S2 Ep. 6 Juho Makkonen – Democratizing the Platform Economy through Marketplace as a Service

Boundaryless Conversations Podcast

Today we have the great pleasure of speaking to Juho Makkonen, CEO and co-founder of Sharetribe – and a common friend from the heydays of the onset of the sharing economy.

Sharetribe builds software that helps entrepreneurs and organizations create their own online marketplace platforms. Today their software powers more than 1,000 marketplaces in 70 countries around the world. Juho is also co-author of The Lean Marketplace, a practical guide for building a successful marketplace business where our Platform Design Toolkit is also featured.

In this episode, we get into the details of marketplace trends, with a special peek into trends of componentization and modularity, and the “tension” between standardization and offering a more managed and tailor-made marketplace as a service.

We take a deep dive into the evolving Sharetribe offerings and understand why the company decided to become source-available rather than open-source after 8 years into the business. We also get some insights about different marketplace needs and trends in different geographies.

Finally, we explore how Juho sees the position of Sharetribe compared to other players such as Mirakl or Shopify regarding defensibility strategies and key audiences. He also explains what Sharetribe does to protect its mission - to democratize the sharing economy - by experimenting with a stewardship model, and how their history coming from the “grassroots world” keeps influencing how the company grows and is run. A highly thoughtful episode to enjoy!

Remember that you can find the show notes and transcripts from all our episodes on our Medium publication.

To find out more about Juho’s work:

> Website: https://www.sharetribe.com/

> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juhomakkonen/

> Twitter: https://twitter.com/kusti

Other references and mentions:

> New Foundations of Platform-Ecosystem Thinking, 2020: https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/New-Foundations-of-Platform-Ecosystem-Thinking-Boundaryless-Platform-Design-Toolkit-2020_8-12.pdf.pdf

> Juho Makkonen, Cristóbal Gracia, The Lean Marketplace: A Practical Guide to Building a Successful Online Marketplace Business, 2018: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0796XMKYC

> Sharetribe Marketplace Academy: https://www.sharetribe.com/academy/

> Sharetribe Flex: https://www.sharetribe.com/products/flex/

> Two-Sided: The Marketplace Podcast: https://www.sharetribe.com/twosided/

> Decathlon: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/

> Mirakl: https://www.mirakl.com

Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast

Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music

Recorded on 2 December 2020.