# Postmates Changed the Marketplace After Users Asked for Anything www.first1000.co publishes a public search API over its indexed pages; the guide is at https://www.first1000.co/agent-access. Source: https://www.first1000.co/blog/postmates Source observed: 2026-09-21T07:30:30.526Z Last checked: 2026-09-21T08:26:23.044+00:00 Indexed: 2026-09-21T07:33:34.708+00:00 --- # Postmates Changed the Marketplace After Users Asked for Anything > The first product can be a warning that your customers want the opposite side of the marketplace. **By Ali Abouelatta · Original case study: July 12, 2020** **First 1000 field note · Updated September 21, 2026** ## The first product was a warning We wrote about Postmates in a July 12, 2020 First 1000 issue, shortly after the Uber acquisition made the story timely. The case separates an early courier service from the later “buy anything” proposition. The first beta launched in **September 2011**. During the early Postmates era, described as **September 2011 to April 2012**, Bastian focused on retailers and couriers. Merchants said they would use the service **1,000 times a day**, but the case says they produced only **one or two orders** at the end. At the same time, users asked whether Postmates could purchase things for them. It took **seven months** for Bastian to test that request. The strongest demand signal was the repeated question from users, rather than the market-size slide. ## Change the side you are making liquid For the **GetItNow** test, Bastian shifted the model. Instead of relying on merchants for demand and distribution, the team focused on consumer demand and couriers while hacking the supply catalog. The historical account says the team listed businesses from public directories and used **Visa gift cards** for couriers. This describes how they tested a proposition quickly; it is not a recommendation to copy unpermissioned data or bypass merchant relationships today. The operator move was reallocating effort: stop forcing the original supply side to create demand when customers are asking for a different transaction. Make the missing side good enough to test the behavior. ## Stage the test and count quality The case reports a pre-beta with **300 customers** and **$5,000 of GMV**. In the invite-only beta: - Users received **five invites**. - A **two-day weekend offer** required a **#GetItNow** tweet. - Bastian offered **free delivery** in exchange for feedback. - The issue says the first launch followed **27 days later**. These mechanics created a bounded way to generate demand and gave the team feedback before it built every piece of infrastructure. Bastian tracked how much users spent per month and focused on service quality rather than only user count. A useful marketplace test has a short loop, a clear quality signal, and a reason for people to report what broke. ## The marketplace pivot test If a marketplace is not behaving as planned, we would ask: 1. What user request keeps appearing even though it contradicts the first supply plan? 2. Which side can we fake or constrain safely for one bounded test? 3. What is the smallest transaction volume that can reveal quality? 4. Which incentive gets feedback before we build the full system? 5. Are we measuring value per customer, or only counting signups and orders? ## The takeaway Postmates’ useful move was not a clever invite loop. It was listening to a request that invalidated the original marketplace shape, then testing the new side with constrained supply and a quality metric. ## Sources and original research - [Original First 1000 case: 🚚Postmates, July 12, 2020](https://first1000.substack.com/p/postmates) Adapted from Postmates, published July 12, 2020. The September 2011 launch, September 2011–April 2012 early era, seven-month delay, **20 gift cards**, 300 customers/$5,000 GMV, five invites, two-day offer, 27-day launch timing, and quality-per-customer framing are historical claims from the issue. No current Postmates/Uber metrics or new marketplace test is claimed. Updated September 21, 2026. Based on original First 1000 reporting and the source listed above. --- [Read this page’s summary](https://www.first1000.co/api/public/v1/page-tldr?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.first1000.co%2Fblog%2Fpostmates&trace=t_dae5763819f4) ## Ask a follow-up about this page Need a more specific answer? Ask the exact question you have. It returns a fresh, cited answer from www.first1000.co’s knowledge base. No account or API key required. Open this URL with your own question, URL-encoded. Only q is required. No account or setup. `GET https://www.first1000.co/agent/faq?q={question}&trace=t_dae5763819f4` [Tool guide and examples](https://www.first1000.co/agent-access) · [OpenAPI](https://www.first1000.co/api/public/v1/openapi.json) · [Page TLDR form](https://www.first1000.co/agent-tools/page-tldr?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.first1000.co%2Fblog%2Fpostmates). Opening a form does not execute a tool.