“I was embedded in all those self- teing communities that were just hungry and longing for mentorship and so I kind of already had one of the sites or at least access to one of the sites and so the second part was finding those mentors”

Bring one side of the marketplace from a community you already serve

Two-sided cold starts are why most marketplaces die. Skip half the problem by entering with one side already pre-built — an audience, a Discord, a newsletter, or a community where you're a known voice. Dominic came from self-taught dev communities that already wanted mentorship, so he only had to manually sell mentors into the platform. If you can't bring one side, don't start the marketplace yet.