Browse Case Studies

Bellhops is a tech-enabled marketplace connecting DIY movers with local, vetted college athletes who provide affordable moving and lifting help at $40/hour. Operating in 128 US cities with nearly 5,000 active service providers and processing 3,000-5,000 bookings weekly, the company has raised $8M+ in funding (including a $600K seed from Lampus Group and a $6M Series A led by Binary Capital).

Onboy is an on-demand food delivery app exclusively focused on the college market, founded by 20-year-old Anthony Zhang. The company has processed nearly 10,000 orders and generates just over $10k in monthly revenue with 45% month-over-month growth, powered by a 100% student delivery workforce and exclusive restaurant partnerships that allow deliveries in under 30 minutes. Anthony pitched Mark Cuban and got funded $100,000 on the spot, and is part of the 500 Startups batch in Mountain View.

Chad Whitman is a serial entrepreneur who first built Edranck Checker, a Facebook analytics tool that grew to $60K MRR before selling to Social Bakers for approximately $2.8M in 2014. He then co-founded Dolly, an on-demand moving marketplace that leverages pickup truck owners as a unique asset class, raising $1.7M seed and $8M Series A (valuation ~$50M range) by taking a 20% cut of jobs on the platform.

Borrowell is a Canadian online marketplace lender connecting borrowers with lenders through a proprietary platform. Founded about a year before this interview (circa 2015), the company raised $5.4 million in seed funding and was approaching a significant Series A round. Their growth strategy centers on an innovative product-led approach using a rate-checker widget as their primary customer acquisition tool, exemplifying the "engineering is marketing" principle.

DealFlicks is a Priceline-style marketplace for discounted movie tickets, partnering with over 600 US theaters (including 13 of the top 50 chains) to sell empty seats at up to 60% off. Founded by Sean Wycliffe in late 2010, the company generates a ~$2.4M annual revenue run rate with 2x year-over-year growth, selling roughly 100,000 tickets and concession packages monthly at an average price of $15. Growth is driven primarily through SEO (people searching for movie deals), AdWords, and affiliate partnerships, with DealFlicks keeping 15-20% of transaction value while theaters capture the remainder.

SoundBetter is a two-person marketplace connecting self-producing musicians with freelance audio professionals (including Grammy winners) to help them complete professional-quality songs. As of June 2015, the company achieved an $800k annual run rate through a two-sided commission model: freelancers pay $4 per proposal and 5% of completed job value. Their primary growth driver is organic search traffic, bringing in approximately 30,000 unique monthly visitors searching for audio production services.

Spring Leap is a marketplace of 180,000 advertising agency experts offering faster market research and creative testing compared to traditional firms. Founded by serial entrepreneur Iran Ayel, the company launched an MVP in January 2015, generating $20,000 in the first month and scaling to highs of $100,000 per month by the time of this interview. The business charges $50-$150 per expert per hour with markups, and has attracted enterprise clients like Unilever and Sony while preparing to raise a $2.5M seed round at an $8M pre-money valuation.

GNAP is an app promotion marketplace from Barcelona that connects app developers and advertisers with bloggers and content creators who promote mobile apps on a cost-per-install (CPI) basis. Founded by Gina Tost, the company processed $750,000 in advertiser spending in 2015 and generated approximately $320,000 in revenue by taking a 30% commission. The company grew entirely through word-of-mouth with no paid marketing spend, and was raising $500,000 at a $5M post-money valuation to scale their operations.

YouStake is a marketplace where fans can buy equity stakes in professional poker players competing in live tournaments. Launched in June 2015, the platform has processed $2.8 million in stakes from 335 poker players and attracted 1.4 million in pledges from 2,700 users, generating approximately $70,000 in revenue through an 8% commission (5% to YouStake, 3% to payment processors). The team is targeting 50,000+ users and 20% month-over-month growth to hit a Series A by end of 2016.

June is a recruiting marketplace founded by serial entrepreneur Lane Campbell that connects recruiters with candidates willing to take calls for payment. The platform addresses the high cost of hiring (which Lane found had ballooned to $26,000 per hire) by letting recruiters search for candidates by skill and location, then pay them directly for phone interviews. Though the initial launch between August-November 2015 didn't resonate with the technical community as hoped, Lane is relaunching with new partnerships and positioning the platform as a solution to the broken recruiting economy.

