All articles by Juho Makkonen
Juho has been building marketplace websites since 2008. He is a Co-Founder of Sharetribe and currently serves as the CEO of the company. He's also a OuiShare connector in Helsinki and a long time advocate of the sharing economy.

Platform technology
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.

Platform technology
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.

Marketing & growth
Starting a marketplace
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

Marketing & growth
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.

Marketing & growth
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.

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

Marketing & growth
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.

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

Marketing & growth
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.

Marketing & growth
11 marketplace metrics you should be tracking to measure your success
The most important metrics that anchor all your marketing and growth activities.

Marketing & growth
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.

Platform technology
What are the key features of marketplace payment solutions?
There are a number of specific payment features marketplaces need from a payment service provider. This article compares the key features from four prominent PSPs: PayPal, Stripe, Adyen, and MANGOPAY.

Platform technology
Marketplace payments – Costs, integration, and more things to consider
When you are choosing a payment service provider, payment costs, ease of integration, and quality of customer service are important things to consider. In this article, we discuss how PayPal, Stripe, Adyen, and MANGOPAY compare in these aspects.

Platform technology
Marketplace payments: The complete guide
What are the best payment service providers for online marketplaces? In this article series, we identify the most relevant payment service providers for online marketplaces.

Marketing & growth
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.

Marketing & growth
"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.

Business Model
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.

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

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

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

Platform technology
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.

Marketing & growth
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.

Starting a marketplace
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.

Starting a marketplace
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.

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

Marketing & growth
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.

Starting a marketplace
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.

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

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

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

Platform technology
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.

Business Model
Marketplace pricing: How to define your ideal take rate
Find a pricing strategy that is just right for everyone: you, your providers, and their customers.

Business Model
Marketplace leakage: How to discourage people from going around your payment system
How to solve the most daunting challenge of the marketplace business model: platform leakage.

Starting a marketplace
Business Model
The 6 marketplace business models – and how to choose the right one
Compare marketplace business models and find the revenue strategy that brings you the biggest growth boost.

Starting a marketplace
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.

Starting a marketplace
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.