From MVP to Momentum: Go-To-Market Strategies for Marketplace Founders

From Zero to Launch: GTM Strategies for Your Marketplace MVP

Imagine this: you’ve spent months building your marketplace MVP — maybe it’s a platform connecting local artisans with buyers who love handcrafted goods. You’ve designed, tested, and launched. The product’s live.

But… crickets.

No buyers because there are no sellers. No sellers because there are no buyers.

Meet Harper, a first-time marketplace founder in North America. She’s built a strong product, but she’s stuck in the classic marketplace dilemma — the chicken and egg problem. Every marketplace founder faces it. The good news? There are proven go-to-market (GTM) strategies to overcome it.

At Marketplace Studio, we help founders like Harper launch faster, attract their first users, and find early traction through structured GTM programs that guide them from foundation to predictable growth.

The Marketplace Challenge: Balancing Supply and Demand

A marketplace lives or dies by the balance between its two sides. Too much supply and no buyers means churn. Too much demand and no listings mean disappointment.

In early stages, focus on seeding one side first — usually the supply. Without listings, buyers can’t engage. Airbnb started by convincing hosts to list homes before worrying about travellers. But that doesn’t mean ignoring demand. You’ll still need a handful of buyers to validate your sellers’ efforts. Early growth is a delicate balance — often achieved through manual effort, relationship building, and creative experimentation.

That’s where our Category & Growth Foundation comes in. We help founders clarify who they’re for, what makes them unique, and how to position their marketplace in the category. With clear messaging and a setup for early traction, you avoid the trap of “launching to silence.”

1. Cold Outreach: One Handshake at a Time

The fastest path to traction is often the simplest — personal outreach. Reach out directly to your target sellers or service providers. If your marketplace connects artisans and buyers, start by messaging Etsy sellers or local craftspeople, explaining how your platform can help them reach new customers.

For buyers, join niche online communities or local groups where your audience already hangs out. Engage authentically. When the time’s right, invite them to try your new marketplace.

It’s not scalable — and that’s the point. Every personal outreach builds credibility and trust.

How Marketplace Studio helps: During our GTM Foundation phase, we help founders like you create clear persona-based messaging and a CRM system (Pipedrive) to track cold outreach and measure responses. You’ll know exactly who to contact, what to say, and how to convert those conversations into early users.

2. Community Seeding: Build Your Tribe Before You Launch

Marketplaces thrive on community. Before you even launch, gather a small group of people who care about your niche.

You can start by engaging existing groups — Reddit communities, Facebook groups, or Discord servers. Or launch your own. A simple “Founders Circle” or “Buyers Club” around your topic can create loyalty long before your first transaction. Etsy nailed this early on by attending local craft fairs, building real-world relationships, and letting artisans become ambassadors for the platform.

How Marketplace Studio helps: We help you design your brand’s point of view (POV) — the story and positioning that makes people want to rally behind your vision. Through our Category Positioning & Messaging Framework, we ensure your early community feels part of something bigger than a platform — they’re joining a movement.

3. Strategic Partnerships: Borrow Audiences, Don’t Buy Them

If you don’t have an audience yet, partner with someone who does.

Partnerships can be a shortcut to traction — think local organizations, influencers, or businesses that already reach your target users. Offer a win-win: you bring them new value, and they bring you their community.

For instance, a home services marketplace could partner with real estate agents to offer cleaning or moving services to new homeowners. A creative collaboration, not an ad spend.

How Marketplace Studio helps: In Month 2 of our GTM Foundation, we build your keyword and SEO strategy and start content development that strengthens your authority — assets that make you more appealing to potential partners. When your brand narrative is solid, partnerships become easier to secure because your story resonates.

4. Referral Programs: Turn Users Into Advocates

When users love your platform, they’ll tell others. The trick is giving them a reason to do it sooner.

Create a simple referral incentive — for example, “Invite a friend and you both earn $20 credit after their first transaction.” Referrals tap into the most powerful marketing force in marketplaces: trust.

Referrals work especially well once your first few users are happy. They don’t just attract more users; they attract the right users.

How Marketplace Studio helps :We craft and test PPC campaigns and retargeting strategies that complement your organic referral efforts. By Month 3, you’ll have real data on what drives acquisition and retention — so when you roll out referral campaigns, you’ll know exactly which messaging and incentives convert.

5. Waitlists & Early Access: Build Buzz Before You Launch

Before your MVP goes live, a waitlist can create anticipation and collect interested users.

Make it simple — a single landing page that explains your marketplace in one sentence with a “Join the Waitlist” button. Keep in touch with sign-ups, offer sneak peeks, and reward them for inviting friends.

Robinhood’s viral pre-launch waitlist (where users moved up the queue by inviting others) is still one of the best examples of community-driven anticipation.

How Marketplace Studio helps: We design PPC test campaigns and SEO content funnels that direct the right audience to your waitlist page. You’ll not only grow your list — you’ll know who is joining and why. Our dashboards help you track conversion costs, engagement rates, and readiness for launch.

Case Study: Airbnb’s Early Growth Hack

When Airbnb first launched, they faced the same cold-start problem every founder fears — no hosts, no guests, no traction. Their solution was genius and scrappy. They realized people already posted rentals on Craigslist, so they started personally emailing those hosts and inviting them to list on Airbnb too.

It wasn’t scalable — but it worked. It gave Airbnb its first set of hosts and created enough listings to attract travellers. Later, they automated the process, integrating with Craigslist and skyrocketing growth.

That early hands-on outreach didn’t just build supply; it built trust. And trust is the currency of marketplaces.

How Marketplace Studio helps: Our Growth & Acquisition Engine (Package Two) is built for this stage — when you’ve validated your MVP and need predictable traction. We combine SEO content, PPC optimization, retargeting, and conversion tracking to scale what’s working — transforming manual outreach into measurable, automated growth.

Testing Early Traction

Once you’ve implemented your GTM tactics, it’s time to measure traction.

Here’s how:

1. Start small. Focus on one geography or category to find density.

2. Track interactions. Are sellers getting inquiries? Are buyers finding what they need?

3. Gather feedback. Talk to users directly.

4. Celebrate wins. Share early success stories to inspire more activity.

Early traction isn’t about big numbers — it’s about meaningful activity between users. A few real transactions, honest feedback, and repeat engagement are stronger signals than thousands of sign-ups.

How Marketplace Studio helps: By the end of our GTM Foundation, you’ll have dashboards showing CAC, conversion rates, and retention data. That means every early win informs your next decision — not guesswork.

Final Thoughts: Turning Your MVP Into Momentum

Launching a marketplace MVP is like lighting a campfire — it takes patience, persistence, and the right kindling. Start with personal connection, community building, and creative partnerships. Then, layer on data-driven marketing to scale what works.

At Marketplace Studio, we help founders move from idea to predictable growth through a structured GTM roadmap — from Category & Growth Foundation (months 1–3) to the Growth & Acquisition Engine (months 4–9). You’ll gain clarity, traction, and measurable results, all while focusing on what matters most — building a marketplace people love.

Ready to Launch Your Marketplace?

Your marketplace dream is within reach — and we’ll help you get there. Marketplace Studio partners with founders to build and execute GTM strategies that attract, convert, and retain users through evidence-based growth systems.

Schedule your free GTM Discovery Call today, and let’s design your path from MVP to scalable marketplace growth.

We’ll turn your vision into a strategy — and your strategy into momentum.

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