The Best Reads on Platforms from 2022
Like every year we offer a selection of the most interesting reads, videos, and podcasts from the year, extracted from Boundaryless fortnightly newsletter.
Simone Cicero
Abstract
Like every year we offer a selection of the most interesting reads, videos, and podcasts from the year extracted from our fortnightly newsletter.
This year’s selection presents first a review of what we delivered at Boundaryless and then five more sections of selection: Direct experiences from the protagonists, Explainers and wrap-ups, Op-eds, Reports, and Timeless reads & podcasts.
A powerful way to recap the past year and look into the coming one.
Structure of our BestOf2022
As anticipated in the abstract we structured this year’s BestOf as follows. You’ll find:
- Direct experiences from the protagonists: where we featured mostly interviews and essays directly from designers and entrepreneurs that have been contributing to extremely interesting and impactful projects.
- Explainers and wrap-ups: posts, videos, and podcasts that explore a topic in great detail, and provide frameworks for understanding and bird’s eye views.
- Op-Eds: a very tiny selection of pieces that we believe offered interesting takes on industry evolutions
- Reports: a few monographic reads that covered a topic, a trend, or a key innovation
- Timeless reads & podcasts: something valuable that will bring you insights you can carry on with you in the future.
There’s – of course – a lot more that has been published this year. This article provides a selection of the content that has been curated and published on a fortnightly basis in our newsletter and that has provided us with inspiration and guidance as we developed our open-toolkit-based approaches, worked with clients, and trained our adopters.
Before delving into third parties’ work we also want to offer a selection of our most important published work from this year in the form of our Toolkit updates, our blog essays, and podcast episodes.
Key Toolkit and Methodology-related releases from Boundaryless:
The highlight of the year from the perspective of Toolkit releases has certainly been the release of our 100+ pager on Growth and Product Design in Platforms in June. Together with a series of multiple new canvases, this new guide has delivered a massive improvement for the methodology as it helps adopters with many new other challenges. First, the new guide helps you define strong platform-product value propositions that can generate self-reinforcing growth and defensibility based on technological advantage or other reinforcing mechanisms. Secondly, it can help adopters define the right tactics to kickstart initial liquidity in marketplaces and solve the chicken-egg problems.
- Check the presentation post: Seek Growth and evolve your Platform Strategy with the Platform Growth and Product Guide
- as a good companion, check this reflection on what hinders growth we released a few days later The 4 Key Problems that hinder growth in Platforms and Marketplaces – Boundaryless
Furthermore, in October, we also released an updated version of the Platform Opportunity Exploration guide, with a new canvas for “Arena Scanning”. A new canvas and a new set of heuristics aim at helping adopters come up with a solid breakdown of large ecosystems into smaller, more relatable chunks of analysis.
- Check out the release A New release of the Platform Opportunity Exploration Guide: Arena Scanning for Ecosystem breakdown
Related to the topic of exploration and quick definition of a value proposition see also:
- Apply Value Chain Analysis with Wardley Maps to identify a Platform Opportunity where we clarified a lot of challenging aspects of Wardley mapping as part of a platform design process;
- and Identifying a Platform Strategy Model and its potential go-to-market strategy: a streamlined process where we cross-integrate exploration techniques with a newly released canvas – the draft release of the Platform Strategy Model Canvas – that helps users quickly consolidate a solid platform value proposition as a mix of the three elements introduced in the primer above.
Another key piece of research from this year has been the release of the first stable version of the 3EO toolkit: this release featured a canvas set revision and – most importantly – a companion “adoption guide” that gives you guidance on how to run workshops that can direct the initial steps of your journey towards an entrepreneurial and ecosystemic transformation of your company:
- Check the release post The New 3EO Toolkit and Adoption Guide
- Check out a powerful webinar where we invited some of the adopters of the RenDanHeyi model (the base for the 3EO framework) to share their experience with the Boundaryless community The RenDanHeYi in practice. Voices from the world – Boundaryless
Eventually, it’s worth mentioning that for a few weeks the Platform Design Toolkit and the 3EO Toolkit are also available as Templates in Mural to make it easier for adopters to quickly gather a team around a platform design or organizational challenge.
Check them out! All templates provide a contextual example and punctual references to the pdf guides for easier navigation.
Key Primers we released in 2022
In this section, we recap the key essays, and primers we released during the year that brought up some relevant advancements that we achieved this year in terms of understanding how digital, and ecosystemic initiatives work.
