Benjamin Lauzier
Benjamin Lauzier has been building and scaling marketplaces for almost 15 years. He was the VP of product and growth at Thumbtack, where he rebuilt the product team and Thumbtack’s growth levers, re-architected their revenue model, and helped double the company’s growth within three years. Prior to Thumbtack, Ben was at Lyft for six years, where he led the supply side of the product organization to a point where 1% of U.S. workers were driving for Lyft every month. Currently, he advises marketplace teams and founders, teaches a Reforge course on marketplace growth, and has recently launched a health tech company called Nurra, which connects users with care advocates to navigate the health-care system.
Overlay: Marketplace Skills
Before obsessing over marketplace dynamics and economic ratios, founders must first nail the core value exchange and secure a viable growth strategy for at least one side of the market.
"If you don't have product market fit, and if you don't have a good enough growth strategy for at least one side of your marketplace, just forget about all this marketplace stuff. Focus on this core ex..."
Maintain high quality by empowering supply with coaching and tools while using market forces as the primary driver of behavior rather than micromanagement.
"But my take is I'm a huge believer in market forces and empowerment, so provide guardrails for what a good experience is in your marketplace, set a clear bar for quality, and provide the right coachin..."
A business only functions as a marketplace if it connects autonomous, independent parties that provide distinct value to one another through an intermediary.
"And I think on paper what makes a marketplace is pretty straightforward, it's two or more sides that are distinct from one another, and they provide value to each other, and then you have an intermedi..."