The a16z Marketplace 100: 2021 — #69 UrbanSitter

Last Feb­ru­ary, we intro­duced the a16z Mar­ket­place 100, a rank­ing of the largest con­sumer-fac­ing mar­ket­place star­tups and pri­vate com­pa­nies. The series was a hit, spurring debate about the evo­lu­tion of mar­ket­places and promis­ing new con­sumer categories.

Then COVID turned into a pandemic.

The past year has been a gut-punch for many mar­ket­place cat­e­gories. Tick­et­ing mar­ket­places found their busi­ness­es dras­ti­cal­ly dimin­ished when events were can­celed around the world. As schools were shut­tered and many busi­ness­es enact­ed work-from-home poli­cies, child­care mar­ket­places scram­bled to adopt new safe­ty pre­cau­tions and stay afloat. Even the #1 mar­ket­place last year, Airbnb, grap­pled with shut­downs, can­cel­la­tions, and refunds.

As 2020 drew to a close, how­ev­er, many mar­ket­places proved to be extra­or­di­nar­i­ly resilient—a tes­ta­ment to the flex­i­bil­i­ty of the mod­el. In a year when in-per­son inter­ac­tions were heav­i­ly restrict­ed and unem­ploy­ment went through the roof, mar­ket­places allowed peo­ple to access the prod­ucts and ser­vices they need­ed and, in many cas­es, mon­e­tize their own tal­ents, ser­vices, and resources. From food and alco­hol deliv­ery to games, online edu­ca­tion to out­door get­aways, mar­ket­places like Urban­Sit­ter, Instacart, Valve, Outschool, and Hip­camp helped us weath­er a dif­fi­cult year.

To read the full arti­cle please vis­it a16z​.com