In March, we came up with a substantial update that explains how to look into Value Propositions in Business Ecosystems as a mix of Products, Marketplaces, and Extensions.
The primer goes through these three key types of value propositions and how they interoperate with each other. We’ll also look into how these three types of value propositions can be intended in different market contexts, ranging from the service industry to manufacturing and hardware. This installment is a foundational piece of content for us, as we use the three value propositions filter more and more, we have it even embedded in a new tool, the PSM model canvas.
Another substantial research priority of the year at Boundaryless has been Web3 and we released two – we believe – fundamental pieces. In the first, Bootstrapping user-owned Networks with Web3, we looked into the possibilities that web3, tokenomics, and the adoption of blockchain technology are enabling for founders and what are the steps to funding, and then transitioning the network ownership to the users.
We went back on the topic later on in the Summer as we released a playbook-style update: Building Products and Protocols in Web3 where we dove deeply into how, increasingly in the future, an initiative’s success may be influenced by how it ensures the achievement of a certain legitimacy towards its ecosystem. Based on first-hand recent experience helping teams build in web3, the second piece provides a framework that teams can use to understand the challenges and needs of building a complex ecosystem strategy leveraging web3 enablers. The implications of such a choice need to be considered thoroughly, as some of the strategic choices impact design, funding, and development. We believe that founders should look into the possibilities enabled by Web3 and in the two pieces, we leverage some real-world examples: such as Braintrust, DIMO, Yearn, and more.
Contextually to our research in web3 we also wrote a lot this year about how value chains seem to be evolving towards more modularity and how a new, emergent, piece of the digital markets landscape could be played by decentralized organizations and infrastructures running protocols. Our piece Towards Modular and Composable Markets (preceded by another post on DAOs and modularity) provides a substantial framing on why this is the case, now that new primitives are emerging, discusses how to identify value propositions that work in a composable market, and how organizational dynamics could be changing the fit in such a landscape, with a hint towards possible ways to manage capital investments to cooperate and co-invest in DAOs that run protocols.
As a natural continuation of the work, we’ve been doing in identifying market dynamics and defining patterns in the creation of value propositions, our work on patterns of organizing also generated massive insights that we’ve been able to come up with mainly thanks to our work with adopters. In Ecosystem-Driven Organizations: Shared Market Maps, Forcing Functions and Investing into Small Units we described the key pillars of what is increasingly the way we use to help organizations restructure for an age of modularity and democratization of entrepreneurship: create a market-portfolio map, make it accessible by building shared languages and empower employees and members to create all the pieces through enabling constraints such as support services forcing functions and capital.
Two more pieces added up to our organizational transformation research towards the end of the year: in the first, Primitives of Contract-based and Unit-based organizing for better Agility and Engagement we explained how we increasingly see the most pioneering organizations adopt organizational practices based on nodes and agreements, where the performance in executing those agreements is translated into the distribution of outcomes such as revenues and equity. We also explained why such an approach seems beneficial in terms of superior organizational agility, engagement, and capacity to execute in complex settings.
Later on, in November we also released another primer, Adopting a Product-Centric operating model at Scale, where we detailed how using such a bouquet of primitives can be used to address the three levels at which the organization needs to be transformed to resonate with markets: defining P&L independent product units, mimicking strategic outcomes in the team settings, and scaling teams as products become more complex.
Our Podcast Episodes of 2022
All our work has been constantly driven by conversations: with customers, adopters, trainees, experts, other researchers, and more. We constantly read and listen to podcasts and webinars that tell direct experiences from the protagonists of the platform economy (indeed this will be the first section of the selection below) and when we find a topic that needs a double click and has not been explored yet we’re lucky to have created a space such as the Boundaryless Conversations Podcast where we’ve been able through the years to feature some of the most pioneering and important voices in the platform economy.
