Some thoughts on how systems thinking can be applied to marketplace development in early stages:

A marketplace is a system, and building one from scratch requires a keen sense of equilibrium on all sides. If you have too much supply, your early suppliers will leave for lack of opportunity. If demand outstrips supply, you will be left with unhappy customers (first impressions are difficult to change, although not impossible).

Another important aspect is timing to make adjustments. In the early stage, you have to constantly tune and tweak your marketplace so that everyone is happy - quickly osscilating to resolve issues to help suppliers be successful and make customers happy.

This sounds obvious but every initiative (project, feature, task) should have direct impact on your current marketplace. Avoid building something that will only have second order impact without any meaningful changes to the current market. Ask yourself - if this was built tomorrow, would our marketplace immediately change? If the answer is no, reconsider the level of investment. We buy the luxury of time when things are more established.

There are ofcourse many ways of maintaining equilibrium early. The most sustainable is to onboard early users slowly so that maintaining equilibrium is never a huge issue. Making sure you have a good feedback channel is critical during this time too. The other approach is to ensure your ability to iterate on changes is rapid enough to address any rising issues.