SoloRiff

How to sell to Product leads at Marketplaces companies

Product leads in marketplaces are primarily measured on user engagement metrics, such as active user growth. They respond positively to insights that demonstrate a clear understanding of their dual-sided platform challenges, like balancing vendor and consumer needs. Showing familiarity with their specific marketplace dynamics will make them more likely to engage with your outreach.

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

  • vendor onboarding delays
  • user retention issues
  • balancing supply and demand
  • platform security concerns

The playbook

  1. 01

    Identify recent funding rounds

    Filter for companies that have received funding in the last 6 months. These product leads are often under pressure to deliver new features quickly to satisfy investor expectations. Use databases like Crunchbase to find this information.

  2. 02

    Analyze marketplace user feedback

    Look for reviews and feedback on platforms like G2 or Trustpilot. Highlight specific user pain points that your outreach can address, such as complaints about vendor onboarding or user experience. Tailor your messaging to show you understand these issues.

  3. 03

    Leverage industry-specific events

    Identify upcoming industry events or webinars where these product leads might be speaking or attending. Reference their participation in your outreach to create a connection. Mentioning a specific session they’re involved in can increase your chances of a response.

  4. 04

    Address common platform challenges

    Prepare to discuss common challenges faced by product leads in two-sided marketplaces, such as balancing supply and demand or ensuring platform security. Anticipating these objections will help you steer the conversation toward solutions you can provide.

  5. 05

    Follow up with relevant case studies

    After your initial outreach, follow up with case studies that demonstrate how similar marketplaces have successfully navigated challenges. Ensure these examples relate directly to their platform type and highlight measurable outcomes, making it easier for them to see the relevance.

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.

1–10 employees
17.3%
11–50
19.8%

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

  • Funding insights for your marketplace
  • User feedback on your platform
  • Navigating vendor challenges

Questions

Why do product leads at marketplaces ignore outreach?
Product leads often receive a high volume of outreach and prioritize messages that directly address their specific challenges. If your message doesn't immediately resonate with their current pain points or goals, it may be overlooked.
What metrics do product leads focus on?
Product leads in marketplaces typically focus on metrics like user engagement, transaction volume, and customer satisfaction scores. They are constantly looking for ways to improve these metrics to ensure the success of their platform.
How can outreach be tailored for product leads?
Outreach can be tailored by referencing specific challenges faced by marketplaces, such as managing user growth while ensuring quality. Highlighting insights or solutions that align with their current priorities will increase engagement.
What role does user feedback play for product leads?
User feedback is critical for product leads as it informs product development and helps prioritize features. They rely on this feedback to make data-driven decisions that enhance the user experience and address pain points 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