendously.
I’m building a marketplace and I got the chance to see first-hand how hard it is to do so. The book helped me realize and validate the things I did right, but it also brought up the flaws in my approach as well as tons of things to do in the future.
I am 100% sure that applying the things I learned from this book to building and growing www.weremote.eu will help tremendously.
August 12, 2019
From it's title you can see that authors Juho & Cristobal were inspired the classic The Lean Startup. This tight book is a great entry into the field of work that deconstruct, explain and reference thought leaders, platforms and concepts in the online marketplace space. The authors do a great job for any marketplace founder in providing detailed guidance, examples of ideas in action and references to founders, authors and texts that are must-sees. I discovered this book after having been directed to Juho's own startup, sharetribe, which is a beautifully designed simple platform for setting up two-sided marketplaces. The Lean Startup is a fast read and one I intend to keep nearby.
March 29, 2018
gave me lots of great ideas
Reading this book gave me lots of great ideas for my own marketplace. ill probably read it again in the future.
Reading this book gave me lots of great ideas for my own marketplace. ill probably read it again in the future.
February 23, 2021
Mostly common-sense and not very information-dense. I think that's partly because the product design problems at this level of abstraction (any online marketplace) are just not very hard: how to design a search workflow? a payment flow? The sections on metrics and pricing both had some helpful practical tips, but if you're interested in the topic, I think it's better to just read the airbnb eng blog, S-1, or maybe this case study: https://growthhackers.com/growth-stud....
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February 15, 2021Very useful book with a high-level approach to the themes but full of links to external resources.
May 7, 2018
Great practical guide for building an online marketplace
This book is like a blueprint for those wishing to start a marketplace business. The book has many real life examples and the running hypothetical example is a useful practical guide to how the techniques can be applied. The links scattered throughout the book are also very helpful.
This book is like a blueprint for those wishing to start a marketplace business. The book has many real life examples and the running hypothetical example is a useful practical guide to how the techniques can be applied. The links scattered throughout the book are also very helpful.
September 15, 2023
If you are building a marketplace, this book would serve as a great staring point.
Why? Because the book touches everything a little of everything but does not delve deeper into anything. The rest you can find in extreme detail on their website.
This book must be used a reference guide, it has a lot of links to other books in it,which must also be read. This book is not a complete tome, i.e. it does not have 7000 pages, it is merely 200 pages and it is impossible to talk about all marketplace rules in a mere 200-page book. So the authors use this book to quickly introduce all concepts that you need to know if you wish to build a successful MARKETPLACE BUSINESS.
This book is by no means complete.
The book mentions other books like Traction - where growth is requried. Each chapter in general is a separate science that must be mastered.
Why is Lean Marketplace Important? Because Lean Product Management or Lean Startup for products/services is different from that of Marketplaces.
Marketplace Analytics are different, from product/service analytics.
The Marketplace Growth Hacking is absolutely different from the growth tactics you use for a typical product/service.
You must essentially relearn and unlearn everything you have learned while managing a non-marketplace product/service.
The rules of the game are different. This books show how to start playing the game without burning a hole in your pocket.
The very first thing that i loved is when the authors expressed that marketplaces take 3-4 years to grow unlike other traditional products/services and they asked the founders to be patient.
The authors also talk about another book written by Andrew Chen - The Cold Start problem, which isa must read if you are building marketplaces. Do not start building marketplaces without first reading that book.
The authors have dedicated one full chapter about trust and reputation in the marketplace, and moderation. Which is absolutely different from how a typical product/service company would manage their brand and their reputation infact it is counter intuitive.
The authors also talk about how to come up with a Business Model for Marketplaces again, that is a different art. The business models for marketplaces are absolutely different from any model that you would typically use to extract value from your products/services.
I was surprised to find that 4 Weeks MBA has a separate card set dedicated only to marketplace business models. Which are absolutely unique.
The best thing about the book is that the authors have clearly explained how to validate a marketplace without actually building anything. Pretotyping a marketplace is different from how you would typically validate a product or a service.
From how to build value proposition to how to do a lean canvas , all the processes that i would have done for a product/service were redone i.e. they were told from the point of view of a marketplace.
How would you set a product discovery for a marketplace?
How would you do product validation for a marketplace?
How would you do product delivery for a maretlplace?
AND MANY MORE QUESTIONS WERE ANSWERED, from thepoint of view of marketplace. And surprisingly none of the answers match with what I have learned in the last 10 years. The same principles when applied to marketplaces, have to be applied in an extremely counterintuitive way.
