A two-sided marketplace connects buyers and sellers, offering scalability and profitability for entrepreneurs. However, it also poses challenges such as platform leakage, quality of inventory, the "chicken-and-egg" problem, and winner-take-all dynamics. To build a successful marketplace, validate your idea by verifying demand and product-market fit, look for fatal flaws in your model, build an MVP, attract sellers first, build trust, and provide enough value to keep users on your platform. Careful planning and execution are key to overcoming the many potential pitfalls of marketplace-building.