Global Online Marketplaces Summit Miami Beach 2022: More Great Speakers Added

Our legendary conferences are back in person this year! We kick off conference season with the Global Online Marketplace Conference in Miami from June 8th to 10th.

It's not just catching up with our industry friends and colleagues face to face after such a long hiatus that we're excited about. We have a seriously impressive lineup of speakers that we're excited to hear from as well.

Last week we announced the first batch of industry leaders who will be delivering their insights. This week we've added a few more to the roster...

Ricardo Frechou, Co-founder & CEO of InfoCasas

Bio: InfoCasas is one of those portal companies which is really 'having a moment'. The company grew its revenues by 130% in FY21 and was described by parent company Frontier Digital Ventures as "a great example of the rapid revenue growth achievable as transaction revenues augment traditional classifieds revenues". The company has benefitted in recent years from a primary market transactional model championed by Ricardo and his team since 2017.

Topic: Digitizing the Real Estate Transaction: What is Really Involved? - This panel session will discuss the challenges faced by classifieds businesses making the transition to be in the transaction. It will look at the business models being adopted, the challenges they face, and the potential upside from getting closer to the transaction.

Martha de la Torre, Co-founder & CEO of El Clasificado

Bio: Few have more experience in the world of classifieds than Martha de la Torre who co-founded El Clasificado in 1988 as a weekly Spanish-language classified publication. Today, El Clasificado.com is now the largest Spanish language classified marketplace in the U.S.

Topic: How El Clasificado Helped Hundreds of Latino Small Businesses Survive the Pandemic - This presentation will look at the impact of Covid on the general classifieds player El Clasificado, how the company adapted to these changes, and how they have emerged the other side stronger.

Mike van der Heijden, Founder & CEO of Portal Ventures

Bio: Mike van der Heijden is a 17 year veteran of digital marketing (specifically search engine optimisation) and is the founder of Portal Ventures, a Melbourne consultancy specialising in helping online marketplaces generate more revenue through effective and scalable search engine optimisation strategies.

Portal Ventures also invests in early-stage classifieds, service & e-commerce marketplaces globally and has invested in marketplaces such as LatAm Autos, Fresha, Programa, CarsFast, PriceMyCar, SideSpace & Omnyfy.

Topic: Lessons Learned from Covid and How General Classifieds Can Evolve - This presentation will look at the impact of Covid on the general classifieds player El Clasificado, how the company adapted to these changes, and how they have emerged the other side stronger.

Toby Russell, Co-founder and Board Director of Shift.com

Bio: Toby is the co-founder, ex-CEO and current strategic advisor to U.S. autos vertical Shift.com. Before co-founding Shift.com, Toby worked in the banking industry creating the first Capital One mobile consumer offering and leading a mobile-first reinvention of all digital consumer experiences across Capital One.

Topic: Classifieds’ New Reality: Every Marketplace will be a Fintech Company - We're seeing this in real estate, cars, used stuff, and e-commerce in general. The enablement of POS systems along with first-person consumer data will allow for real-time underwriting and crediting. Toby Russell will show how this affects marketplaces and why Fintech is the way forward. Verticalization, expansion and industry consolidation are among the most important developments you have to take into account if you want to make your business future-proof.

Steve Greenfield, Founder and CEO of Automotive Ventures

Bio: Steve Greenfield is CEO and Founder of Automotive Ventures, an early-stage automotive technology and mobility VC fund that helps entrepreneurs raise growth capital and accelerate their businesses and delivers outsized returns to investors in the fund.

Steve served as TrueCar’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, and AutoTrader.com’s Vice President of Product Management and Business Development, overseeing the acquisitions of vAuto, Kelley Blue Book, HomeNet Automotive, VinSolutions and DealerScience.

Earlier in his career, Steve served as Manheim’s Director of international Development, overseeing Manheim’s overseas investments, including establishing new joint ventures in Dubai, Istanbul and Beijing.

Topic: Auto Marketplaces 2030 - A Glimpse into the Future

Ronnie Sang, Founder & CEO of AoCubo

Bio: Ronnie founded Brazilian end-to-end real estate marketplace AoCubo back in 2017. AoCubo manages the entire real estate purchasing experience from listing to closing via an Uber-like solution called iBroker, matching every lead with the right agent delivering a unique value and experience to buyers, developers and agents.

Topic: Digitizing the Real Estate Transaction: What is Really Involved - This panel session discussed the challenges faced by classifieds businesses making the transition to being in the transaction.  It looks at the business models being adopted, the challenges they face, and the potential upside from getting closer to the transaction.

Ben Neve, Founder & CEO of Net Ventures

Bio: Ben is a serial entrepreneur, having started, grown and exited a number of online property and automotive businesses. In 2013 he founded DotProperty.com, a group of property portals in South East Asia, which quickly became the number 1 portal in the Philippines and number 2 in Thailand on a monthly visits basis.

He sold DotProperty in 2016 to Mitula Group. He then launched ‘The Car Buying Group’, and quickly scaled the business to transact buying and selling more than 1,000 cars per month, before selling to a private equity-backed automotive group. His latest venture is Net Ventures, where he provides tech, marketing and strategy experience, and partners with entrepreneurs, that have a vast amount of real estate or automotive industry experience with current established connections, and together they launch and operate scalable online business models.

Topic: Investing in Innovative New Businesses: What Investors Look For - This panel session brings together hands-on investors to discuss what they are now looking for in small to medium-sized marketplaces.