Change of Plans

Kimberly Green | 2024-10-10

(Unrelated side note: Change of Plans sounds like it would be a great song title about lost love, doesn’t it? But this blog has nothing to do with songs or love—just popped into my head.) If you’ve been following along with Sam’s List, you know “change of plans” is something we’ve said more than a few times. And today’s change is… well, a big one. For the past few months, we’ve been going back and forth on everything: our business model, revenue strategies, who our real customers are—literally all of it. Then one day, I was scrolling through LinkedIn, and I saw this girl post about building a marketplace for retreats. So naturally, I thought, “Hey! I’m building a marketplace too! Let’s chat!” And guess what? She responded, and a few days later, we were on a call, geeking out about our respective platforms. Funny thing is, I’ve never really said Sam’s List is a marketplace, you know? Sure, I’ve typed it out before, but I never really felt it—until now. After that conversation, I stumbled on a podcast where a Stanford professor casually drops some solid nuggets about marketplaces: “Most marketplaces don’t start as marketplaces. They realize it later once they’ve been building.” 👋 Hello, that’s me! So here we are—realizing we’re more than we thought. The Big Shift: From Hand-Holding to Self-Service (and Back Again) We’ve been running Sam’s List as a high-touch, white-glove service. You take our quiz, we match you to an accountant, and personally introduce you. Seems fancy, right? Well, here’s the thing: A lot of users don’t opt into being hand-matched, and that’s been a huge aha moment for us. Instead, they reach out to accountants directly after taking the quiz. ( As they should, that’s why we have contact buttons! ) And guess what happens next? Some accountants never get back to them. I know, frustrating! I want to scream, “If you’d just let me match you, this wouldn’t happen!” So, I had to take a hard look at what’s going wrong. We thought the white-glove approach would be a big selling point, but it turns out users aren’t biting. They’re either wary we’ll spam them ( we won’t ) or they think it’s just another email collection scheme ( it’s not ). The reality is, when you opt into hand-matching, I personally review your submission, find a vetted accountant, introduce you, and follow up to make sure...