Bootstrapping a Two-sided Marketplace: Mort Fertel, CEO of SudShare (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Who built the company? You or your son? Mort Fertel: Both. We’re co-founders. Sramana Mitra: The idea sounds great. It came out of your personal observation of your wife’s woes with laundry. It sounds like your son has the technical expertise. What was he doing at that time when he decided to put

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Bootstrapping a Two-Sided Marketplace: Mort Fertel, CEO of SudShare (Part 1)

This is an insightful story of a family that has built an interesting two-sided marketplace business for outsourcing laundry services. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? In what kind of background?

Not Bullish on eBay

I said earlier upon Meg Whitman’s departure that eBay has a bounce back opportunity ahead. As their new CEO, John Donahoe, announced Q1 results today, they exceeded market expectations on all counts. Q1 revenues of $2.19 billion and EPS of $0.42 were higher than analysts’ views of $2.08 billion revenue with $0.39 EPS.

Deal Radar 2008: Elance

Elance is a marketplace which matches freelance design, technical, writing and other professionals with companies that need their services in a timely manner. The company was founded in 1999 by Beerud Sheth and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

Amazon Pursues Growth At All Costs

In 2007, Amazon’s stock price appreciated by over 125%. How does it look in 2008? Amazon preserves leadership in its core retail business, while layering on a variety of “services”. Amazon posted Q407 results in line with the Street’s estimates. Revenues grew 42% y-o-y to $5.67 billion from $3.99 billion in the quarter a year

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What is John Donahoe’s Gameplan with eBay?

The big news this week is eBay’s CEO change. Meg Whitman retires, John Donahoe will be taking her place. There is wide-spread skepticism about John Donahoe’s choice as the successor to Meg Whitman. We just completed a comprehensive analysis of eBay’s business and a comparative analysis of eBay vs. Amazon.

Mercado Libre: Epilogue

I spent a lot of time locked up in a room with the Mercado Libre team recently, and came away with the following observations: * It is a very strong brand. Random “normal” people I asked about the company were familiar not only with the brand, but also knew what they did. * The competitive

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eBay vs Amazon: My Take

So, I asked you to think about whether eBay or Amazon is a better company. I pointed out that Amazon’s stock is performing a lot better than eBay’s this year. One of you rightly pointed out that Amazon’s margins are a problem. Indeed, as I discussed at length in the series we just completed, Amazon

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