This 2022 has been a crazy one for the podcast, as we’ve been discussing:
- decentralization and the future of progress with Jason Crawford
- revolutions in Ownership, Governance, and Culture with Mara Zepeda
- how to build a convivial society with L.M. Sacasas
- plural blockchains with Ethan Buchman (with a super interesting experience of building a horizontal organization from the inside)
- the future of work and firms as socially dense markets with Michele Zanini
- building civic economies with Jon Alexander
- virtue ethics and our organizations with Antoinette Weibel and Otti Vogt
- developing and investing in Web3 Networks from the inside with Braintrust ’s Adam Jackson
- our future, through the lens of Collective Intelligence and imagination with Phoebe Tickell
- building permissionless Ecosystems with DIMO ’s Rob Solomon
- the role of trust in trustless environments - with Yearn’s Tracheopteryx
- what comes beyond Teal with self-management legend Lisa Gill
- building ecosystemic portfolios with our old friend Sangeet Choudary
- what platforms are today and investing in them with NFX Guild Gigi Levy Weiss
- why the future of DAOs and Orgs is modular with Chase Chapman
- looking at the organization with a post-formal mindset with Bonnitta Roy
- the incredibly important role of organizing in Product Organizations with marketplace legend Casey Winters
- the Biological Reality of Organizing with philosopher and complexity master Alicia Juarrero
- how independent “cloud teams” are transforming and empowering organizations with A-Team’s Raphael Ouzan
Really, could we ask for more?
Direct experiences from the protagonists
The section below includes links to reads and podcasts covering a variety of topics such as building and operating a successful marketplace business, measuring the health of a marketplace’s partners’ ecosystem, and using data to make business decisions. Additionally, some of the resources focus on other topics such as organizational design and product design.
Some key takeaways from these resources include the importance of single-threaded leadership, small teams with separate P&L, shared service platforms, and internal marketplaces for operating efficiently at scale. Additionally, there is a focus on the benefits of attracting and retaining supply, improving customer lifetime value, and other key aspects of building a successful marketplace business.
Overall, these resources offer valuable insights and advice for anyone interested in the marketplaces industry. Authors featured in these resources range from Brian Armstrong of Coinbase, the product and marketplace legend Casey Winters, Steven Galanis of Cameo, Slice’s Ilir Sela, and many others.
In this episode of the Two-Sided podcast, Andrew Gazdecki of MicroAcquire discusses the challenges and rewards of building a marketplace for startup acquisitions. He shares his entrepreneurial journey and the lessons he learned along the way. A must-listen for anyone interested in the marketplace industry.
Expert: Andrew Gazdecki, MicroAcquire
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: September
2) Operating efficiently at scale – Blog (coinbase.com)
In this blog post, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong discusses the company’s adoption of the 3EO model for operating efficiently at scale. He outlines the benefits of single-threaded leadership, small teams with separate P&L, shared service platforms, and internal marketplaces. A must-read for anyone interested in evolving organizational design.
Author: Brian Armstrong, Coinbase
Main topic: Org Design
Month of publication: July
3) How to sell your ideas and rise within your company | Casey Winters, Eventbrite – Lenny’s Podcast
In this episode of Lenny’s podcast, Casey Winters discusses the challenges and rewards of leading a product’s growth path. He shares his insights on management style, product wisdom, and other valuable advice for anyone working in product design. A treasure trove of a listen for anyone interested to work in this industry.
Author: Casey Winters
Main topic: Product Design
Month of publication: July
4) Building & Scaling Slice Into A $1B+ Marketplace With Ilir Sela
In this video, Ilir Sela of Slice discusses the challenges and rewards of building a successful marketplace business. He shares his entrepreneurial journey and the key services that helped him to rival the largest pizza franchising chains in the US. This video is a great resource for anyone interested in the marketplaces industry.
Expert: Ilir Sela, Slice
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: July
5) Cameo: Monetizing Fame | Colossus® (joincolossus.com)
In this interview with Steven Galanis, CEO of Cameo, he discusses the challenges and rewards of building a successful talent marketplace. He shares his insights on unit economics, attracting supply, improving customer lifetime value, and other key aspects of building a successful business. This is just an incredible first-hand experience.
Expert: Steven Galanis, Cameo
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: October
6) Building Uber Eats | Colossus®
In this interview, one of the many outstanding pieces of content produced by Patrick O’Shaugnessy at Colossus, Jason Droege discusses the challenges and rewards of building Uber Eats, a new business core spun out of an existing platform. He shares his insights on creating motivation, overcoming cultural biases, and other key aspects of building a successful business. Another must-listen.
Expert: Jason Droege, Uber Eats
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: October
This may seem an unusual one but it’s worth spending some time reading Anna Via’s writing about how Glovo developed an input metric for measuring the health of the company’s partner ecosystem. Using the Gini coefficient and advanced statistical analysis, the team was able to identify key areas for improvement and take action to reduce churn and improve the overall health of the platform. A must-read for anyone interested in using data to drive business decisions.
