S2E10 - Growing a marketplace through perseverance - Trisha Bantigue (Queenly)

Two-Sided - The Marketplace Podcast

Sometimes, the story of the founder can be just as interesting as the story of the marketplace.

In the case of Trisha Bantigue, this is certainly the case. Trisha was born in the Philippines, raised by her grandparents, immigrated to the US at age 10, and paid her way through college by competing in pageants.

Today, she is the CEO and co-founder of Queenly, a marketplace for formal dresses. Queenly is backed by prestigious investors such as YCombinator and Andreessen Horowitz.

Though Two-sided does not focus on founder stories, Trisha's journey is pivotal in the story of Queenly. The idea behind the platform comes from Trisha's own pageant experience. And marketplaces in their early stages need non-scalable tactics; in other words, perseverance. Trisha had that in plenty.

In the latest episode of Two-sided, Trisha tells Sjoerd how Queenly got to where it is now:

• Launching the app and getting absolutely no traction for months.
• The difficulty of estimating your own worth as a first-time founder.
• The challenge of talking to investors in a way that makes them understand your vision and punctures their preconceptions.
• How to deal with incredible setbacks, and turn them around for the better.

Overall, a truly inspiring story for all of the marketplace founders listening