Max Retail’s Non-Traditional GTM: Building a Two-Sided Marketplace Without the Traditional Playbook
Most marketplace startups follow a familiar playbook: subsidize one side to attract the other. But in a recent Category Visionaries episode, Melodie van der Baan revealed how Max Retail built their marketplace by first solving a problem manually, then evolving their solution based on customer behavior rather than conventional wisdom.
Starting with the Problem, Not the Platform
Instead of building technology first, Melodie began by solving the problem manually. “I had a sprinter van. And this sprinter van, I loaded up with all of the collections of the designers I represented, and I would drive the sprinter van from South Florida up to Boston, over to Chicago, down to San Antonio and back,” she explains.
Manual Matchmaking as MVP
This hands-on approach revealed natural market behavior. “If I was in Baltimore looking at a size run of striped dresses that were not performing well, but I knew they were blowing out in Birmingham, I would call that buyer in Birmingham,” Melodie recalls. This manual matchmaking validated the market need before any technology was built.
Understanding True Customer Needs
When they finally built their B2B marketplace, customer behavior revealed unexpected insights. “The retailers kept saying to us, ‘We don’t want to buy. We have shipments to pay for. We don’t want to swap. We got bills. We just want to sell,'” Melodie shares. This forced them to rethink their fundamental assumptions.
The Accidental Platform Evolution
A key breakthrough came through partnership opportunities. “Poshmark came to us and said, ‘We understand that you have access to brand name drop ship inventory… give us a product feed and let’s see what happens.'” This revealed a new way to generate demand without subsidizing either side of the marketplace.
Building Supply Through Trust
Instead of burning cash to acquire supply, Max Retail built trust through aligned incentives. “We created this in such a way that we win when they win,” Melodie explains. This approach led to remarkable retention: “We have over 55% active users monthly.”
The Infrastructure Play
Rather than focusing on transaction volume, they positioned themselves as essential infrastructure. “We are actually e-commerce infrastructure,” Melodie notes. “The ability for an independent retailer or brand to be able to sell their excess inventory across a network of demand that would otherwise be too challenging for them to do on their own.”
Measuring Success Differently
Their metrics focus on retailer success rather than traditional marketplace metrics. “In the beginning of 2022, the average payout to our retailers was around $151. And as of today, it is an average of $1,200 per month,” with top performers making over $20,000 monthly.
The Network Effect
Instead of paying to acquire each side of the marketplace, they’re building a network that grows naturally: “Anyone who has an audience can tap into our supply and become a distributor of the products in Max retail.” This approach has led to “five times growth year over year for the last two years.”
For B2B founders building marketplaces, Max Retail’s journey offers an alternative to the traditional growth playbook. Instead of focusing on rapid scaling through subsidies, they built sustainable value by:
- Validating market behavior manually before building technology
- Following customer needs rather than marketplace conventional wisdom
- Building infrastructure that makes the marketplace more valuable to both sides
- Measuring success through customer outcomes rather than traditional marketplace metrics
As Melodie puts it: “Don’t go looking for a problem to solve. Solve the problem that haunts you day and night, and you will never want to remove yourself from it.” Sometimes the best way to build a marketplace is to forget you’re building one and focus instead on solving real problems for real customers.