A site like Ebay can be interesting in the beginning with just a handful of sellers. Back then there were no auction websites, so the novelty alone would attra

A site like Ebay can be interesting in the beginning with just a handful of sellers. Back then there were no auction websites, so the novelty alone would attract sellers, and the buyers would follow. If you were starting that site from scratch today, you could start with a few dozen friends and family, and maybe a few dozen more beta testers/early adopters. 50 people selling a handful of items each and you have a few hundred products to attract buyers. Visa is an interesting example because they started out as BofA Bankamericard, so they had the backing of a large bank, who could get retailers on board. They got thousands of merchants to accept it, and then just gave away cards unsolicited. It is unlikely that you could achieve this with a startup because you won't have $20 million (of 1958 money) to spend. If you were a startup wanting to do something similar, you would have to form partnerships with a few merchants, and then pitch to their customers.