Bobby Brannigan of Mercato on Vertical Marketplaces, COVID Pull Through and Pivots, Bootstrapping vs. Fundraising, and the Dangers of Not Listening to Your Customer.

Apologies for the late pod drops! It has been a pretty busy week with Christmas and working on due diligence with a new opportunity. This pod is late but GREAT - don’t miss it! You can watch/listen to the podcast on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.

A serial entrepreneur and angel investor, Bobby Brannigan is co-founder and CEO of Mercato, the online marketplace that empowers independent grocers to grow their business in the face of ever increasing competition.

His business roots started as a kid working in his family's Brooklyn, New York grocery store. As a teenager, Bobby began instituting new ways to create efficiencies and increase revenue for his family’s store. While in his sophomore year at State University of New York at Fredonia in 2002, Bobby founded ValoreBooks.com, which became one of the internet's largest online textbook marketplaces. It was acquired by Simple Tuition, the largest online student loan marketplace in the country in 2012.

-What You Will Learn:

-Marketplaces

-Solving the Cold Start Problem

-Bootstrapping vs Fundraising

-COVID Explosions

-Pivots