sales-two-sided-marketplace

What this skill does

# Two-Sided Marketplace GTM Strategy

This skill is tool-agnostic. It covers how to launch and grow a two-sided service marketplace — the cold-start problem, supply-vs-demand sequencing, supply recruiting channels, and the integrated one-page GTM plan you write before the first dollar moves.

## Step 1 — Gather context

If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first.

1. **Where are you in the cold start?**
   - A) Idea / pre-launch — no supply, no demand
   - B) Have some supply, no demand
   - C) Have some demand, no supply
   - D) Both sides exist locally but flywheel isn't spinning
   - E) One geography works, expanding to a second

2. **What's the marketplace?** (cleaning, food delivery, courier, lawn care, mobile detailing, home services, pet care, other) — drives which supply-recruiting channels make sense

3. **What's your local labor market like?** (loose / tight / dependent on a specific demographic)

4. **What's the geographic scope of the pilot?** (single corridor / single neighborhood / city-wide / multi-city)

Skip-ahead rule: if the user's prompt already has these details, skip to Step 2.

## Step 2 — Route or answer directly

| If the question is about... | Route to... |
|---|---|
| Door-to-door / territory / 60-second pitch design — DEMAND-side execution | `/sales-field-sales [question]` |
| Marketplace payouts — paying 1099 supply workers / sellers / drivers (Stripe Connect, Hyperwallet, Trolley, etc.) | `/sales-marketplace-payouts [question]` |
| Local SEO / Google Business Profile for inbound demand | `/sales-seo [question]` |
| Digital ads for demand acquisition | `/sales-b2b-advertising [question]` or `/sales-retargeting [question]` |
| Email cadences for demand (B2B side only) | `/sales-cadence [question]` |
| Referral programs for buyer growth | `/sales-audience-growth [question]` |
| Calling / coaching recorded in-person sales calls | `/sales-siro [question]` |
| Customer success / retention on the demand side | `/sales-customer-success [question]` |

If the question is genuinely about marketplace GTM strategy (cold-start, sequencing, supply-recruiting, integrated GTM plan), continue to Step 3.

## Step 3 — Supply-side recruiting channel reference

**Read `references/platforms.md`** for per-channel notes on supply-side recruiting (Wonolo, Instawork, Bluecrew, Steady, Jobble, Workstream, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, Craigslist, Snagajob, Veryable, Gigpro, Sharetribe). Each entry covers what it's best for, vertical fit, fee model, and W-2 vs 1099 implications.

Answer using only the relevant sections. Don't dump the full file.

## Step 4 — Actionable guidance

The marketplace GTM playbook has four pillars. Work them in this order.

### 4.1 Cold-start sequencing — demand-first vs supply-first

The chicken-and-egg framing (Andrew Chen's *Cold Start Problem*, NFX's 19 tactics): your platform has no value until both sides are active, so you have to fake it on one side until the flywheel spins. The diagnostic question: **which side is harder to acquire in your market?** Whichever side is harder is usually the more valuable, and once you have enough of them, the other side becomes 2-10x easier.

For **local service marketplaces** (cleaning, lawn, courier, home services), the practical answer is almost always **anchor demand first**, then route supply against guaranteed volume. Why:

- A 1099 cleaner won't sign up for a marketplace with zero booked jobs — opportunity cost is real, and they have other gig options.
- A local SMB buyer (restaurant, gas station) doesn't care whether you're a marketplace or a small services company — they care that the bathroom gets cleaned at the right price. So buyer signup is decoupled from "is this a real platform yet."
- Once you have N anchored buyer contracts with predictable weekly volume, you can recruit supply by *selling guaranteed hours*: "I have 12 confirmed visits per week paying $40 each. Want 3 of them?"

**Anchor-demand-first playbook**:
1. Close 3-5 buyer contracts manually with the founder doing every visit (use `/sales-field-sales` for the demand-side execution).
2. Lock weekly cadence — predictable hours are the supply-recruiting currency.
3. Recruit your first 2-3 supply workers by selling those guaranteed hours, not "join our platform."
4. Add one anchor buyer per week and one supply worker per anchor.
5. When supply utilization hits ~70%, recruit ahead of the next anchor.

**Counter-cases** (when to seed supply first):
- Marketplace where supply is highly mobile and already gathered on existing platforms (Uber-style — drivers move between Uber/Lyft/DoorDash freely). Then aggregating supply gives demand a reason to switch.
- Marketplace where supply is the differentiator (e.g., "all our cleaners are background-checked + insured"). Then you have to certify supply before demand will trust you.

For local 1099 service marketplaces in unsexy verticals, the seed-supply-first case is rare. Default to anchor-demand-first.

### 4.2 Supply-side recruiting in tight local labor markets

Two things change everything:

**Insight 1 — Every demand-side sales call is also a supply recruiting call.**

When you're door-to-door at a gas station pitching cleaning services and the clerk says **"I don't mind cleaning the bathrooms"**, that's not a rejection. That's a pre-qualified 1099 supply recruit:
- They've already done the work (so onboarding is fast)
- They know what good looks like in that specific environment
- They live within commuting distance of buyer demand
- They're available during the hours you need

Train the demand-side script to flip the objection: "Totally fair — would you ever want to do it on the side for cash? We have 3 spots opening up this month at $X/visit, all within a 10-min drive."

Capture clerk name + phone + days available even if the owner says no to the buyer side. Two pipelines from one knock.

**Insight 2 — Channel selection depends on your local market and verticals.**

Order of effectiveness (from research and field experience) for 1099 gig recruiting in tight labor markets:

| Channel | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Point-of-buyer-signup recruiting | Anywhere with a field-sales motion | Free. Highest fit. Use `/sales-field-sales` clerk-flip technique. |
| Existing-worker referrals | After you have 3-5 supply workers | Pay a flat referral bounty ($50-200). Highest retention. |
| Indeed | All verticals, mid-tight markets | Pay-per-application or sponsored. Workstream-style SMS-apply boosts conversion. |
| Craigslist | Tight labor markets, immigrant labor pools, blue-collar verticals | Cheap. Still high-volume in some metros. |
| ZipRecruiter | All verticals, especially restaurant + hospitality | Aggregates across boards. |
| Workstream | Hospitality / restaurant / multi-location, hourly | All-in-one hire + onboard + payroll. SMS-apply + Voice/Video AI screening. |
| Wonolo | When you need fill-in capacity, not core supply | 45% markup on worker pay. Mix of contractor + W-2. Best as a surge layer. |
| Instawork | Hospitality + light industrial day-of-shift fill | Mix of W-2 + 1099. Variable markup. Day-of-shift fill. |
| Bluecrew | Industrial / warehouse / light manufacturing | ~40% markup. W-2 only. |
| Steady | Worker-side gig discovery — post to reach side-hustlers | Worker-facing app, not employer-facing platform. |
| Jobble | Side-hustler audience, event staffing | Lower-friction posting. |
| Snagajob | Hourly retail + restaurant + hospitality | Large hourly-worker audience. |
| Veryable | Light industrial / warehouse on-demand | On-demand laborers, narrow verticals. |
| Gigpro | Restaurant gig staffing specifically | Vertical-specific, restaurant-only. |

See `references/platforms.md` for fuller notes.

### 4.3 Single-corridor / single-city pilot framework

Density beats sparseness. Run the pilot on the smallest viable footprint before expanding.

**Pilot scope rules**:
- One corridor (sub-2 mile walking corridor) for hyperlocal services like cleaning, courie