Your First 30 Days: A Launch Checklist for a New Marketplace

Most people overthink the launch and underthink the first 30 days. The actual setup — storefront, branding, first vendors — can happen fast. What takes longer is turning that setup into a marketplace people actually use. Here’s a realistic path through the first month.

Week 1: Describe it, draft it

Start with one sentence: what are you selling, and where? A spice market for downtown Austin. A cleaning network for your suburb. A delivery app for your neighborhood. You don’t need a business plan yet — you need a clear enough idea that a storefront can be drafted around it.

This is also when your branding, categories, and initial layout get set up. Keep it simple. You will change things once real vendors and real orders start coming in, so don’t over-polish a draft that’s about to change anyway.

Week 1–2: Line up your first vendors

Before you open to customers, you need something for them to buy. Aim for 5–10 committed vendors before launch — enough variety to make the marketplace feel real, not so many that onboarding becomes a bottleneck. (See Where to Find Your First Vendors for specific tactics.)

Week 2: Set your commission

Decide your commission rate before you’re negotiating it vendor-by-vendor under pressure. A consistent, transparent rate is easier to sell than one you’re inventing on the spot. (See How to Set Your Marketplace Commission Rate for how to actually land on a number.)

Week 3: Onboard for real

Get vendors’ actual listings, prices, and photos into the platform. This is the least glamorous week and the most important one — a marketplace with thin or outdated listings loses first-time customers before they order twice.

Week 3–4: Invite your first customers

Don’t wait for a “big launch.” Invite people who already know you — neighbors, local group chats, a small paid push if you have budget — and watch what they actually order. Early customers are also your best source of feedback on what’s confusing or missing.

Week 4: Go live, properly

By now you should have real orders, real feedback, and a sense of which vendors and categories are pulling their weight. “Live” doesn’t mean perfect — it means the marketplace is doing its actual job: connecting local buyers and sellers, with you keeping what you earn.

The version you launch with won’t be the version you run in six months. That’s normal. The goal of the first 30 days isn’t to finish — it’s to get real transactions happening so you know what to fix next.