Ready for part 2? Click here!

~~~

Who is Pinga? This is a very special episode that catches a marketplace at the END of it’s journey.

Michael Goulden is the founder & CEO of Pinga, the original courier service in the UK that would bring any needed item to your hand from 15-120 mins, from your neighbor next door, AKA “The High Street in your hands”, AKA “The Uber For Everyday Tasks” (~Evening Standard).

Before Pinga, Mr. Goulden was a Senior Manager & business consultant at KPMG where he had an itch in the startup marketplace world he needed to scratch.

Over the course of 5 years Pinga grew to over 40,000 downloads, 10,000 active customers, raised over 700,000 pounds, and was live across every neighborhood of London.

This conversation was fascinating! Like listening to….the Pinga “discography”. We dives deep into… beta launching at a university, the evolution of pricing through algorithms, network effects and plot-twisting pivots to make a marketplace successful, Pinga’s flywheel and the constant battle, partnering with Co-op grocery stories, and so much more.

This conversation is particularly valuable for a founder, or a startup junky wanting to study the marketplace dynamics at play and how complicated (yet fun) it can be to play with.

Enjoy this special episode!

Please help grow the show with us…by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Show Notes

• Why did Ty & I start doing Marketplace Mayhem? [3:46]
• What’s a high street? [6:08]
• How is Pinga and Robinhood related? [7:25]
• Was Robinhood a real person? [7:51]
• Why did Pinga start in Nottingham? [8:55]
• Did launching in Nottingham work? [10:54]
• How did you think about the supply & demand problem? [13:23]
• What is cross over? [15:50]
• What were your dynamics like at that point? More supply, more demand? [16:13]
• As you started to get more supply, how did the predictive algorithm start to take shape? [17:40]
• How did you guys operationally make a delivery happen? [20:22]
• And then you mixed to fixed pricing? [22:48]
• What did you start to find out was your clear metrics and flywheel? [24:17]
• The mechanics of Pinga’s flywheel [25:23]

Links from Episode

• Connect with Michael: LinkedIn 
• Pinga
• Evening Standard
• Story of Robinhood
• Nottingham, UK
• University of Nottingham
• Rock City, Nottingham
• What is influencer marketing
• Facebook Ads
• Cost Per App Activation
• Customer Retention metrics

What did you learn from Michael about successfully launching a new marketplace? Comment below 🙏🏽