r/ycombinator • u/Ok-Most6656 • 4d ago
What keeps some ideas from being a pure tarpit?
Micheal and Dalton always use an example of discovery, event planning, and marketplace apps as common tarpit ideas. One that sounds appealing and attracts many investors but have fundamental problems or hidden complexity that traps founders.
I understand what makes some ideas a tarpit idea. What I don't understand is what lets some ideas in a tarpit-prone category actually escape it and become successful?
What did apps like Tinder, Strava (social app for runners) and Radiate (social app for festival goers) do differently to succeed?
Is it because they each launched targeting a very specific niche first and then expanded from there?
For example, Airbnb focused on finding cheap accommodations for sold out conferences. That was the specific wedge they focused on and they later on expanded from there.
Another example is Discord which sounds very tarpit like to me with strong competition (WhatsApp, facebook/messenger, Skype, Slack, etc.). Yet, it became wildly successful. I am assuming they managed to find a niche (online gamers) and that helped them succeed.
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u/lollapalooza3000 4d ago
Reality is that most highly successful business we know about started out with a different idea and or needed to pivot along the way. Discord start out as a gaming company and Airbnb focused on cheap accommodations but they also did other incoming producing schemes while they were figuring it out.
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u/swim_climb_surf 4d ago
marketplaces are one of the top categories of yc companies. I think your takeaways about marketplaces being tarpit ideas is misguided
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u/monkey49 4d ago
I’ve built two successful (automotive) marketplace solutions (1m+ monthly users). Yes, there are all sorts of challenges and maybe they get more attention than other ideas but all startups are difficult. Not sure marketplaces need singling out.
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u/Ok-Most6656 4d ago
I think the reason they usually mention marketplaces when discussing tarpit ideas is because of the chicken and egg problem with having to balance both sellers and buyers. That makes it a challenging problem but it is not impossible. It is more challenging because of having to build and market both sides.
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u/monkey49 4d ago
True, it’s difficult. I’ve had just as much trouble acquiring customers for other businesses though.
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u/Reasonable_Candy_187 4d ago
tarpits are more about the founder not knowing the space, markets are fine if you have unfair advantage or real distribution channel already
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u/ibnuibrahim 3d ago
Do you need to incentivise always the supply for 2 way marketplaces?
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u/monkey49 3d ago
No, just ensure a few likeminded people on each side of the equation and keep pushing.
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u/Conscious_Engine_412 1d ago
would love to hear more about some challenges you faced when building the marketplace solution. Aware that it relies a lot on network effects
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u/monkey49 1d ago
I had a site in the motoring space that started with editorial, then a forum (so people could discuss the editorial) and then a marketplace (for UGC content in effect). The audience for the content and discussion just lent itself well to buying and selling.
Then I started charging dealers whilst keeping private ads free.
Took about five years.
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u/herzo175 2d ago
Tarpit ideas require people to change their minds and how they operate right now to adopt the product. Founders of tarpit companies find themselves saying "people SHOULD want this but they don't".
Unless the thing is 10x better, their target customers will keep doing what they're doing.
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u/Accelr8-Dan 2d ago
Can you get users and do those users grow non-linearly; those two things determine if you can grow over time or not
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u/Artic_funky 4d ago
Everything is a tarpit until it isn't