The Marketplace Guy

A weekly memo on building online marketplaces - with real data from the platform underneath them.

payments

Free to sell is not free. It's billed to the other side

Oct 16, 2026

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4 min read

Free to sell is not free. It's billed to the other side

The same 10% take, moved to the buyer and called "buyer protection", recruits sellers faster and loses fewer buyers than you'd think. The marketing behind the fee Vinted built a company on.

Rasmus Sorensen

growth

Sep 5, 2026

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3 min read

The chicken-and-egg problem is optional

The marketplace founders who launch fastest all skip the hard part and they build the transaction layer under an audience that's already trading.

Rasmus Sorensen

payments

Escrow on Stripe Connect: the three places the money can sit

Aug 29, 2026

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4 min read

Escrow on Stripe Connect: the three places the money can sit

Hold the buyer's money until the job is done. Three ways to do it on Stripe Connect, the one I'd pick for most booking marketplaces.

Rasmus Sorensen

growth

I sell marketplace apps now. I'll still talk most of you out of one.

Aug 18, 2026

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3 min read

I sell marketplace apps now. I'll still talk most of you out of one.

The 30-second test that tells you whether a mobile app grows your marketplace or just burns a few thousand dollars.

Rasmus Sorensen

operations

Aug 16, 2026

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4 min read

Who pays for the shipping label?

Shipping on a marketplace isn't a logistics problem. It's a fourth money flow - and if you don't design it, the answer to the title is: you.

Rasmus Sorensen

data

The AI engines name my competitor in 99% of answers. Me: 17%.

Aug 6, 2026

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3 min read

The AI engines name my competitor in 99% of answers. Me: 17%.

I asked ChatGPT and Claude the twelve questions my buyers actually ask, three times each, and counted every brand they named. This is day one of the scoreboard.

Rasmus Sorensen