Enterprise Gateway Marketplaces Will Turn Large Organizations Inside-Out

Friction of Supplier Sign-Up. Supplier aggregation is the easy part. Aggregating demand early in a company's growth is much more difficult and crucial than supplier aggregation.

Size of the Market Opportunity. The new online marketplace may not be able to cover large portions of certain industries. Some markets are not good candidates. Wit

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We believe the future of B2B marketplaces starts with vertical SaaS solutions. These initially look like software-enabled workflows that streamline operational inefficiencies between supply and demand, making online transactions possible where previously they may not have been. 

After a few decades in which giant aggregators have become the dominant marketplaces while original media companies often seem relatively small, this framework is a reminder that the most successful marketplaces are always media marketplaces.

The other thing that we’re seeing is that there are so many agents and aggregators up and down the stack in many industries. These represent opportunities for integrated software solutions to streamline the process. We think about how these low-value brokers and inefficient workflows can be replaced by machine-to-machine transactions. The value acc... See more

We believe that new and upcoming B2B players now have the tools to overcome historical constraints, and that large B2B commerce aggregators will emerge over the next decade. Further, given the complexity of B2B transactions and the different vertical requirements (think aerospace vs. chemicals vs. apparel vs. food), we think vertical marketplaces c... See more

Great things are usually made by specialists, not by all of us. These specialists can create things that the rest of us want. This means that networks can emerge with two groups: one that supplies something valuable, and another which consumes that service. This is where the most valuable type of Internet company enters the game: aggregators.