Learnings From Starting 99designs & Hired With Matt Mickiewicz | EM Group Chat #199

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Matt Mickiewicz

Recording of the Everything Marketplaces Group Chat #199 (9/9) with Matt Mickiewicz. Matt is a 3x marketplace founder and notably started 99designs, Hired, and Flippa. In addition to his founder experience, Matt is also an active advisor & investor.

0:05 Intro
1:05 Matt's background
1:47 Matt's key marketplace learnings
4:50 What led to 99designs breaking through
6:44 Starting Hired
10:06 How Hired curated talent
10:45 How Hired raised $150M+ in capital to blitzscale
12:55 Managing growth with capital efficiency
15:26 Marketplace frequency & Average Order Value (AOV)
17:06 Marketplace disintermediation
19:44 How AI is impacting marketplaces
21:11 Opportunities to leverage AI with talent & hiring marketplaces
22:22 Common mistakes marketplace founders make
24:53 Group Q&A on evaluating marketplaces when investing
25:27 Group Q&A on managing quality with supply
27:01 Group Q&A on offering marketplace guarantees at 99designs & Hired
28:47 Group Q&A on category expansion for Hired
29:39 Group Q&A on marketplace search experiences
32:09 Parting marketplace advice

Matt on Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/MattMickiewicz
Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattmickiewicz
Mike (Yoroomie) on Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/yoroomie
Mike (Yoroomie) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoroomie

You can also find this group chat in audio format as an episode on our Everything Marketplaces podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also connect with marketplace founders & leaders from our group chats in the Everything Marketplaces community.