That is what I really like about the book. Even the jargon of marketplaces is different , disintermediation was never a problem with a product/service. It does not even exist.
The take rate, how much value to capture has become an entire chapter, while there was no need for such a discussion when we were building a non-marketplace product/service.
The authors also talk about other book STARTUP PLAYBOOK by SAM ALTMAN
The also recommend "Insurance for online marketplaces" by ESTHER VAL
They also mention a guide to marketplaces by Version one - https://versionone.vc/marketplace-han...
Another great recommendation is the excellent book "Who Can You Trust", by Rachel Botsman,
The complete set of articles can be found here - https://www.sharetribe.com/academy/
Why? Because the book touches everything a little of everything but does not delve deeper into anything. The rest you can find in extreme detail on their website.
This book must be used a reference guide, it has a lot of links to other books in it,which must also be read. This book is not a complete tome, i.e. it does not have 7000 pages, it is merely 200 pages and it is impossible to talk about all marketplace rules in a mere 200-page book. So the authors use this book to quickly introduce all concepts that you need to know if you wish to build a successful MARKETPLACE BUSINESS.
This book is by no means complete.
The book mentions other books like Traction - where growth is requried. Each chapter in general is a separate science that must be mastered.
Why is Lean Marketplace Important? Because Lean Product Management or Lean Startup for products/services is different from that of Marketplaces.
Marketplace Analytics are different, from product/service analytics.
The Marketplace Growth Hacking is absolutely different from the growth tactics you use for a typical product/service.
You must essentially relearn and unlearn everything you have learned while managing a non-marketplace product/service.
The rules of the game are different. This books show how to start playing the game without burning a hole in your pocket.
The very first thing that i loved is when the authors expressed that marketplaces take 3-4 years to grow unlike other traditional products/services and they asked the founders to be patient.
The authors also talk about another book written by Andrew Chen - The Cold Start problem, which isa must read if you are building marketplaces. Do not start building marketplaces without first reading that book.
The authors have dedicated one full chapter about trust and reputation in the marketplace, and moderation. Which is absolutely different from how a typical product/service company would manage their brand and their reputation infact it is counter intuitive.
The authors also talk about how to come up with a Business Model for Marketplaces again, that is a different art. The business models for marketplaces are absolutely different from any model that you would typically use to extract value from your products/services.
I was surprised to find that 4 Weeks MBA has a separate card set dedicated only to marketplace business models. Which are absolutely unique.
The best thing about the book is that the authors have clearly explained how to validate a marketplace without actually building anything. Pretotyping a marketplace is different from how you would typically validate a product or a service.
From how to build value proposition to how to do a lean canvas , all the processes that i would have done for a product/service were redone i.e. they were told from the point of view of a marketplace.
How would you set a product discovery for a marketplace?
How would you do product validation for a marketplace?
How would you do product delivery for a maretlplace?
AND MANY MORE QUESTIONS WERE ANSWERED, from thepoint of view of marketplace. And surprisingly none of the answers match with what I have learned in the last 10 years. The same principles when applied to marketplaces, have to be applied in an extremely counterintuitive way.
That is what I really like about the book. Even the jargon of marketplaces is different , disintermediation was never a problem with a product/service. It does not even exist.
The take rate, how much value to capture has become an entire chapter, while there was no need for such a discussion when we were building a non-marketplace product/service.
The authors also talk about other book STARTUP PLAYBOOK by SAM ALTMAN
The also recommend "Insurance for online marketplaces" by ESTHER VAL
They also mention a guide to marketplaces by Version one - https://versionone.vc/marketplace-han...
Another great recommendation is the excellent book "Who Can You Trust", by Rachel Botsman,
The complete set of articles can be found here - https://www.sharetribe.com/academy/
August 31, 2020
The book is alright in general. The author goes through lots of topics related to marketplaces and talk does a good job at talking about the high-level goals and missions to the nitty gritty details of metrics and what tools he recommends using. The former is much better than the latter as the latter is already outdated but I can imagine it being useful to people new to the tech-scene.
The way the author kept applying the lessons in each topic to a specific project gave a nice continuity to the book in a way that was satisfying and useful.
One thing about the book that I didn't like is the editing. The book introduced some keywords without properly defining it which made me go back multiple times to try to find the introduction of the terms without finding something suitable.
In general, the book is not a major investment in time nor money. So it's definitely worth giving a go for anyone who's having a remote interest in online marketplaces.