Author: Anna Via, Glovo
Main topic: Marketplaces
The month of publication: March
Explainers and wrap-ups
The links provided in the section below cover a range of topics related to the platform economy, product design, marketplaces, organizational design, and startups. More in detail, these explainers often approach a topic and provide a substantial framing that can serve as a basis for deeper experimentation and understanding. The content ranges from discussing the importance of network effects, approaching product management in Web3 (by comparing and contrasting Web2 and Web3), adopting the right growth marketing strategies in a marketplace, exploring how different types of partnerships are useful at different stages of development in platform businesses, emerging organizational structure models and their potential implications for the future of organizational design and even suggestions on how to validate and refine startup ideas.
This list features amazing experts and communicators (it’s an explainers list!) such as Tomas Pueyo, Lenny Ratchisky, Andrew Chen, Jeff Jordan, Christina Cordova, Joost Minnaar, Todd Jackson, and more: all have tremendous expertise and a great deal of capacity to provide birdìs eye view on challenges and opportunities.
8) Platforms and Aggregators – by Tomas Pueyo
In this post, Tomas Pueyo discusses the importance of network effects, platforms, and successful companies in the platform economy. This is a particularly valuable resource for beginners, providing a clear and concise overview of key concepts and ideas.
Author: Tomas Pueyo
Main topic: Platform Economy
Month of publication: February
9) A product manager’s guide to web3 – by Jason Shah
In this article in Lenny’s newsletter, Jason Shah provides a comprehensive guide to product management in Web3. He compares and contrasts Web2 and Web3, highlighting the key differences and challenges for product managers in this new and rapidly-evolving ecosystem. This is a must-read for anyone interested in product design and the potential of Web3.
Author: Jason Shah
Main topic: Product Design, Web3
Month of publication: February
10) The Basics of Growth Marketing: Engagement & Retention
In this conversation, a16z general partners Andrew Chen and Jeff Jordan discuss the building blocks of growth marketing. They cover key topics such as user acquisition, engagement, and retention, providing valuable insights for anyone interested in driving growth in the marketplace industry.
Expert: Andrew Chen
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: March
11) Lessons From Top Execs: Cristina Cordova (ex-Head of Platform & Partnerships at Notion)
In this podcast, Christina Cordova (former head of Partnerships and Platform at Stripe and Notion) discusses the different types of partnerships that can help platform businesses grow and succeed. She covers foundational, product, platform, and distribution partnerships, providing valuable insights for anyone looking to build partnerships in the platform economy. This was one of our year highlights. Truly a must.
Expert: Christina Cordova
Main topic: Platforms & Partnerships
Month of publication: March
12) 10 Progressive Organizational Structures Developed By Real Companies
In this blog post, our friend Joost Minnaar from Corporate Rebels shares an overview of 10 emerging organizational structure models, along with some additional models. Most of these models are based on the idea of nodes and agreements between them and provide a glimpse into the future of organizational design. This is a must-read for anyone interested in progressive organizational structures.
Author: Joost Minnaar, Corporate Rebels
Main topic: Org Design
Month of publication: April
13) How to validate your startup idea – by Todd Jackson
In another gold nugget from Lenny’s Newsletter guest writers, Todd Jackson provides valuable insights into how to validate your startup idea with real-world examples. The article offers suggestions on how to refine and validate your idea, a must-read for anyone in the early stages of developing their startup.
Author: Todd Jackson
Main topic: Startups
Month of publication: May
14) Brandon Chu on building products at Shopify
In this episode of Lenny’s Podcast, Brandon Chu, former VP of Product at Shopify (now VP of product acceleration) shares his incredible experience building a platform from a product perspective at one of the most iconic companies of our times. Chu offers valuable insights and mental models o all aspects of platform building.
Expert: Brandon Chu, Shopify
Main topic: Platforms
Month of publication: June
15) Crypto-Enabled Marketplaces – Fabrice Grinda
In this blog post, iconic angel, Fabrice Grinda and Matias Barbero from FJ Labs discuss the challenges and opportunities of using crypto tokens in marketplaces. The post covers key questions to consider when building a crypto-enabled marketplace, such as the nature of transactions and the target audience’s level of tech-savvy. A must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of crypto and marketplaces.
