Author
All articles by Juho Makkonen
Juho has been building marketplace websites since 2008. He is Sharetribe's Co-Founder and CEO, and the co-author of the Amazon bestseller The Lean Marketplace – A Practical Guide to Building an Online Marketplace. He's also a connector at OuiShare, a global network focused on building a more collaborative society.
Juho believes that technology companies can be a force for good in our society when they're designed to prioritize their social mission.

Best articles by Juho Makkonen

Introducing the new Sharetribe
A super-fast no-code marketplace builder and a powerful developer platform, in one marketplace solution.

Marketplace funding: The complete guide
Struggling with funding your marketplace? This guide helps you decide how much marketplace funding you need – and when and where to source it.

Marketplace metrics: 26 key metrics and how to use them
What metrics should a marketplace founder track? And how to translate what you track into action? Here’s how to identify and track the key metrics, how to separate them from vanity metrics, and how to make concrete decisions based on reliable data.
All articles by Juho Makkonen

How to scale your marketplace
Our advice in most articles on this blog is to not scale your marketplace yet. Not in this one. In this article, we'll lay out the four stages of expanding your business to new categories, user groups, and locations.

Product-market fit for marketplaces
Product-market fit is a critical stage that shows your marketplace can be profitable. Here's how you can reach it with your marketplace.

Problem-solution fit for marketplaces
Problem-solution fit is a sign your product is solving a real problem for users. Here’s how to identify if you’ve reached it—and what to do if you find out you haven’t.

Stripe marketplace payments – overview of Stripe Connect key features
Stripe Connect key features, fees, security compliance, integration and more.

Adyen marketplace payments – overview of key features
Should you choose Adyen for your marketplace payments? Read this article to know Adyen's features, fees, supported currencies and countries, tax handling, & more.

PayPal marketplace payments – overview of PayPal for Marketplaces key features
PayPal for Marketplaces is a widely used marketplace payment provider. Explore its features, fees, available countries, currencies, payouts, and more.

Mangopay marketplace payments – overview of key features
Are you considering Mangopay to power your marketplace payments? Here's a detailed overview of Mangopay’s marketplace payment features.

Create a marketplace. Fast.
Learn to build an online marketplace in ten practical steps. With dozens of real-life examples and advice based on 10+ years working with online marketplaces.

Marketplace payments: The complete guide
Marketplace payments are very complex. This guide helps you list your feature requirements and compare and choose the best marketplace payment provider for you. (Yes, there's a comparison table!)

Introducing the new Sharetribe
A super-fast no-code marketplace builder and a powerful developer platform, in one marketplace solution.

How to build a B2B marketplace
What’s required from a marketplace to solve the challenges and leverage the potential in B2B?

How to build a service marketplace
Here’s everything you need to know about creating a website for services and building a successful marketplace business.

Five benefits of working less
Why I work from nine to five and take over five weeks off every year as a tech startup CEO.

How to describe your requirements to a marketplace developer
Before you can start developing your marketplace platform, you need to describe it to your developer.

How to hire a software developer to build your marketplace
Find out if it's time for your to find a marketplace developer and, if yes, how to find the right one.

How to build a multi-vendor shopping cart
Learn if your marketplace needs a multi-vendor shopping cart. And if it does, how to build one.

Marketplace businesses that thrive in a recession
A recession is a challenge for any business. But a downturn can also offer tremendous opportunities for marketplaces

What if every company in the world were like Patagonia?
Patagonia is not alone. Bosch, John Lewis, Sharetribe, and dozens of other steward-owned companies are changing capitalism for good.

How to fund your marketplace without giving up equity
Venture capital doesn’t work for most marketplaces. Luckily, there are options. Consider grants, loans, and revenue-based financing.

How to crowdfund your marketplace
Your marketplace startup funding options aren’t limited to bootstrapping or raising venture capital. Read on for our CEO Juho’s best tips on a funding method close to all our hearts at Sharetribe: crowdfunding.

How to raise venture capital for your marketplace
Sharetribe’s CEO Juho’s complete guide to raising venture capital for your marketplace.

Why raise venture capital for your marketplace – and why not
Should you raise VC funding for your marketplace? If you want to build a unicorn, yes. If you want to get rich – maybe not.

How to bootstrap your marketplace
Can you build a successful marketplace business without funding? Absolutely! Bootstrapping might even help you become profitable faster.

How we make salary decisions at Sharetribe
Salary transparency fosters fairness and trust. It also raises the stakes for decision-makers and demands that any differences in compensation can be openly justified.

Marketplace funding: The complete guide
Struggling with funding your marketplace? This guide helps you decide how much marketplace funding you need – and when and where to source it.

