EM Group Chat

Recording of the Everything Marketplaces Group Chat #138 (8/8) with Fabrice Grinda, who's a Founding Partner at FJ Labs. FJ Labs is a leading early stage venture fund focused on investing in marketplaces. They've backed over 1,000 companies, including notable marketplaces like Alibaba, Coupang, Flexport, Rappi, and more. Prior to FJ Labs Fabrice started OLX, which scaled to 90+ countries and one of the largest classifieds sites in most markets.

0:06 Intro
1:19 Fabrice's background
4:09 Fabrice's experience scaling OLX & key learnings
8:48 An overview of FJ Labs as a leading early stage venture fund
10:42 The metrics & benchmarks for Pre-Seed & Seed stage marketplaces
13:31 Trends with the rise of B2B marketplaces & marketplace design changing
17:51 How investors evaluate B2B marketplaces at the earliest stages
19:54 The geographies that FJ Labs invests in & opportunities for marketplaces in emerging markets
21:43 Mistakes that early stage marketplace founders often make
24:28 Fundraising tips for early stage marketplace founders
27:57 Group Q&A on using supply to help drive marketplace demand
30:46 Group Q&A on B2B marketplaces starting out with a narrow vertical focus vs. being more horizontal
33:24 Group Q&A on opportunities for marketplaces to leverage AI
38:35 Group Q&A on metrics & benchmarks that investors use the evaluate marketplaces at the Series A stage
41:09 Parting marketplace advice

Fabrice's site & blog: https://www.fabricegrinda.com
FJ Labs: https://www.fjlabs.com

Join other marketplace founders & all of our group chats: http://www.everythingmarketplaces.com