Marketplace cold-start Case Studies 🗂️

This article is a comprehensive collection of case studies exploring how leading platforms — from OpenTable and Uber to Fresha, Zocdoc, and Fiverr — overcame the cold start problem. Each company faced the challenge of building supply and demand in two-sided or marketplace ecosystems, and their strategies offer powerful lessons. If you’re looking for the distilled takeaways and a synthesized framework on solving the cold start problem, head to the main article Solving the Cold-Start Problem .

🧾 OpenTable Case Study

“Let diners book restaurant reservations online, instantly — no phone calls, no waiting.”

🥘 Step 1: Solve for Restaurants First

• Focused on building a restaurant base in San Francisco to ensure local density.
• Offered free/subsidized electronic reservation books (ERBs) to help manage bookings, waitlists, and tables — valuable even without online diners.
• In-person sales teams demonstrated ERB benefits to restaurant owners.

🙋‍♂️ Step 2: Activate Diner Demand

• Once enough restaurants joined, OpenTable marketed to diners in the same area.
• Incentivized usage with points and rewards.
• High local restaurant density made the platform immediately useful to diners.

✅ Outcome

By first creating real operational value for restaurants, OpenTable secured supply before demand. Once restaurant coverage hit critical mass, diners followed, activating powerful local network effects.

🧾 Fresha Case Study

Provide salons and spas with a free, all-in-one platform to manage appointments, payments, and attract new clients online.

🧪 Phase 1: Seed the Supply Side (2015–2018)

• Launched as Shedul, offering a free SaaS booking and management tool.
• Outcompeted legacy tools by removing subscription fees.
• Prioritized merchant growth with no early monetization.

✅ Gained rapid adoption by replacing expensive, outdated software.

💸 Phase 2: Monetize via Transactions (2018–2020)

• Introduced Fresha Pay to take a cut of transactions.
• Launched a consumer booking layer to drive client acquisition for merchants.

🧠 Monetization came by owning the transaction, not charging for software.

🔄 Phase 3: Rebrand + Marketplace Expansion (2020–2023)

• Rebranded to Fresha, shifting toward client discovery.
• Used existing 100K SaaS clients to pre-fill the marketplace with inventory.
• Made all merchants instantly bookable.

✅ Solved the chicken-and-egg issue — supply came first via the software.

🚀 Phase 4: Scale Through Network Effects (2021–2023)

• Raised $185M+ to fund global growth.
• Growth levers included: seamless onboarding, automatic rebooking, and SEO/SEM traffic.
• Created viral loops: booking → review → ranking → more bookings.

📚 Key Strategic Lessons

• Free software is the new customer acquisition model.
• Owning the operating infrastructure builds stickiness and daily engagement.
• Only after securing the supply base did Fresha build a successful marketplace.

🧾 Uber Case Study

“Push a button, get a black car.” It started as a luxury limo-on-demand service.

🚗 Phase 1: Start with Drivers (Supply Side)

• Manually onboarded limo drivers and paid guaranteed hourly wages, even when idle.
• Allowed use of existing vehicles — no capital required.
• Provided preloaded iPhones and pitched Uber as a new revenue stream.

💡 Faked early liquidity by ensuring driver availability before rider demand existed.

🧍‍♀️ Phase 2: Stimulate Rider Demand

• Created artificial demand via launch parties, promo codes, and event partnerships.
• Leveraged tech-savvy early adopters and influencers — Uber became a status symbol.

💡 Subsidized both riders and drivers to build initial traction.

🌆 Phase 3: City-by-City Playbook

• Treated each city like a mini-startup with a local GM.
• Targeted metrics:
  • <5 min wait time
  • >80% ride acceptance
• Used hyper-local marketing (flyers, promo codes, street outreach).

✅ Built dense, self-sustaining supply-demand loops within each city.

📲 Phase 4: Seamless Product = Viral Growth

• One-tap ride requests, live car tracking, no cash, instant payment.
• Ratings built trust on both sides.

💡 Exceptional UX + trust → high satisfaction → strong word-of-mouth.

💵 Monetization: Come Later, Scale First

• Uber subsidized rides heavily to win markets.
• Focused on dominance before profitability.
• Only raised prices after network effects took hold.

📘 Strategic Takeaways

• Solve supply first, even if you have to “fake” liquidity.
• Treat markets as local battles, not global launches.
• A frictionless, delightful product is a growth engine.
• Early subsidies are justified if they create irreversible network effects.