How to sell to Founders at Marketplaces companies
Founders of marketplaces are primarily measured on user growth and retention rates. They respond to outreach that clearly identifies how you can enhance their platform's scalability or improve user engagement. Demonstrating an understanding of their unique challenges, such as balancing supply and demand, will make your outreach more compelling.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 179 marketplaces company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- balancing supply and demand
- user retention challenges
- scaling infrastructure
- high churn rates
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Use platforms like Crunchbase to filter for marketplace companies that have recently secured funding. Focus on those that have raised between $1M and $10M, as they are likely looking to scale their operations and may be open to new solutions.
- 02
Analyze user growth metrics
Research the user growth rates of your target companies using tools like SimilarWeb or App Annie. Identify those experiencing rapid growth, as they often face challenges in scaling infrastructure or user engagement, making them more receptive to outreach.
- 03
Craft messaging around supply-demand balance
When reaching out, emphasize how your solution can help optimize the supply-demand dynamics specific to their marketplace. Highlight case studies or examples where similar companies improved their user retention or reduced churn.
- 04
Address common objections proactively
Anticipate objections related to budget constraints or existing vendor relationships. Prepare responses that directly address these concerns, focusing on ROI and how your solution can integrate seamlessly with their current stack.
- 05
Follow up post-event engagement
If you identify a founder who recently spoke at a conference or event, follow up within a week referencing their talk. Mention specific insights you found valuable and suggest a brief call to discuss how your solution could support their growth strategy.
Can marketplaces companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 179 marketplaces companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Scaling your marketplace
- Optimizing user engagement
- Boosting retention rates
Questions
- Why do founders at marketplaces ignore outreach about analytics tools?
- Founders may perceive analytics tools as an added expense rather than a necessity. Many are focused on immediate operational challenges and may not see the long-term value of enhanced data insights, especially if they are already using basic analytics.
- What common challenges do marketplace founders face?
- Marketplace founders often struggle with user acquisition and retention, balancing supply and demand, and managing operational costs. These challenges can lead to high churn rates and difficulties in scaling, making them cautious about new partnerships.
- How can I effectively reach out to busy founders?
- To engage busy founders, keep your outreach concise and focused on their specific pain points. Highlight immediate benefits and suggest a brief call to explore solutions, ensuring you respect their time while offering value.
- What triggers a founder to consider new vendors?
- Founders are likely to consider new vendors when they experience significant user growth, face operational bottlenecks, or receive negative feedback from users. Identifying these triggers can help tailor your outreach effectively.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
Try it on your site