Author: FJLabs
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: July
16) Elena Verna on how B2B growth is changing, product-led growth, product-led sales, and much more
In this episode of Lenny’s podcast, PLG legend Elena Verna discusses key strategies for growth and acquisition in the B2B space. She provides valuable insights on topics such as freemium vs trial, product-led growth, and more. If you don’t know her yet, start from here.
Author: Elena Verna
Main topic: Product-Led Growth
Month of publication: July
17) Sufficient Decentralization – Variant
In one of the most important essays of the year – at least if you’re into web3 – Marc Boiron from Variant Fund writes about the concept of sufficient decentralization in the context of digital assets and securities. He discusses the idea of how much decentralization is needed to avoid a digital asset being classified as a security and raises important questions about the value of having highly decentralized organizations. This is an essential read for anyone interested in the future of web3 and the role of decentralization in the digital economy.
Author: Marc Boiron, Variant Fund
Main topic: Web3
Month of publication: August
18) How to design a referral program
In this article, Andrew Chen discusses the challenges and strategies of designing a successful referral program. He covers topics such as the impact on metrics, and the use of extrinsic and intrinsic incentives, and provides examples from Dropbox’s successful referral program. A must-read for anyone looking to grow their business through referral marketing.
Author: Andrew Chen
Main topic: Growth
Month of publication: August
19) Marketplace SEO: The complete guide
Sharetribe has been incredibly active this year, and through its Sharetribe Academy has published a new series on SEO optimization for marketplaces. The series covers key strategies and techniques for improving search engine visibility and driving demand for your marketplace. A must-read for anyone looking to improve their marketplace’s performance and growth potential.
Author: Sharetribe
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: August
20) Real Estate 3.0 – The Ownership Revolution (nfx.com)
In this massive post, NFX’s Pete Flint discusses the potential for a revolution in the proptech industry, with the rise of technologies like ownership fractioning and programmability. Flint highlights the challenges and opportunities for founders looking to take advantage of these developments and create new business models in the real estate space.
Author: Pete Flint, NFX
Main topic: Proptech
Month of publication: September
21) Amplify Sessions – Amplitude
In this Amplify 2022 session, again Elena Verna discusses growth loops, value metrics, monetization schemas, and more. This talk is packed with valuable insights for anyone involved in product design, development, and marketing, especially in a product-led organization.
Expert: Elena Verna
Main topic: Product-Led Growth
Month of publication: September
James Currier has written a groundbreaking article on generative technology (AI) and its potential impact on industries. As he notes, we are in the early stages of a Cambrian explosion of innovation, and the possibilities are truly mind-blowing. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of technology and product design.
Author: James Currier
Main topic: Product Design
Month of publication: October
23) Developing a growth model and a marketplace growth strategy with Dan Hockenmaier
Lenny Ratchinsky interviews Dan Hockenmaier, formerly of Thumbtack and now at Faire, about building a growth model and strategic choices in marketplace evolution. Hockenmaier provides massively valuable insights and advice for founders in the marketplace space.
Expert: Dan Hockenmaier
Main topic: Growth
Month of publication: October
24) Five Ways to Address Complexity In Your Product
In this extremely interesting article, Casey Winters discusses the challenges of managing product complexity and offers advice for product managers and designers on how to keep products simple and easy to use. Winters highlights the importance of constantly reassessing the complexity of a product and making adjustments to improve the user experience. He also shares his own experiences managing product complexity at companies such as Pinterest and Eventbrite. This article is a valuable resource for anyone working in product design and looking to improve the user experience of their products.
Author: Casey Winters
Main topic: Product Design
Month of publication: October
25) Finding Product/Market Fit with Network Effects
The last few months of 2022 have been extremely productive for Casey Winters as he left his role at Eventbrite. In this post he discussed the concept of product/market fit in the context of marketplaces and platforms. He covers key topics such as category, liquidity, retention, and attraction, providing a valuable resource for anyone interested in product design in these complex and rapidly-evolving ecosystems.
Author: Casey Winters
Main topic: Product Design
Month of publication: November
26) The Metaverse, Crypto, Virtual Society
In this episode of the newly launched (in 2022) Web3 by a16z podcast, the team discusses the concept of the metaverse and its potential implications for the future of virtual reality, gaming, and society. This is one of the most comprehensive and thought-provoking explorations of a topic we’ve been exposed to so far that is rapidly gaining attention in the tech world.
