#45 - Building Incumbent-Friendly Marketplaces, with Ben Preston

The Disruptors - Innovation, Startups and Growth

The components manufacturing industry is the perfect example of a legacy niche ripe for disruption. But it has some interesting nuances to it, ones that Gearflow has worked hard to understand.

Initially setting out as a two-sided marketplace business leveraging long-tail search to drive distribution, they quickly learned that rather than going around or cutting out the middlemen, they needed to partner with them very closely and solve their problems as well.

Their willingness to listen and adapt worked, and today Gearflow plays an increasingly large role in the space.

In this conversation with Gearflow cofounder Ben Preston, we discuss the origins of Gearflow, what he’s learned about how to stay close to customers and build businesses satisfying multiple constituencies, how he pivoted to use his strength in organic search to drive marketing qualified leads versus sales, and much more.

Learn more about Gearflow here: http://gearflow.com
Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benpreston1/

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