Recording of the Everything Marketplaces Group Chat #179 (1/14) with Neel Murthy. Neel is currently a Partner at Pioneer Fund, which is an early-stage venture fund. Neel was also previously a marketplace founder and started Swapbox in early 2013, then went on to lead growth at Goldbelly. While Neel was at Goldbelly, he helped them scale to become one of the largest food commerce marketplaces and raise over $130M in venture capital.

0:06 Intro
‍1:20 Neel's background
‍2:52 Neel's experience & learnings from starting Swapbox
‍7:46 A walkthrough of Neel's experience leading growth at Goldbelly
‍14:02 An overview of Goldbelly as a leading food commerce marketplace
‍15:05 How Goldbelly's product & business evolved
‍17:35 Neel's experience helping Goldbelly raise $130M+ in venture capital
‍21:23 How Neel is investing in marketplaces & what he looks for when investing
‍24:44 How to position a pivot when fundraising
‍27:42 Common mistakes founders make when fundraising
‍31:10 How AI is impacting marketplaces & opportunities for marketplaces to leverage AI
‍35:55 Requests for marketplaces
‍41:07 Group Q&A on Neel's biggest career challenges & learnings
‍44:28 Group Q&A on taking the SaaS-first approach when starting a marketplace
‍47:41 Group Q&A on ways to prevents marketplace disintermediation
‍53:00 Group Q&A on investor considerations & feedback for building a home services marketplace
‍57:14 Parting marketplace advice
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Neel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neelmurthy
Pioneer Fund: https://www.pioneerfund.vc
Mike (Yoroomie) on Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/yoroomie
Mike (Yoroomie) on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoroomie⁠⁠
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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.