We're sharing a bog post from Mike Williams, covering 10 strategies for leveraging AI to solve the cold start problem. This was previously shared as a post in the community here.
‍
With the rise of AI and it’s increased capabilities, we’re starting to see new ways that it can be used to solve the classic chicken & egg or cold start problem when starting a marketplace.

With that in mind, I wanted to put together a post highlighting specific strategies and tactics for how AI can be leveraged for this when starting a marketplace. I also wanted to mention that we’re still early with some of these strategies. This is not an exhaustive list, but a starting point for exploring some of the new strategies. I can also share a more comprehensive list and even examples in the replies if that would be helpful.
‍

10 strategies for leveraging AI to solve the cold start problem

1. Use ChatGPT as a thought partner to define (and refine) your ICP, then generate strategies to reach them.
2. Leverage AI agents for lead generation and outreach when building supply (via email, voice, text, etc).
3. Deploy agents to source and onboard supply or demand, effectively "doing the work" for one side to kickstart liquidity.
4. Build an AI-powered tool or agent that solves a specific problem for suppliers (similar to the SaaS-first approach).
5. Create a chat-style interface to help demand-side users solve a problem and/or discover supply more efficiently.
6. Use ChatGPT or Deep Research tools to build targeted databases and/or lists for outreach or initial marketplace data seeding.
7. Use AI agents to automate complex operations or workflows that might be needed to get one/both sides to a transaction.
8. Leverage AI to aggregate dispersed data, populating an initial database of supply, listings, or inventory.
9. Use generative AI to create initial supply or offerings, such as product content, profiles, or service examples.
10. Leverage AI tools for content creation and distribution, helping attract and engage both sides early on.

The above are a few examples of strategies you can use to leverage AI for solving the cold start problem. As mentioned, I’d be happy to expand on it with a more comprehensive list in the replies below and even list out specific examples. It would be great to also hear from the community and how everyone might be leveraging AI to solve the cold start problem so we can have a comprehensive resource here.
‍
You can connect with Mike to discuss this post in the Everything Marketplaces community here.