Recording of the Everything Marketplaces Group Chat #192 (6/17) with Mike Ghaffary, who's a General Partner at Burst Capital. Burst Capital is a venture fund that's backed notable marketplaces like Faire, Hipcamp, Instawork, Bounce, and more. Prior to investing, Mike was a VP at Yelp for 7+ years and also the CEO of Eat24.
‍
0:05 Intro
‍1:12 Mike's background
‍2:59 Mike's key marketplace operator learnings
‍5:21 An overview of Burst Capital as a venture fund
‍7:12 How Mike evaluates marketplaces when investing
‍8:57 How AI is impacting marketplaces
‍13:40 An update to Mike's Marketplace Checklist
‍15:26 How marketplaces are leveraging AI agents
‍17:50 The current fundraising environment
‍20:45 Growth rates for early-stage marketplaces
‍24:22 Tips for first-time marketplace founders
‍27:19 Group Q&A on Burst Capital's investment thesis
‍29:01 Group Q&A on benchmarks for raising a Seed round
‍34:53 Group Q&A on getting started using AI
‍38:45 Group Q&A on the future of AI agents
‍41:16 Parting marketplace advice
‍
Mike on Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/newmike
Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghaffary
Burst Capital: https://www.burst.vc
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.