notes on building a marketplace that says no a lot.
build-in-public updates, and the occasional argument about what a listing site owes the people using it.
how to prepare your product before you list
most rejections are predictable. a seller who spends a month preparing catches nearly everything a reviewer would flag.
read the post →what technical debt to look for before you acquire
the demo works and the financials check out. then you open the repo. here’s what to look for before you wire anything.
how to iterate after a rejection
most sellers who get rejected don't come back. the ones who do either don't understand what failed, or they understand it but can't prove they fixed it. here's what reapplication actually looks like.
verification, not curation, is what scales
curation alone loses once a bigger competitor adds volume and algorithms. verification plus transparency is defensible.
why we publish every rejection reason
every submission we reject gets one of five reasons back to the seller, and we publish the aggregate. transparency about what fails is the only way the bar stays credible.
what happens in the seven day handoff window
if handoff doesn't happen or the code doesn't run, you get a refund. here's exactly how that window works.
the five checks, and which one fails the most submissions
we review every submission by hand against the same five checks. here's what each one actually looks for, and why check five throws out more listings than the other four combined.
why we don't have a minimum revenue requirement
a tool with nine paying users and a clean codebase clears the bar. one with fifty thousand in self-reported mrr and no repo access does not.
how to read a listing before you buy it
self-reported numbers, verified numbers, and the gap between them. what to check before you send anything.
why we didn't build an open marketplace
anyone can list anything on most marketplaces. we built the opposite, on purpose.
the first ten listings
who cleared review in the first batch, and what didn't make it.