Author: A16z
Main topic: Metaverse
Month of publication: November
Op-eds
In this section, we selected four op-eds, from Henry Grabar, Andrew Chen, and (two) Ben Thompson. It’s been quite hard to keep the list of Op-eds limited and avoid overloading you but we felt these four brought some key reflections on relevant changes of patterns in the industry, due to economics, and technological impacts.
27) Uber prices will rise to meet the company’s newly urgent quest for profits
In this op-ed, Henry Grabar discusses the potential sustainability of Uber’s go-to-market strategy, which has relied heavily on subsidizing its market. He argues that this approach may not work in a future economy characterized by high inflation and rising costs, highlighting the importance of unit economics in the marketplaces industry.
Author: Henry Grabar
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: May
28) Thin Platforms – Stratechery
In this op-ed, Ben Thompson discusses the trend toward thin platforms in the context of recent announcements from Microsoft and Stripe. He explores the implications of this trend and its potential impact on the platform economy. A must-read for anyone interested in the latest developments in the platform industry.
Author: Ben Thompson
Main topic: Platforms
Month of publication: May
29) Spotify, Netflix, and Aggregation
In this op-ed, Ben Thompson discusses the role of discovery in modern digital ecosystems and its impact on aggregation theory. He explores the differences between Spotify and Netflix, and their approaches to discovery, providing valuable insights for anyone interested in the platform economy.
Author: Ben Thompson
Main topic: Platforms
Month of publication: May
30) How to reinvent your product growth strategy for the tech downturn
In this op-ed, Andrew Chen offers valuable insights for teams facing a downturn market. He suggests focusing on high intent, low CAC channels and engaging with high LTV users to drive growth. A must-read for anyone looking to navigate the challenges of a bear market.
Author: Andrew Chen
Main topic: Growth
Month of publication: July
Reports
It is always a good idea to read reports, and there are more and more of them being released every year. In this section, we have identified the best reports released this year, as well as some that you may have missed and should definitely take the time to read. These reports and monographs are worth your time and attention.
31) The best marketplaces run on commission
Sharetribe has published an in-depth report on the monetization strategies of the top 100 marketplaces. The report provides valuable insights into the various ways that marketplaces can generate revenue, making it an essential resource for anyone interested in the marketplaces industry.
Author: Sharetribe
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: March
The a16z Marketplace 100 is an annual list of the top marketplaces in the industry. In this year’s edition, the report highlights the evolution of marketplaces beyond simple transaction platforms, with a focus on the inclusion of tools for buyers and sellers that make them more attractive to users. A must-read for anyone interested in the latest developments in the marketplaces industry.
Author: a16z
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: April
33) The Ownership Economy 2022
The Variant team has published a report on the Ownership Economy in 2022. The report highlights the growing importance of ownership in the software industry and provides insights into the latest trends and developments in this field. A must-read for anyone interested in the future of the ownership economy.
Author: Variant Team
Main topic: Ownership Economy
Month of publication: April
34) Building Blocks Thesis-Sangeet Paul Choudary-Platformation Labs
Sangeet Choudary explores the shift between centralized platforms towards an economy of building blocks, driven by the emergence of Web3 and digital public goods. This report explores the theory, application, and consequences of this shift.
Author: Sangeet Choudary
Main topic: Market Evolution
Month of publication: April
Timeless reads & podcasts
The final section of this “best of” collection is dedicated to what we call “timeless reads” – articles that are highly useful today and will likely remain so for years to come. This is likely the most valuable section of the “best of” and is worth reading during your holiday to make the most of your time.
35) The New Operating Manual for Fintech-Enabled Marketplaces
Peter Flint, General Partner at NFX, has published an account on the growth of fintech-enabled marketplaces. The report highlights the increasing importance of financial services in the marketplace industry and provides valuable insights into the latest trends and developments in this field. A must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of fintech and marketplaces.
Author: Peter Flint, NFX
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: January
36) Hyperstructures (jacob.energy)
Jacob.eth describes the concept of hyperstructures in web3. The post explores how these open, collaborative, and non-competitive infrastructures can be built using web3 protocols. Highly relevant for anyone interested in the latest developments in web3 and the potential of these technologies to enable more open, less competitive and more inclusive systems.
