Recording of the Everything Marketplaces Group Chat #140 (9/12) with Sarah Tavel, who's a Partner at Benchmark. Benchmark is a leading venture fund that's backed notable marketplaces like Uber, Hipcamp, Cambly, Medely, REKKI, and more. Sarah is a leading mind when it comes to marketplaces and also writes about them on her blog and newsletter.

0:06 Intro
‍1:10 Sarah's background
‍5:31 What makes marketplace great businesses to invest in
‍7:53 Joining Benchmark as a Partner
‍10:16 An overview of Benchmark as a leading venture fund
‍12:10 What Benchmark looks for in marketplaces that they invest in
‍17:16 How GMV can be a vanity metric for marketplaces
‍20:58 How Benchmark evaluates marketplaces
‍22:52 Founder traits & characteristics that Sarah looks for
‍25:01 Misconceptions with early stage marketplaces
‍28:17 Opportunities for marketplaces to leverage AI
‍32:13 Group Q&A on marketplace aggregation with supply or demand
‍34:28 Group Q&A on marketplace learnings from working with Bill Gurley
‍37:57 Group Q&A on marketplace monetization
‍40:29 Group Q&A on the the tipping point with marketplaces

Sarah's blog: https://www.sarahtavel.com
Sarah on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/sarahtavel
Benchmark: https://www.benchmark.com
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‍Connect with other marketplace founders & teams in the Everything Marketplaces community.