I’m proud to announce my involvement in Marketplace Talks, the world’s #1 meetup for marketplace startups, entrepreneurs and investors

Once a month, I’ll interview a prominent marketplace entrepreneur (or investor) on-stage, in front of an assembled mass of other entrepreneurs, investors and startup people. I’ll do my best to dig into the business model, how it works, why it works and what didn’t (or isn’t) work.

Marketplace Talks is a forum dedicated to the challenges faced by marketplace builders. If that’s you, join Marketplace Talks now. The lessons you learn will be tactical, practical and inform how you think about building your own business. There will be no boring, stupid or insincere speakers––I promise! My goal is simply to help you learn more faster.

The first Marketplace Talk will feature Thumbtack CEO Marco Zappacosta, backed by $50MM from Sequoia Capital, and will focus on marketplace disintermediation and why the Thumbtack founders decided to NOT close the loop and instead let buyers and sellers transact outside of their platform, either via cash or PayPal. Disintermediation is a problem that every marketplace struggles with and I think Marco’s learnings will be useful.

What:    Marketplace Disintermediation with Thumbtack CEO Marco Zappacosta
When:    Thursday, August 14th @ 6pm
Where:    500 Startups – SF in SOMA

Sign Me Up. I Love Marketplaces!