Lenda is an online marketplace lender founded by Jason Vandenbrand in October 2013 that streamlines mortgage refinancing for consumers in California, Washington, and Oregon. By January 2016, the company had originated over $70 million in loans with zero defaults, generating $1.5 million in revenue in 2015 by earning 1-1.5% margin per loan. The company uses automated underwriting technology to predict required documentation upfront, dramatically reducing the typical 60-day mortgage process and cutting consumer costs by eliminating traditional loan officer commissions and lender fees.

Italist is a luxury e-commerce marketplace founded in 2014 that connects Italian boutiques with global customers, operating in 85+ countries. By January 2016, the company had achieved $10M in annual transaction volume with $250K in monthly gross margin on approximately 2,000 monthly customers spending $500-600 per order, with 30% of traffic driven by affiliates. The company raised over $1M in seed funding including investment from 500 Startups and was approaching Series A at a $40M pre-money valuation.

Glintz is a career discovery and talent marketplace founded in late 2013 by Chin-Un Luy that connects employers with young graduates and fresh talent in Singapore. The company grew from $7,000 in first-year revenue (2013-2014) to nearly $500,000 in 2015, achieving 15% month-over-month talent database growth while spending less than $1,000 per month on marketing, primarily through word-of-mouth and direct university partnerships.

Hourly Nerd is an online marketplace connecting elite business talent (MBAs, professors, industry experts) with companies needing specialized expertise on a project basis. Founded in 2013 by Rob Biedermann and two co-founders from Harvard Business School, the company takes a percentage (15-20%) of each project transaction and had grown to 21,000 experts serving 5,000+ customers including major clients like GE by 2015. With $10 million raised including a $750K seed from Mark Cuban and a $7.8M Series B, Hourly Nerd reached over $5M in ARR by 2015 with a 58-person Boston-based team.

Skillbridge was a curated marketplace connecting high-end management consultants with companies needing specialized expertise. Founded in 2013 and launched in 2014, the platform used intelligent matching algorithms to connect consultants based on demonstrated competencies rather than ratings. In March 2016, just under $500,000 in projects were posted on the platform, with an average project size of $5,000-$10,000, and the company was acquired by TopTal.

Concept Drop is a marketplace that connects businesses with vetted designers to create marketing materials (presentations, one-pagers) on-demand. Founded by Phil Alexander in 2012 as a side project, the company grew from a couple thousand dollars in first-year revenue to over $300k in 2015 and closed a $1.1M Series A in mid-2016, bringing total funding to $1.35M. The platform serves over 300 leading brands with a network of less than 100 vetted freelancers, targeting director-level and higher marketing teams at mid-market and enterprise companies.

Geekatoo was a nationwide tech support marketplace founded by Kevin Davis in 2010 after a frustrating Geek Squad experience. Starting with a bidding model, the company pivoted to fixed pricing and eventually built a network of over 7,000 providers nationwide, generating $275-300k MRR at the time of acquisition. Growth accelerated significantly after focusing on B2B partnerships with hardware manufacturers and real estate companies rather than direct consumer acquisition.

UAPI is a mobile app discovery platform that connects app advertisers (like King/Candy Crush, Uber, Lyft) with high-quality users through 4,500 publisher partners including Cheetah Mobile and Pandora. Founded in late 2011 by Moshe Vaknin, the company grew from $250K in revenue (first year) to $80M net revenue by 2016 by processing over $320M in total ad volume and taking a 30% commission while returning 70% to publishers. The company is profitable, has raised $20M in capital, employs 130 people across 10 global offices, and is positioned for potential IPO.

Top Hatter is a mobile marketplace for live auction discovery shopping launched in 2012. Operating with a 25% take rate on transactions, the company processes about $1 million in daily transaction volume (roughly 100,000 items) with an average item price of $10-20, projecting $300-400 million in gross transaction volume this year with $80-100 million in revenue. The company has raised $35 million total capital, operates at break-even while reinvesting heavily in marketing with a 30-60 day payback period, maintains 80% gross margins, and has doubled year-over-year since launch.

Influencer is the largest product review platform outside of Amazon with 4 million micro-influencers and 21 million product reviews. The company evolved from a market research panel (2010) into a social media-driven product discovery platform connecting major brands like Procter & Gamble, L'Oreal, and Estée Lauder with consumer reviewers. They've raised $9M in funding (friends and family ~$1M, Series A $8M from Ebates in 2015) and are tracking to ~$15-18M in annual revenue with healthy repeat customer relationships.