27 learnings from running a marketplace business

Here are 27 learnings and lessons from running a peer to peer crowdfunding marketplace business. Including people first, community over competitors, people need people, 3 different and important types of online identities, focus your people and your product, products have to be (1) easy to learn (2) easy to use (3) easy to share, concentrate on people who are in action state not test state and find your dunbar number

Transcript

1. 27 Learnings From Leading A Marketplace Business July 2020 Danny Denhard www.focus.business
2. Here are 27 learnings from 4 years & £220m + in transactions from 7 million great & supportive people
3. User Tells Their Story % of users would create a story and go on to raise money for their friends, family or community Unlock More Stories The more pick up and sharing that happened the more stories created Shares Story For Support Shares story to their audience and becomes the marketing for their story and the service Press Pick Up If story is shared enough or sold into press the story and service is pushed. Stories Get Stories Loop Marketplace Overview
4. People First
5. Always put community & customer first. Always over the competition but… Always respect your enemy. aka users #1 Learning
6. Always put community & customer first. Always over competition but… Always respect your enemy. Competitors will often have small wins and make you feel like you need to worry about them more than you actually do. Ensure you have a very strong and confident strategic plan and roadmap. Be ruthless in knowing your own direction and drive change in your market. Be the brand to own the market #1 Learning
7. People always need people People give to people #2 Learning
8. People always need people People give to people In the 5 years working in the peer to peer Crowdfunding space, people turn to people for help, (dunbar’s kin or ‘super family’ first) friends, family, community and strangers to help them or those people closest to them. Not pages or products It is baked into our DNA, we crave being part of a tribe, it is how we survive. We need love & support #2 Learning
9. +There Are 3 Important Internet Identities 1 3 2 PUBLIC PRIVATE SEMI PRIVATE #3 Learning
10. +There Are 3 Important Internet Identities 1 3 2 PUBLIC The mass sharers, those who understand the power of social media & sharing information with as many people as possible. These public people will help spread your product far and wide. But if they have an issue you will know about extremely quickly. PRIVATE There is a portion of internet users who want to stay private, share their information privately and only to their nearest and dearest. These are savvy users but does not naturally increase the reach of your product. SEMI PRIVATE The typical internet user, will offer as much information they are comfortable with however they have private social media accounts, they want to share to their friends and family and don’t have huge following. If they have a good experience - they will recommend you to an extended circle.
11. +Know What To Focus Your People On IMPORTANT Educating all users is essential. Understand what the updates (over notifications) are and what the next actions are. Educate & Inspire! If you are not showing users what they should be doing, now ➡ next & ➡ in the future you confuse people & they will need help from customer support & Product updates become an effort vs reward vote and growth slows. #4 Learning
12. Product
13. Your Product has to be easy to learn Easy to use Easy to share #5 Learning
14. Your Product has to be easy to learn Easy to use Easy to share You have to learn how to use the product or you won’t Can’t use it, won’t use it, won’t hit the objective Share with friends, family, strangers Why? #5 Learning
15. Social networks & emails are filtered far more than people realise #6 Learning
16. Social networks & emails are filtered far more than people realise Social networks hate external links, to gain visits you need to share a URL, private messengers and groups best way to leverage or remove the algorithmic filtering. Sending Emails to friends doesn’t feel very normal, we panic or we question if it might be spam. If you send to a mass list Outlook and Gmail are very strict on this. Sending the same copy and paste text seems easiest but rarely helps and often results in filtering #6 Learning Hint: use instant messengers, SMS & group chat to win
17. Product decay rate will kill you by a thousand cuts Product enhancements are vital No innovation = silent market share loss #7 Learning
18. Target people at need state and action state Need to do something Essential to take action ASAP Product Use 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Test State Need State Action State #8 Learning
19. Target people at need state and action state Need to do something Essential to take action ASAP Product Use 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Test State Need State Action State Focus your efforts here ⤵ #8 Learning
20. Build for the early adopters, Not The everyday user #9 Learning
21. Build for the early adopters, Not The everyday user Early adopters show everyday users the way and the tools to use Everyday users need the right swarm of users to show them the way forward, otherwise you have a lot of test users and onboarding & hand holding has to be incredible. #9 Learning Why?
22. +Bonus Just remember with marketplace business your users / community are your “free” marketing channels. Leverage this with them.
23. Strangers Fundraiser Family and close friends Colleagues Friends of friends People with same interests Help Find Your Customers “Dunbar Number” Strangers #10 Learning
