I was recently asked to give a presentation to a group of MSc students at Hong Kong Polytechnic University on reinventing digital market places. I decided to take them through the process we have been through to get where we are today. A great turnout and lots of questions. Thanks guys for having me.

1. Reinventing market places
Asif Ghafoor, Co-Founder and CTO at
www.spacious.hk

2. www.spacious.hk
Asif Ghafoor(Co-Founder, CTO spacious.hk)
• University College London Msci Maths and
Computer Science graduate 2001
• IT & software, career focus: Financial
Markets Trading software development
• Goldman Sachs (2001 - 2009)
• Senior IT Director Standard Chartered Bank
(2010 - 2012)
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The mission – “Make it easier to find a place to rent or buy”
Spacious founded January 2013
Go-live July 2013
Roughly 20% week on week growth in unique visitors since go-live
facebook.com/spacioushome
twitter.com/spacioushome

4. What is a business?

5. Multisided marketplace
From: Lean Startup Machine – Eric Reiss

6. Business model implementation
Implement an existing
business model better
Re-invent a market
place
• Market size validated
• Problem validated
• Customer segments validated
• Monetization validated
• Focus on implementation
and scaling
• Market size needs validation
• Problem needs validation
• Customer segments need
validation
• Focus on proving the business
model first and then on
scaling
Process driven
Implementers
E.g. Banks, 7-11
Discover a new
business model
Creative experimenters
Sony Playstation
Ebay
E.g. Facebook, Google

7. What is the gap?
Existing market leader
Key partners
Key activities
Key resources
Value propositions
Customer relationships
Channels
Customer segments
Cost structure
Revenue streams
Your business

8. Prove the gap(s)
Case study: A market place for parents to find tutors.
Gap Hypothesis: Mobile channel under utilized
Gap Hypothesis: Mobile usage improves allowance distribution

9. Is the gap sustainable?
• Network effect e.g. facebook, apple
• First mover advantage (Does it really
exist?)
• Scarce resources
• Brand e.g. apple
• Content e.g. youtube
• IP
• Infrastructure

10. Building your team
• Skills matrix
• Key advisors
• Technology Strategy
– Guerilla warfare: US Army vs Vietcong.
• How to scale the business when ready

11. Conclusions
• Doing your homework first can save you a lot
of time and money
• Does a gap exist?
• Not every market place may be disrupt-able
• Build the right team and incentivize people
properly.
• Questions……