Author: Jacob.eth
Main topic: Web3
Month of publication: January
37) Marketplace Insights With D’Arcy Coolican From a16z
In this interview with Everything Marketplace (another treasure trove), a16z’s D’Arcy Coolican discusses the key factors that drive growth and retention in marketplaces, including unit economics and the decision to expand markets versus expanding categories. This is really a must-watch for anyone interested in the latest trends and strategies in the marketplace space.
Author: D’Arcy Coolican, a16z
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: January
38) The Durability Formula – How It Will Determine Your Startup’s Future Value
Another timeless post by James Currier of NFX as he outlines 26 questions that startups should ask themselves in order to ensure durability and maximize their future value. Currier emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships with customers and creating sustainable, long-term business models. A precious resource for anyone looking to build a startup that will stand the test of time.
Author: James Currier, NFX
Main topic: Startups
Month of publication: February
39) Virality deep-dive – Web2’s secret sauce
In this in-depth essay, Sangeet Choudary provides a comprehensive analysis of the role of virality in Web2 platforms. He examines the various factors that contribute to the success of viral products, and offers insights on how to maximize their impact. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the mechanics of virality and its role in driving growth on digital platforms.
Author: Sangeet Choudary
Main topic: Product Design
Month of publication: February
40) The Elephant in the room: The myth of exponential hypergrowth
In this very discussed article, Jason Cohen challenges the notion that platform growth is exponential, arguing that it is actually quadratic. He provides both numerical evidence and first-principles explanations to support his argument. An interesting and thought-provoking read.
Author: Jason Cohen
Main topic: Platform growth
Month of publication: March
41) Raising venture capital for your marketplace | Sharetribe
Sharetribe has put together a valuable resource on raising money for marketplace startups. This is a treasure trove of information for anyone looking to navigate the world of venture capital funding. It really was quite a year at Sharetribe with regards to content releases.
Author: Sharetribe
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: April
42) NFX Masterclass Season 1 – Network Effects
The list couldn’t really end without mentioning the NfX-released 11-chapter masterclass on network effects. In this comprehensive course, James Currier and other experts from NfX dive deep into the body of knowledge that the company has developed over the years. This is an unmissable resource for anyone interested in marketplaces and network effects.
Author: NFX Guild
Main topic: Marketplaces
Month of publication: October
Conclusions
Whoa! 42 links from third parties and a bunch from Boundaryless, so what to add? Maybe just time for a few final synthetic reflections, as we’ll leave a stronger reflection on trends for another post.
As you’ll see through the links a few key elements emerge as deserving of attention:
- we see a strong shift in the marketplace and platform industry toward hard economies and B2B contexts: time to get serious;
- there’s renewed attention to modularity as a pervasive trend: teams become more important, single-threaded leadership and separate P&L take hold inside organizations, and DAOs start to cooperate more in building modular outcomes. As a consequence, product-centric organizational models are really taking hold, as organizations understand that teams are more capable, need autonomy, empowerment, and skin in the game for product’s success: time to unbundle;
- a reality check comes for web3 as we face a market downturn and it’s again time to build;
- we witness the increasing emergence of a strong codification of practices in product design, growth strategies and tactics, product-led growth, and more (as our guide testifies): time to learn and practice;
What are you up for in 2023? Enjoy the future and remember to …think Boundaryless.
PS: there’s another underlying trend that has been taking hold in 2022 – and it’s Generative AI, and Large Language Models. Who hasn’t played with Midjourney or Dall-e this year? Who hasn’t freaked out with ChatGPT in the last couple of weeks?
Well, we tried to get some help from ChatGPT in writing this recap, and the only thing that ChatGPT has been able to do it’s been to format a structured info dump from an excel file into a well-formatted piece of the test, in the form of a snippet of text, starting from the out-of-context text snipped taken from our newsletter.
You’ll see how most of the links commented above end up with an “A must-read for anyone interested in the [XXX] in the [YYY] industry” and the likes. Well, even if ChatGPT hasn’t been very helpful so far, by using it we definitely felt the “magic” at times: I’ve been so impressed in the last few weeks that I *had* to watch Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in The Shell again after 20 years or so. Only the future holds what GPT4 and new releases from the likes of Apple, Google, and other giants will achieve.
If there’s one thing we feel to go overboard in a prediction is that 2023 will be at times…uncanny!
