Homejoy and Exec are the perfect examples of companies that have gone very deep into their one offering, house cleaning. While other companies like Thumbtack and MyTime have gone very wide to gain more marketshare, faster. MyTime and Thumbtack offer every service under the sun. They are creating demand and then finding supply as they go. I am not sure if one strategy is better than the other when it comes to creating a marketplace for services website.
I think there are great lessons to be learned from Exec. They started out wide, but have gone very deep on cleaning.
It depends on the core thesis of your vision. Do you have a different product experience that could be competitive to existing marketplaces? Or are you just going for land-grab?
The most important thing to understand about the services marketplace business is that it's a very localized business operation.
I believe that if you're just looking to make money, the best way to do this is to go to "secondary markets" and build up marketplaces with a plan to sell to someone who has already raised great VC and has a presence in the major markets.
If you are looking to compete in major market cities, then the safer bet is to find the very deep opportunity unless you really believe your customer experience can beat the established players.
Happy to talk this through with you in more detail.
Answered 11 years ago
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