A two-sided marketplace that launches before the category closes.
Listings, search, matching, Stripe Connect payouts, trust & safety basics — 5–6 weeks from kickoff. Applications monthly subscription.
Who this is for
Founder validating a two-sided marketplace where Sharetribe is too rigid and a custom Stripe Connect build feels too daunting to DIY.
The pain today
- Sharetribe's template constraints forcing ugly compromises on UX
- Stripe Connect documentation overwhelming without payments experience
- Supply-side onboarding and demand-side discovery both needed day one
- Trust & safety (reviews, disputes, fraud) looks like a whole other product
- Launch timeline pressure from a category with incumbents moving
The outcome you get
- Two-sided marketplace — supplier onboarding, buyer discovery, transactions
- Stripe Connect (Express or Custom) payouts with automatic splits
- Search, filtering, and matching logic tuned to your category
- Reviews, messaging, and basic trust & safety on day one
- Launch-ready MVP in 5–6 weeks, no compromise on core UX
Marketplace architecture (supply, demand, matching)
Every marketplace has three sides of work. Supply side: onboarding (identity, business verification, payout setup via Stripe Connect), listing creation, availability or inventory management, communication inbox. Demand side: discovery (search, filtering, categories), transaction (book, buy, match), post-transaction (reviews, repeat bookings). Matching engine: the rules that connect supply and demand — geographic, category-based, rating-weighted, availability-aware. MVP scope means prioritizing the matching mechanics most relevant to your category and deferring algorithmic sophistication. A service marketplace (cleaners, tutors) prioritizes location + availability. A product marketplace prioritizes category + price + ratings. Category drives architecture choice.
Stripe Connect deep dive
Stripe Connect has three account types. Express: Stripe hosts onboarding and dashboard, fastest to ship, good for most service and gig marketplaces. Custom: you own the entire onboarding UX, more work, right for embedded finance or deep branding. Standard: suppliers have their own Stripe accounts, lowest integration burden, right for high-trust business marketplaces. For MVPs, Express is usually the right call — clean supplier onboarding in 15 minutes, handles KYC/AML, automatic 1099 generation for US suppliers. Transaction flow: buyer pays the platform, platform takes fee, payout routes to supplier's connected account on the schedule you configure. I wire this end-to-end with webhook reconciliation so accounting stays clean.
Trust & safety minimums for launch
A marketplace without trust & safety features is a liability. MVP must-haves: user verification (phone number at minimum, ID for higher-risk categories), review system bidirectional (buyer rates supplier, supplier rates buyer), messaging with flagging and moderation, dispute handling workflow (either Stripe Radar/Disputes or custom), content moderation for listings (automated for obvious violations, human review queue for edge cases). Day one doesn't need advanced fraud detection or sophisticated reputation scoring — but it does need the basics so the first 100 transactions don't produce the first lawsuit. I scope the T&S minimum per your category's risk profile.
Case study: GigEasy marketplace-like fintech
GigEasy is a gig-worker fintech with marketplace-like characteristics — multi-employer platform connecting workers with employers, handling payments, compliance, and coordination. 3-week MVP from kickoff to investor demo. Barclays and Bain Capital backed. Laravel, React, AWS, PostgreSQL, Redis, Docker, Pulumi. The architectural patterns — supply-side (worker) onboarding with verification, demand-side (employer) discovery of available workers, matching engine combining skills and availability, Stripe Connect-equivalent payout rails — apply identically to consumer-facing marketplaces. Speed of delivery matters because marketplaces face network-effect timing pressure; 3 weeks or 5 weeks can decide category leadership.
Pricing
Marketplace MVPs fit the Applications Pro tier at $4,500/mo because the scope density is higher than typical apps (dual-sided UX, payments complexity, trust & safety). First-version timeline: 5–6 weeks for launch-ready MVP. Subscription continues through iteration as the first 100 transactions produce insights the product spec never predicted. 14-day money-back, cancel anytime, Work Made for Hire. Stripe Connect fees (platform fee + Stripe's cut) are Stripe's; app infrastructure runs on Vercel or AWS depending on scale and compliance needs.
Two-sided marketplace chicken-and-egg
The hardest marketplace problem isn't engineering — it's getting the first 100 suppliers and first 1,000 buyers. I build the MVP assuming you have a go-to-market plan for both sides (typically: pre-recruited supply, a launch marketing budget for demand, or a community where both exist). Without a plan, the best marketplace tech in the world sits empty. I'll ask about GTM in the kickoff call; if the answer is 'we'll figure that out later', I may suggest a smaller V0 that tests the unit economics before the full two-sided build. Honesty about marketplace dynamics saves teams from burning 6 months on a product nobody uses yet.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Built and shipped an investor-ready MVP from scratch
Built the entire technological base and delivered MVP in just 3 weeks, enabling a successful rapid launch and investor demo.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- Can I start with a single-sided MVP and add the other side later?
- Yes, and often the smart play. Launch as a service-provider directory first, with basic inquiry and booking, no payments. Add Stripe Connect and full two-sided transactions once the demand side is validated. Cheaper to launch, faster to learn. I'll advise on the right V0 scope.
- Which Stripe Connect account type should I use?
- Express for most service and gig marketplaces — best onboarding UX, fastest to ship. Custom when you need full UX control (embedded finance, deep brand). Standard when suppliers are businesses with existing Stripe accounts. Decided in week 1 based on your category and supplier profile.
- What about international payments?
- Stripe Connect supports 40+ countries for payouts. International buyers pay in their currency; Stripe handles conversion. Limits and supported countries vary by account type — Express is most permissive. For truly global marketplaces, sometimes a combination (Stripe + regional provider) is warranted; scoped per market.
- How do you handle disputes and refunds?
- Buyer-initiated: refund flow through admin with supplier notification. Supplier-initiated: cancellation flow with refund policy enforcement. Chargebacks via Stripe: automatic evidence collection with human review for complex cases. Dispute admin view for ops team. Full audit trail for every money movement.
- Can suppliers have their own pages or subdomains?
- Yes — supplier profile pages with their listings, reviews, and messaging inbox. Subdomains (supplier.marketplace.com) supported for higher-tier suppliers. Fully custom domains (supplier.com pointing to their marketplace page) at Pro tier — adds complexity but useful for agencies or high-trust suppliers.
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