This week we caught up with one of our Advisory Board members, Daniel Sand to get his thoughts about what motivated him to join the Marketplace Risk Advisory Board.
As Co-founder & CEO at Wedio, Daniel is committed to making it easier than ever to create visual stories for ambitious creators. Taking Wedio from idea to 50,000+ monthly guests, 10,000+ members, and €500K+ ARR in just three years, Daniel knows the challenges marketplace founders face in their early stages of getting traction. He has extensive experience within digital marketing & growth hacking, culture building & crisis management. When he advises other marketplace founders, he always strives to share concrete, hands-on advice from real-life examples.
Our Advisory Board is the very lifeblood of everything we do at Marketplace Risk. From conferences and virtual events to resources and advice for startups, our board takes a hands-on approach to providing indispensable insight and guidance, drawing on their broad experience that spans a multitude of platforms and industries. We are so excited to welcome Daniel to the Advisory Board!
As Marketplace Risk continues to grow, we have expanded our Advisory Board, with calls for new members who can use their skills and experience to help startups. We asked Daniel a few questions to get to know him better:
What interests / fascinates you most about marketplaces / the sharing economy?
For me, the most fascinating element of working with marketplaces is the possibility of experiencing network effects. The main difference between a typical eCommerce and a marketplace is the potential of extreme scalability. Yes — building a marketplace is much more complex compared to other business types, but when you succeed with marketplaces — you typically succeed big.
How were you first introduced to marketplaces / the sharing economy?
During my Bachelor in Economics at BSS, Aarhus back in 2013, my study group came up with the concept of a marketplace of skiing gear. During the research phase, I tried as many other sharing economy concepts in Denmark as possible, including GoMore, Airbnb, & DBA. I was fascinated by the service you received from the owner themself instead of a retailer, and from that day, I knew I wanted to build marketplace businesses. In 2015, we were five friends starting a marketplace business (A P2P rental marketplace for everything). We found investment, got early traction but unfortunately, we had to close down the company because of internal conflict between us founders. From his experience, I now understand the importance of building an open culture from day one.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur as most of my family are entrepreneurs in some format. Since I was a kid, I have always been drawn towards creativity — including video production, music production and filmmaking. For several years, I thought I wanted to build a video production company, but I didn't like the fact that I was limited to only creating a few stories a year. With Wedio, I have found my perfect spot where I combine my passion for the creative industry with the possibility of building a community that supports millions of creators to create better stories — together.
What motivates you the most about your business/platform?
We are on a mission to keep great stories alive, and I get extremely motivated when I see the impact our community has on some members. When I hear about an upcoming filmmaker that doesn't have to compromise on her original idea because she can now access the needed gear for a specific production. Those stories are what keep me believing in the impact of Wedio.
Do your friends and family understand what you do?
Yes and No. Most of them understand that we make film gear accessible to creators, but many of them always think we "own" gear ourselves.
Who inspires you from a business point of view?
My father. When growing up my father ran a company with 500+ employees, and when I was 12 years old, the company had to close down. Going from being raised with somewhat wealth in the family transforming into a more "regular" family, there was not a single time where I or my three siblings experienced the loss of wealth. I did not experience any major stress from my father, lack of presence, or lack of love. This takes into consideration seeing your baby (the company) going from 500+ employees to bankruptcy in just a few years. His story inspires me to always strive to have my priorities in place and a personal balance between my company and family/friends.
What do you think the world of marketplaces / sharing economy will look like in 10 years?
I believe in community-first marketplaces, where platforms will position themself even more towards targeted segments. We will experience a shift from broad marketplaces that target several segments (eBay, Etsy, Fat Llama) to focused communities (Airbnb, Bandcamp, Wedio). These companies start by focusing on a specific problem, and then expand their product offering to support other problems – but for the same segment.
A few examples are Airbnb, which offers experiences for travelers, and Wedio, which offers eLearning for creators.
The main reason behind this shift is the demand for purpose. The future consumers expect their services to care for them, represent their values, and platforms that target 100's segments will face a challenge to build a real connection with their customers.
If you’d like to be part of a dynamic group of founders, operators and subject matter experts, and your expertise and ideas could help us to better support the marketplace ecosystem, reach out to us at info@marketplacerisk.com.
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