Marketplace Mechanics

Marketplace Mechanics #3 - Andrew Needham, HeadBox

Episode Summary

Welcome to the third episode of Marketplace Mechanics, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of two-sided marketplaces and the people building them. In this episode, I speak with Andrew Needham, a serial entrepreneur and the Founder & CEO of venue marketplace, HeadBox

Episode Notes

Welcome to the third episode of Marketplace Mechanics, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of two-sided marketplaces and the people building them.

In this episode, I speak with Andrew Needham, a serial entrepreneur and the Founder & CEO of venue marketplace, HeadBox.

To subscribe to email updates for each episode, head to marketplacemechanics.com
Follow the show on Twitter @marketplacepod and follow James on Twitter @thejamesmcaulay

SHOW NOTES

1:55
Interview Begins - what is HeadBox?

2:49
What are the problems being solved by the HeadBox marketplace?
How did people book venues before HeadBox?

4:25
HeadBox Origin Story - where did the idea come from?

5:32
What did the first few days and weeks of HeadBox look like?
How did you get started?

9:25
Who were the first hires, and how did they acquire supply and demand?

11:10
After you had acquired your first 1000 venues - when did you switch on demand?
How did you decide which channel was best for your marketplace?

15:15
The importance of learning lessons about your customers yourself (the hard way) vs. offloading marketing to an agency

16:25
The importance of learning in startups

18:40
Manual processes behind the scenes (things that don't scale) when growing HeadBox

21:08
SaaS-enabled marketplace - what the hell is a SaaS-enabled Marketplace?

22:05
HeadBox as the first SaaS-Enabled Marketplace in the Venue Industry

24:40
Spinning the 'flywheel' of growth by solving problems for customers and suppliers in tandem

26:20
Where will HeadBox be 3 years from now? What does the future of booking a venue look like?

30:25
Andrew's advice to people starting or building two-sided marketplaces

 34:09
 Outro