CM was started as a subscription business by a woodworker (for woodworkers) in 1996. We purchased the website when it looked like this https://web.archive.org/web/2008...?
at the time, CM had 350 woodworkers from around the country, and lots of traffic because of its highly relevant domain name. We spent the next three years building out a larger base of subscribers...
In early 2012, we changed the model from subscription driven to transaction driven.. two-sided marketplace theory always talks about needing to invest more heavily in scaling one side of the marketplace, in our case, we were able to do this by building a profitable subscription sales model...
Btw.. when we swapped our models, the makers loved it.. it aligned our incentives around helping solve the challenge of finding makers more work.
@sachinag, thanks for the business!
@datarade, we don't do many custom watches... they are pretty expensive, and we haven't seen lots of customers requesting them.. that being said, shoot me an email at mike at custommade.com, and I will try to help you out! Send a photo of something you like and a rough idea of price !
I used CustomMade to make the world's best fantasy football trophy (at least if you're a Michigan fan): http://www.custommade.com/custom... <3 the site.
btw.. we started testing a new product called "co-design" where we work with people/influencers/brands/bloggers on a design, and then host their sales page on our site...
http://www.custommade.com/l/sci-...
has been pretty interesting to see this program take off.. ping me if interested
@mikesalguero thanks for sharing.
Tell us a little bit about how you guys tackled the marketplace traction challenge.
You seem to have some amazing makers and creators on the platform.
@mikesalguero I want to design a custom watch.
Analog.
Leather Band.
Large watch face.
Talk to me specifically about the capabilities of your platform/suppliers.
Can I get watches made?
If I can, then #shutupandtakemymoney. I've been getting watches customized in China for the past few years but it's been a sluggish process with plenty of false positives.
@datarade I just submitted a request for a custom watch on Custom Made. I had no idea where to go to start getting them made, where do you get them in China? Is there an english-friendly site I can try?
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