Untitled topic • Hacker News Board

#1

Post by alegd » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 1:42 PM UTC

No post body was provided.

Re: undefined

#2

Post by leros » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 1:54 PM UTC

You need to cheat to kickstart one side

1) Incentivize people on one side to join without the other side. For example Uber paid early drivers money just for signing up even though they had no riders.

2) You provide one side of the marketplace to kickstart the other side. This would be like Uber hiring drivers in the beginning.

This is why starting a two sided marketplace often requires significant capital. They're very hard to start organically.

Another thing I'd suggest is to focus on a niche. Don't try to solve the global problem just yet. Maybe you know a lot of people want to transport books between London and Madrid. Just focus on that to get that market healthy, then add another product or location. This helps you focus your marketing. Also if you go global to start you might have 1000 users on both sides but no matches because everyone is too spread out.

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#3

Post by alegd » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:01 PM UTC

leros wrote: post #2

You need to cheat to kickstart one side 1) Incentivize people on one side to join without the other side. For example Uber paid early drivers money just for signing up even though they had no riders. 2) You provide one side of the marketplace to kickstart the other side. This would be like Uber hiring drivers in the beginning. This is why starting a two sided marketplace often requires significant capital. They're ve…

[flagged]

Re: undefined

#4

Post by hilariously » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

My bigger question is how you would validate this isn't drugs because this seems like the perfect low effort way to send high value drugs.

Re: undefined

#5

Post by mmastrac » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:04 PM UTC

Marketplaces are famously difficult to start - even Uber just started with black car service in a handful of cities and expanded from that. Find a trusted network of mules as your supply-side and expect to lose some money as you bootstrap.

You should already know what your largest city-to-city routes might be at this point, so why not focus on economy of scale there? If you need to rent a cube van to make it happen, do that.

Re: undefined

#6

Post by leros » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:05 PM UTC

alegd wrote: post #3

leros wrote: post #2

You need to cheat to kickstart one side 1) Incentivize people on one side to join without the other side. For example Uber paid early drivers money just for signing up even though they had no riders. 2) You provide one side of the marketplace to kickstart the other side. This would be like Uber hiring drivers in the beginning. This is why starting a two sided marketplace often requires significant capital. They're ve…

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Without burning money you'll need to be creative. Either do it yourself or go sourcing the supply side. Can you go find a group of people you can use to transport things and basically sign up on the platform on their behalf and then hand stuff off to them? Maybe you know some travel group that exist and you could pay them to take packages. You're basically acting in an agency model in the beginning instead of being a true P2P marketplace. It's a common strategy though it does often lead to just becoming an agency because it's more successful than your organic marketplace. This would be like if you called an Uber and Uber calls up a private driving service to pick you up.

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#7

Post by coalstartprob » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

[dead]

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#8

Post by raw_anon_1111 » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

hilariously wrote: post #4

My bigger question is how you would validate this isn't drugs because this seems like the perfect low effort way to send high value drugs.

[flagged]

Re: undefined

#9

Post by garrickvanburen » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC

leros wrote: post #2

You need to cheat to kickstart one side 1) Incentivize people on one side to join without the other side. For example Uber paid early drivers money just for signing up even though they had no riders. 2) You provide one side of the marketplace to kickstart the other side. This would be like Uber hiring drivers in the beginning. This is why starting a two sided marketplace often requires significant capital. They're ve…

This. Stated another way, you need to start by either: fulfilling existing demand yourself....or being the demand yourself.

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#10

Post by mohsen1 » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

leros wrote: post #2

You need to cheat to kickstart one side 1) Incentivize people on one side to join without the other side. For example Uber paid early drivers money just for signing up even though they had no riders. 2) You provide one side of the marketplace to kickstart the other side. This would be like Uber hiring drivers in the beginning. This is why starting a two sided marketplace often requires significant capital. They're ve…

Uber also paid riders to ride. I was working for Garret Camp at SumbleUpon and we got free Uber Black back then. The number of available drivers even in SF was so low that it was not really useful, even free!