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Returning from Speedinvest's 'The Marketplace Conference' this week in Berlin has left me reflecting on the experience and learnings from the event: Jeroen Arts opening keynote 'Unravelling the Hype: Unveiling AI's evolution in Marketplaces', was a well thought through opening address which prompted contemplation and set the tone for a deeply insightful and fast-moving event. Focus, speed and iteration are paramount. Ely Lerner’s defence/offence strategic framework provided valuable insights to picking the most important 1 or 2 areas of focus and to prove/disprove the hypotheses as quickly as possible. Ely also shared some valuable considerations for moular’s customer engagement as we grow and scale. In the Consumer-Centric Marketplace Designs panel discussion, Lily Shaw from L Catterton shared the importance in delivering 'Customer Delight'. The value of creating experiences that everyone loves and wants to use again and again and share with their friends. Andrew Blachman; Marketplace Capital and Monik Pham; Pact, shared their opinions and insights on current trends and differences between Europe and USA funding landscapes in the 'New Funds' take on marketplaces' panel discussion. The 'Viral Growth for Consumer Social Companies' panel hosted by Sameer Singh with Jake Jenner; Howbout and Dan Silvertown; Lapse, was full of hard lived experiences and tips on acquisition, engagement and activations of customers, sharing things that worked and things that didn't. The closing keynote by Jose Marin co-founder FJ Labs provided a deeply insightful and well researched POV on marketplaces and their future, by a legend in the space. FJ Labs have invested in over 1,000 Marketplace startups so when they share opinions, outlooks and ideas - Marketplace founders should pay attention. Overall Speedinvest #MPC24 was a fantastic and well organised event, and well worth attending. The only drawback if I had one was the need to decide which panel or keynote to attend, as there were panels running simultaneously which left me trying to guess which one would be most useful. In conclusion I learnt many great things from some incredibly talented and experienced people and met many great startup founders, Angels and VC's. The event strengthened my confidence in the vision and mission of moular and provided reassurance that we are on the right path, headed in the right direction – Keep building! moular is a Social Marketplace for artists and makers, helping them grow communities and leverage social engagement to increase sales. We are building out our product with some positive early signs of traction and are currently raising a small SEIS/Angel round. If anyone in my network is interested to find out more, or knows any Angels or early Pre-Seed/Seed stage VC's to make introductions, please get in touch, my inbox is open. 🚀