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June 1, 2023 32 mins

Marketplaces are notoriously hard to build. This episode features Jaclyn Grauman, CEO of The Verticale, a social shopping platform that enables customers to discover brands that align with their values. Jaclyn discusses her journey building a DTC marketplace that is focused on brand discovery, the challenges of connecting customers to brands, and the pivots along the way.

  • Using community and word of mouth as a tool to build customer acquisition 
  • Partnering with brands in a different way versus typical B2C marketplaces
  • Utilizing customer and creator feedback as a tool to iterate the platform
  • Why dropshipping didn’t fit with their model
  • Gaining customer engagement and sharing brand stories through video
  • Building a marketplace that is optimized for the consumer
  • Fundraising for a marketplace (spoiler: it’s not easy!)
  • Focusing on one consumer segment and why that’s critical

Music by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com
 
Edited by Deven Shah

Learn more at Retail X Series and follow @retailxseries on Twitter and Instagram.
To submit a pitch or to find out more about Sapna Shah, check out Red Giraffe Advisors.

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