Why we're building a Balanced Company
For us, balance is about building a sustainable work culture while staying focused on our mission to democratize the sharing economy.

The complete guide to open-source marketplace software
Considering open-source software to power your marketplace? Here's a helpful guide.

Marketplace metrics: 26 key metrics and how to use them
What metrics should a marketplace founder track? And how to translate what you track into action? Here’s how to identify and track the key metrics, how to separate them from vanity metrics, and how to make concrete decisions based on reliable data.

How to build a two-sided marketplace
How to find the right business model and build network effects on a two-sided marketplace platform.

What to do if your marketplace business slows down
Five recommendations to consider for your marketplace during times of slower business. Some can help you make it through these difficult times, others prepare your business for better ones ahead.

On what matters
Sharetribe's company structure, steward-ownership, ensures that for us, profits will always simply be a means to achieve our social mission.

Sharetribe Go becomes source-available after being open-source for 8 years
Sharetribe Go started as open-source – now it's source-available. This post explains the history and motivation behind the change.

Steward-ownership is capitalism 2.0
This post dives into the background and practice of steward-ownership and how we’re applying it at Sharetribe.

How to build companies that are a force for good in society
For a company to leave the world a better place than they found it, we believe a large-scale change in mindset is necessary.

Growing with content - An interview with Simon Powell
The founder of TransferTravel reveals how creating content helped them build supply and awareness about their marketplace, up to 30,000 visitors per month, without spending anything on ads.

"Network effects are key to successful marketplaces," says James Currier
The managing partner of NFX Guild believes a new class of businesses—ones that combine aspects from marketplaces and social networks—is being created.

Why trust is key for BlaBlaCar – An interview with Vincent Rosso
The co-founder of Blablacar discusses what B2B marketplaces can learn from P2P marketplaces, and specifically, marketplace trust as a facilitator for transactions.

About Sharetribe’s values
Four years ago, Sharetribe updated its company values, and they still hold true today. This is how we got there.

Why did Thumbtack succeed?
Starting your marketplace with one city and one vertical is key. But for every rule, there's an exception.

Focus your marketplace on one city and one vertical
Tackle the chicken-or-egg problem with an extreme focus.

Five must-read books for marketplace entrepreneurs
Our CEO Juho picked the five books he strongly recommends to all marketplace entrepreneurs.

How to design the booking flow of your service marketplace
How ten well-known marketplaces match supply and demand, and how to pick the right approach for you.

From bootstrapping a marketplace to $1M in funding
Arash Shiva and Marius Ciocirlan of Sharegrid reveal how they went from bootstrapping to $1M in funding, using Sharetribe.

Discover latent demand – An interview with Boris Wertz
Boris Wertz, the prolific marketplace investor and former COO of AbeBooks, believes there are still many untapped verticals that are ripe for disruption by new marketplace businesses.

From marketplace idea to profitability in a matter of months
An interview with the founders of Cycle.land, the Sharetribe-powered bike-sharing marketplace that raised more than £400,000 in equity crowdfunding.

Do one thing well – An interview with Mike Williams
The founder of Studiotime shares how he built a profitable marketplace business by bootstrapping.

Conquer one city at a time – An interview with Tristan Pollock
The founder of Storefront advises entrepreneurs to build manual-first marketplaces and to not scale too rapidly.

How much does it cost to build a marketplace business?
Example of a first year’s marketplace startup budget, and how to spend it wisely.

How to find the best marketplace growth strategies
Choosing the early-stage marketing mix for your marketplace.

How to build your marketplace supply
How to bring in the first, quality providers before your platform has any customers.

How to design your marketplace transaction flow
The science behind minimal abandoned carts for marketplace platforms.

The marketplace search engine: How to help your customers find what they’re looking for
Your success depends on demand finding its way to supply. Here’s how to make it happen.

Marketplace pricing: How to set the right take rate
The right marketplace pricing level depends on many different factors internal or external to your marketplace. Here's what you should consider to find the optimal pricing level for your marketplace.

How to prevent marketplace leakage (and keep payments on your platform)
How to solve the most daunting challenge of the marketplace business model: platform leakage.

The marketplace business model guide
Learn how the marketplace model works and brings benefits to all parties involved: the sellers, the buyers, and the marketplace owner.

Why you should launch your marketplace early
‘Time is money’, and other teachings to inspire you to take the plunge and launch your marketplace as soon as you can.

Three reasons why marketplaces fail (and how not to)
Peer-to-peer marketplaces can be great businesses. They combine the convenience of online stores with scale that comes from the notion that every consumer can also be a provider.
Start your 14-day free trial
Create a marketplace today!
- Launch quickly, without coding
- Extend infinitely
- Scale to any size
No credit card required