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

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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  

2:02
Interview Begins

3:16
LeSalon's origin story and the problem being solved

4:50
Is LeSalon the Uber for therapists?

5:32
What did the first few months look like? How did you get started?

6:44
How did you know when you had found the right co-founder? Were there any real signs you were a good match when you met?

8:20
You've found your co-founder - what next? What does a typical day at early-stage LeSalon look like?

10:15
The legendary LeSalon spreadsheet

13:25
What are the criteria for therapists (suppliers) joining LeSalon? What makes a good therapist?

15:31
Do you reject a lot of therapists?

17:02
How do you approach trust? How do you help your customers get comfortable with a stranger entering their home to carry out beauty treatments?

18:11
How do foster a sense of community on your marketplace?

22:55
How is LeSalon better than the competition?

24:35
How did you arrive at the business model? Has it changed since you started? And is it a similar model to competitors, or have you done something unique?

25:55
Do you control the pricing on your platform?

29:20
Do your suppliers try to take customers off the platform? (Disintermediation)

32:37
What's your favourite part of building a two-sided marketplace?

34:30
Biggest piece of advice you'd give to someone thinking about starting their own marketplace?

2:08
Interview Begins

3:16
First Week at Lexoo

4:00
MVP of Lexoo

4:45
First booking

5:20
Customer acquisition

5:52
How did you meet your co-founder?

6:29
Supply and demand – which first?

7:37
Balancing the needs of supply and demand

9:35
Building the team

10:27
International expansion

13:13
Creating community
(AirBnb, YunoJuno, Monzo)

15:19
Competition

16:40
Quoting Systems – Supplier Fatigue

16:15
Pricing

19:40
Business Model

20:54
Commission

22:02
Disintermediation

24:16
Favourite part of building a marketplace?

25:53
Why start a marketplace? Why not a legal firm?

27:08
Fundraising for marketplaces vs SaaS businesses

28:38
Tell me something about Lexoo that very few people know