24. Strangers Fundraiser Family and close friends Colleagues Friends of friends People with same interests Strangers Help Find Your Customers “Dunbar Number” 1 - 17 1 - 5 1 - 10 Circles # of Supporters 1 - 100 1 - 1m #10 Learning
25. Identify your core strength and focus on moat building Brand was key, as was adding reactance Extending your features, building relationships, enhancing network effects #11 Ensure users take control of their story & distribution Learning
26. Marketing PPC SEO Brand PR Press Product & Dev Customer Support Customer Success Early Comms Lines CRM Data & Insight Growth #12 Learning
27. Marketing PPC SEO Brand PR Press Product & Dev Customer Support Customer Success Maturing Comms Lines Growth Growth Retention Data & Insight #12 Learning
28. Growth: Enable someone or create a small group to concentrate on growth. Get them thinking completely differently. Step back & out to win Think: Optimisations + Features + innovation + + These people can rotate, it’s important you get fresh ideas & outside your market #13 Learning
29. Culture
30. Set up a crystal clear Focus metric Set up clear action plans to get to your goals Clear goals guide everyone #14 Learning
31. Set up a crystal clear Focus metric Set up clear action plans to get to your goals Clear goals guide everyone North Stars are often difficult for everyone to know they can influence directly Focus metric = One core metric to focus all other metrics #14 Learning
32. Empowered caring people will empower users #15 Learning
33. Empowered caring people will empower users A team that cares and genuinely wants to help will empower your users and help guide your product team to build for your community of users and their networks. #15 Learning
34. Watch the market everyday Growth - Hyper Growth - Maturity #16 Learning
35. Watch the market everyday Growth - Hyper Growth - Maturity - 2020 0 2.5 5 7.5 10 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Hyper Growth M aturity 2020 Growth #16 Learning
36. Or 2020 Growth - Hyper Growth - Maturity - 2020 0 1.3 2.5 3.8 5 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Hyper Growth M aturity 2020 Growth #16 Learning Discuss regularly, review, communicate and prioritise product updates & pricing regularly
37. Just one small issue or disagreement can be HUGE & negatively impact you at growth stage #17 Learning
38. No team(s) silo’s Update as one team against their own metric they are targeted to move. Roll up to the Focus metric #18 Focus metric = One core metric to focus all other metrics Learning M M M M M M M M M
39. Build an environment of sharing data, insights and analysis. Build a culture of internal coaching, teaching and collaboration. Build a business to identify and develop talent & trusting your people and strategy #19 Learning
40. Strategy
41. Think: 5 Years Plan: 3 Years Action: 1 Year Important for internal teams to Focus around & strive for Important for Product & Dev Important for Product, Marketing, Customer teams, & Growth Strategy & Revisit twice a year #20 Learning
42. A list of tactics is not strategy Short term thinking hinders everything you want to achieve Start Tactical & You Won’t Break Out Of That Thinking Cross Functionally Only looking at the short term will blind you #21 Learning
43. Build agreed principles that work for everyone Stand Up Daily Sit Down weekly Principles are essential: Agree on comms, prioritisation, tools usage, updates flow One master dashboard, not death by dashboard. Anyone can create a report, the insights and analysis are the actionable business changing elements. #22 Learning
44. Build agreed principles that work for everyone Stand Up Daily Sit Down weekly Principles are essential: Agree on comms, prioritisation, tools usage, updates flow One master dashboard, not death by dashboard. Anyone can create a report, the insights and analysis are the actionable business changing elements. #22 Learning
45. You have to plan for the very best And for the very worst Raising money that solves a life changing problem Raising money for an action that goes goal When national tragedies hit Bad actors are everywhere, especially when there is potential financial gain #23 Learning
46. Strangers want to help Strangers just haven’t seen your story or hasn’t been able to connect with it yet #24 Learning
47. There will be milestones and key events that will make and break you (teams and performance) #24 Learning
48. Ripples Ripples = Seem large impact but are just surges Waves = Momentum shifts Vs Waves #25 Learning Understand the waves and ride the first and control the second wave
49. Unpicking what exactly worked and why, is extremely difficult, but do everything you can to unpick & optimise! & drive users towards it. Communicate the importance of these finding regularly #26 Learning
50. Find the winning daily and weekly metric and optimise, optimise and optimise Daily = Shows your pulse Weekly = Shows your health Monthly = Too late to make positive changes & again. #27 Learning
51. +Bonus Think of the upstart team / collective as a sports team, one bad player can effective the squad. One great addition can propel you. Know when to coach, mentor & get out of the way!
52. Always keep in mind There will be one penny drop moment that validates everything you are doing
53. 53 +Thank You From Focus DANNY DENHARD The world of work has lost its focus! Focus was created to cut through the noise, cut through confusion and ensure businesses focus on developing their organisations and performance. Get FOUNDER E: DANNY@FOCUS.BUSINESS W: WWW.FOCUS.BUSINESS/MANIFESTO