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Hi Michael, Aaron, I'm co-founder of satsearch (https://satsearch.co https://satsearch.co): B2B search for the space industry. Searching for parts to design a

Hi Michael, Aaron, I'm co-founder of satsearch (https://satsearch.co https://satsearch.co): B2B search for the space industry. Searching for parts to design a satellite is a real pain, especially with the rapid growth of the small-satellite sector. I've worked on designs for a few satellites and spent countless hours trying to Google specs: time that doesn't get spent on engineering. So to solve this problem, we're building parameteric-search. The biggest problem people have faced when they've tried this before has been to keep the data updated. We're trying to incentivize suppliers to do it themselves by giving them insight into new markets & products they can target through search analytics. The difficulty we're experiencing is that it's a low-volume, high-value market and suppliers seem to be worried that we're going to eat into their margins. At the same time, we've had multiple suppliers tell us that if being listed means they even sell one more part, it's worth it. Any tips on how we can reduce the shot-term friction with suppliers?

akharris 11y ago
Do you have a bigger problem with finding demand for parts, or with listed supply?
- kartikkumar 11y ago
  Supply listing is the bigger problem. Demand seems to be taking care of itself, right up to the big space agencies. As a side question, we're also not sure whether to grow the suppliers as quickly as we can by offering free listings, or to charge suppliers from the get go.
  - akharris 11y ago
    If you have a lot of demand, you should be able to go to parts listers and say "Hey! I've got money for you! Come get money by listing." Ok...not quite that simple, but that's a great carrot to use. If that's not enough to get them to list, you might need to find another strategy. Is there something else that the suppliers really need, and don't have, that you could give them which would also give you access to up to date parts information? You can also fake the marketplace, to some extent. If someone comes looking for a part you don't have, make sure you still take the request, and then go fill it manually. If you do this enough, you should be able to earn the trust of the suppliers, and get them to be more active participants.
    - kartikkumar 11y ago
      Yea that's essentially the path that we're trying to take. We are logging all the search queries for which we don't have product listings and aggregating that to show to suppliers. We actually switched from the idea of charging users to charging suppliers because a bunch of suppliers told us directly that they'd pay us a 10-15% provision for every sale we bring them. I've asked the suppliers I've directly spoken with what they'd wish for if they could wave a magic wand and all of them basically said more sales. I guess I'm maybe answering my own question, but to fake the marketplace, should we concentrate for a while on just being resellers for a couple of suppliers to earn the trust? We've tried to avoid that to convince users that we're neutral in the marketplace.
      - akharris 11y ago
        Sounds like you did answer it yourself, which is awesome. I actually like your approach of aggregating and sending it out to the suppliers. You could send it to all of them and tell them they have a limited time to respond, and then creating a ranking system based on who is best at meeting customer demands. That way, you have a preferred list that gets more business by virtue of the fact that they're better. That's fair to all the suppliers, gives them something to work towards, and makes your customers happy.
        kartikkumar 11y ago
        That's interesting! Ok so I'm guessing this is the crux of the "do things that don't scale" mantra. Thanks!
samstave 11y ago
Oktopart for space! Sounds pretty cool.
- kartikkumar 11y ago
  Exactly :) Well not entirely exactly, since it turns out that we're quite different because we're in a low-volume, high-value market. So deals are not really done (yet) by purchasing straight off an e-commerce site. What I'd love to do is make systems engineering, procurement and market analysis in the small-satellite sector a lot more transparent.
  - samstave 11y ago
    Dont forget to leverage what they released then... including: http://apievangelist.com/2014/08/25/ocotoparts-open-source-google-spreadsheet/ http://apievangelist.com/2014/08/25/ocotoparts-open-source-g...
    - kartikkumar 11y ago
      Yep GSheet plugin is in the pipeline :) Thanks!

akharris 11y ago

Do you have a bigger problem with finding demand for parts, or with listed supply?

kartikkumar 11y ago
Supply listing is the bigger problem. Demand seems to be taking care of itself, right up to the big space agencies. As a side question, we're also not sure whether to grow the suppliers as quickly as we can by offering free listings, or to charge suppliers from the get go.
- akharris 11y ago
  If you have a lot of demand, you should be able to go to parts listers and say "Hey! I've got money for you! Come get money by listing." Ok...not quite that simple, but that's a great carrot to use. If that's not enough to get them to list, you might need to find another strategy. Is there something else that the suppliers really need, and don't have, that you could give them which would also give you access to up to date parts information? You can also fake the marketplace, to some extent. If someone comes looking for a part you don't have, make sure you still take the request, and then go fill it manually. If you do this enough, you should be able to earn the trust of the suppliers, and get them to be more active participants.
  - kartikkumar 11y ago
    Yea that's essentially the path that we're trying to take. We are logging all the search queries for which we don't have product listings and aggregating that to show to suppliers. We actually switched from the idea of charging users to charging suppliers because a bunch of suppliers told us directly that they'd pay us a 10-15% provision for every sale we bring them. I've asked the suppliers I've directly spoken with what they'd wish for if they could wave a magic wand and all of them basically said more sales. I guess I'm maybe answering my own question, but to fake the marketplace, should we concentrate for a while on just being resellers for a couple of suppliers to earn the trust? We've tried to avoid that to convince users that we're neutral in the marketplace.
    - akharris 11y ago
      Sounds like you did answer it yourself, which is awesome. I actually like your approach of aggregating and sending it out to the suppliers. You could send it to all of them and tell them they have a limited time to respond, and then creating a ranking system based on who is best at meeting customer demands. That way, you have a preferred list that gets more business by virtue of the fact that they're better. That's fair to all the suppliers, gives them something to work towards, and makes your customers happy.
      - kartikkumar 11y ago
        That's interesting! Ok so I'm guessing this is the crux of the "do things that don't scale" mantra. Thanks!

samstave 11y ago

Oktopart for space! Sounds pretty cool.

kartikkumar 11y ago
Exactly :) Well not entirely exactly, since it turns out that we're quite different because we're in a low-volume, high-value market. So deals are not really done (yet) by purchasing straight off an e-commerce site. What I'd love to do is make systems engineering, procurement and market analysis in the small-satellite sector a lot more transparent.
- samstave 11y ago
  Dont forget to leverage what they released then... including: http://apievangelist.com/2014/08/25/ocotoparts-open-source-google-spreadsheet/ http://apievangelist.com/2014/08/25/ocotoparts-open-source-g...
  - kartikkumar 11y ago
    Yep GSheet plugin is in the pipeline :) Thanks!