Sramana Mitra: How does the professional services group work? Do you have your own in-house voice people, or once you get the project, you figure it out and use the platform to recruit them? David Ciccarelli: The latter. It’s the same platform and the same talent. The clients either don’t have the time or it’s the
Sramana Mitra: What year did you do this transaction? David Ciccarelli: That was 2007 as well. You can see these key moments in time. We figured out the two-sided marketplace. We’ve got revenue coming in from two sides. We took a leap of faith to be able to rebrand and relaunch the company. That was
Sramana Mitra: Of the thousand, what was the split between buyers and sellers? David Ciccarelli: Pretty close to 50/50. That has been our intention right from the get-go back from that partnership agreement. We knew that several marketplaces fail because they focus on one side of the business and neglect the other. We need to
Sramana Mitra: Can you help me understand, timeline-wise, when you managed to get this two-sided marketplace figured out? By the way, this two-sided marketplace going through credit cards and escrow is a very popular trend today. In your evolution, you came to this conclusion organically. When was that in the history of your entrepreneurial journey?
Sramana Mitra: While you were going through this evolution, did you still have the recording studio running? David Ciccarelli: We began a working relationship. We quickly grew quite fond of each other. Stephanie likes to say that’s when it got to be romantic. Through that experience, we recognized that we couldn’t exactly have garage bands
Sramana Mitra: It was basically a recording studio business model, right? David Ciccarelli: At the very outset, yes. This is where the story gets a little bit more interesting. When I opened the studio, I got my name in the local newspaper. What I didn’t realize was that my wife was a classically-trained singer. She’d sing
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. Voices.com started as a small recording studio, and pivoted into a two-sided marketplace for voice talent. Along the way, a thriving corporate business gained momentum. Read on to study the maneuvers. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where are you