The Octopus Club: Parent marketplace, concept to investment

The idea

The OctopusClub is an online marketplace for parents and caregivers to buy, sell, and give baby and kids’ items, including handmade products by trusted makers. Founded by Ana Rachel Estrougo, the platform promotes a community focused on reusing and recycling, reducing waste and saving money. We were involved before the platform received any investment, playing a critical role in its early development.

What we built

We were involved from conception to launch. Working closely with founder Ana and a team of developers, we built the marketplace on Sharetribe Flex template over approximately seven months, implementing multiple features and fresh designs for web and mobile:

• Product type transactions Modified the Flex template to support product-type transactions
• Third-party CMS integration Enhanced content management capabilities with third-party CMS integration
• Featured and recently sold items Showcasing popular items for discovery, helping buyers find trending products
• Similar product recommendations Suggesting products users might like based on their browsing and purchase activity
• Signup without bank details Sellers list items without entering bank details initially, simplifying onboarding
• Live chat and pop-up messages Third-party integrations for customer support and engagement
• Custom filter mapping Users find items based on specific criteria easily with custom filter mapping

The result

The OctopusClub launched as a vibrant marketplace fostering a sustainability-focused parent community. The unique features improved engagement and satisfaction. Our early contributions helped attract £150,000 in pre-revenue funding and further investment in early 2023, used to enhance the platform and expand offerings. See The OctopusClub at theoctopusclub.com