&gt; This just sounds so wrong to me. If you have a good product and it brings value, then others should be able to value it by paying you back for your product or services. Period.<p>I completely understand this philosophy, but an attempt at building a two-sided market place is very likely going to require outside investors.  This opinion that you need to be profitable from day one has been proven wrong repeatedly and while some &#x27;unicorns&#x27; will fail or become less than worth $1bn, their achievements are still very real.<p>It is 100% OK to want to build a business, but entrepreneurs should be flexible enough to understand when it is appropriate to raise money, or make a product that does not generate profit up front.<p>For the record, I also attempted to create a two-sided market and I also failed.  It was super painful and I hope you move on quickly with some really solid lessons learned.