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#62: From Cotton-Field Tirebuster to Seasoned Marketplace GM, Ty Wolfe Jones, on The Tractor Keys To Supply-Side Success (Part 2)

Missed part 1? Click here!

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Welcome back!

This is Ty Wolfe-Jones & I’s new, special season of The Daily Marketer, where we’ve spoken with over a dozen marketplace leaders & pioneers from UberConvoyBellhopDoordashRover, as well as rising stars, so to gather proven blueprints, hacks & tactics to growing a marketplace. Enjoy!

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Ty Wolfe Jones is a marketplace leader, guru, operator spending most of his career in the startup, tech industry.

Ty comes from an entrepreneurial family, spending his childhood & teens in the cotton fields of Tulare (TO-LARRY), California, patching tires of 40 foot tall tractors, 2 miles deep in a field cresting @ sunset.

Fast forward to “young, reckless cowboy Ty” and we find him operating in the enhanced drink industry, becoming 1 of the 1st founding members of Zipfizz, Cha Dao Tea, PHIX, and Nuun.

After a stint here, he entered the world of startups and worked at well-known names like Tango Card, Uber, & Doordash. 

A lover of the northwest, a fine scotch whisky & cigar, over the course of 10 years Ty’s scaled early-stage marketplaces as “The Operations Guy”, expanded into new markets @ Uber & Doordash, and forged teams, pioneered relationships, & pushed boundaries

This conversation was a hoot, Ty is a truthsayer, direct as nails, and a fountain of marketplace stories, making him a delight as a partner on this turbine journey into marketplace pandemonium. 

Did you know Ty has a personal cigar room? Think of a sauna, but just for smoking the Earth’s most magnificent stogies

This episode is particularly valuable for anyone who’s an Operations Manager or works in any level of Support @ a marketplace or fledgling tech startup. Ty has the answers, if you have the questions!

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

Listen to the episode on Apple PodcastsSpotifyStitcherTuneIn, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Without further ado, enjoy this colorful conversation with Ty Wolfe Jones!

Show Notes

  • Was DoorDash supply constrained? [1:18]
  • Was supply constraint ever a major problem? [4:07]
  • How many deliveries did you do? [5:46]
  • How did DoorDash generate demand? [6:19]
  • Who were the competitors? [8:01]
  • How do you make DoorDash valuable or interesting to a driver, who has options? [8:40]
  • Why delivering on the Eastside of Seattle, was a critical move [10:32]
  • What was the hair prop that resonate with DoorDash drivers? [11:12]
  • What is Wrench? [12:35]
  • So services like oil change, changing breaks, and changing tires? [13:36]
  • Where did Wrench start? Where did it go next? [14:10]
  • How did you come to a “launch” model? [14:51]
  • How would you gin up demand? [17:53]
  • Were there often repeat customers? [18:54]
  • How data on certain kinds of cars, lead to great marketing [20:11]
  • How did you all operationalize, before scaling? [21:39]
  • Getting feedback from mechanics was important before AND during scaling [25:07]
  • What’s an example of a company with a fleet? [25:45]
  • Why feedback loops and paying attention is critical for scaling [27:54]
  • After almost 8 years in marketplaces, what commonalities and patterns do you see? [28:21]
  • How conversion rate varies per company [29:40]
  • What are the 3 types of conversion rates to focus on in a startup? [31:13]
  • Rapid mayhem questions! [30:46]
  • Where can we find you? [36:14]
  • Any asks of the audience before you go? [37:10]

Links from Episode

What marketplace lesson did you learn in this episode? Comment below 🙂

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