The way the author kept applying the lessons in each topic to a specific project gave a nice continuity to the book in a way that was satisfying and useful.
One thing about the book that I didn't like is the editing. The book introduced some keywords without properly defining it which made me go back multiple times to try to find the introduction of the terms without finding something suitable.
In general, the book is not a major investment in time nor money. So it's definitely worth giving a go for anyone who's having a remote interest in online marketplaces.
January 31, 2021
This text was a great actionable read on starting, building, launching, and growing your marketplace business. Of the marketplace books that I have read, this one is likely the most compact, straight-to-the-point, and actionable of them all. To juxtapose them, others may get into more detailed discussion about marketplace theory, it's history, or longer winded writing about case studies of successful marketplace businesses. Both types of books work depending on your preference. This particular text is definitely more suitable if you are intent on building a marketplace business. If you are just interested in marketplaces in general, then those other texts might be better suited for you.
March 6, 2022
If you're planning to open your own online store or add merch to your already existing brand, this boom might be helpful. It explains the key processes and things that you need to keep in mind in order to succeed. However, given that I work with these sorts of things on daily basis and don't plan to open my own online store, it didn't appeal to me. It's a good book to keep around, I guess. But all of this stuff can also be found online, if you're planning to open an Etsy store, for example. Just depends how serious and devoted you intend to be to your online business and your potential success.
November 21, 2019
Really good resource for anyone looking into building a marketplace. It covers all aspects of the business with really good case studies from the giants out there such as Airbnb, Etsy and Ebay. It offers a lot of insights and inspiration. It is filled with links to external resources and this creates a lot of distractions and some links don't work anymore.
December 31, 2020
Great guide about building marketplaces with a lean approach. I think the story flow was great and I found the sections on the book useful. Also, the approaches on how to tackle common marketplace issues were very helpful. I hope to consult sections of the book often when building a marketplace. I must say I have found the examples a bit repetitive, and would have appreciated more variety.
April 28, 2024
This book is an excellent introduction to the world of marketplaces. It covers all the relevant topics, from the opening to the growth of this type of business. In addition, I liked the references to external links, such as articles and news, as they complement and deepen the ideas presented in the book.
October 4, 2020
Great read if you're looking to start your own marketplace
Beginner friendly explanation, quick read and insightful. This book will help you get a better understanding when it comes to building your own marketplaces
Beginner friendly explanation, quick read and insightful. This book will help you get a better understanding when it comes to building your own marketplaces
August 28, 2022
This is a 220-worded small book but packed with such good insights. I took so many notes from it and consider this my holy guide to learn about marketplaces. If you’re someone who wants to understand everything about a marketplace business, this is the book you NEED to start with!
August 21, 2023
Some good points, little that I've not heard or found in research though.
Still, it's nicely organised and referenced, so this was great. Missing an Index, which is a shame - hope they add one for future editions.
Still, it's nicely organised and referenced, so this was great. Missing an Index, which is a shame - hope they add one for future editions.
May 14, 2018
Excellent intro for aspiring marketplace entrepreneurs
October 28, 2018
Lots of valuable information about how to build successful marketplaces with numerous examples!
October 30, 2018
Great
Nice book about marketplaces. Enjoyed learning about the different aspects. Reccomend to people looking to build company around marketplaces. Done
Nice book about marketplaces. Enjoyed learning about the different aspects. Reccomend to people looking to build company around marketplaces. Done
January 6, 2019
Good overview of basic concepts around marketplaces. It does not go very deep into particular topics, but provides solid introduction. Worth a read for every marketplace entrepreneur or investor
February 21, 2019
You can supplement by watching the YouTube videos.
August 3, 2019
One of the most fascinating books about marketplace businesses. Must read for everyone one who thinks of starting a company in sharing economy.
September 22, 2019
Muy util si quieres crear un marketplace
January 10, 2020
If you havent read sth about marketplaces/platforms before, this is where you should start. I liked the style and also the comprehensiveness.
March 26, 2020
good overview of marketplaces, the book answered all the questions that I had before. Recommended reading.
March 29, 2020
This is a good read. It's been properly researched and there is very little/no BS. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, hence 4 stars, but this may be a little unfair.
November 1, 2020
Very useful and actionable guide.
April 4, 2022
There’s nothing revolutionary in this book, but it helps prompt new ideas
November 14, 2022
Very good for any entrepreneur tackling the marketplace game
March 2, 2025
Good instructions.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews