How we got our first 100 sellers on a classifieds marketplace — what worked and what
This is exactly the kind of honest breakdown the PH community needs more of. We're going through a similar phase right now with Dealin — an Australian classifieds platform focused on local transactions for cars, jobs, property, and services.
What's worked for us so far is hyper-local targeting. Instead of trying to compete nationally from day one, we focused on specific cities like Perth and Canberra first. The quality of listings improved because sellers actually knew their buyers were nearby.
One thing we're still figuring out — converting browsers into active listers. Would love to know how you handled that early trust gap where buyers exist but sellers are hesitant to post.
Happy to share more about what we're building if anyone's curious.
Replies
Hey Vikas, great breakdown! I love the hyper‑local focus – it really does tighten the community. When we tackled the trust gap with The Sponge, we let early users create flashcards from pages they were already reading, which gave them immediate value and a sense of ownership. Seeing their own content appear helped convert browsers into contributors fast. If you’re up for it, I’m launching on PH soon ... would appreciate a follow (See "PRODUCT HUNT LAUNCH" Link in my profile). The Sponge is an AI‑powered flashcard app that turns any webpage into study material.