GearSource is a marketplace that helps rental companies sell professional audio and event production equipment they no longer need. Marcel Fairbairn built the company in 2002, which makes Gearsource one of the oldest online marketplaces still in operation, alongside giants like eBay and Amazon.
What you'll learn:

• How a self-funded founder built one of the oldest surviving marketplaces on the internet
• The critical "aha moment" when Marcel realized his 16-year-old business was actually a marketplace, and how that changed everything in Marcel's approach
• Why lowering commission rates (from 22% to 11%) accelerated growth and scalability
• How to identify genuine market opportunities that exist between suppliers and buyers
• The painful lessons from three failed platform migrations before finding stability with Sharetribe
• Practical advice for starting lean and validating your marketplace before scaling
• How to transition from a high-touch service model to an automated marketplace
• The realities of running marketplaces with different average order values ($3 vs. $20,000)
• Marcel's unconventional strategy: "Be aggressive on growing revenue, conservative on growing expenses"