Hey Cycling Forums:
My name is James, I am a community manager for Panjo, a startup based out of Santa Monica. Panjo is an online marketplace where enthusiasts can buy and sell specialty used goods with like-minded individuals. We recently launched our road, mountain, cyclocross, fixie, and vintage bike platform and I am building the marketplace from the ground-up.
I joined Panjo because I wanted to create a better marketplace for buying and selling used bikes and bike parts. I am a bit fastidious when it comes to my setup. I train on a Felt Z95 team-edition and ride a ’76 Nishiki Olympic with awesome chrome forks around town. I am also always looking for parts for new projects. My first race is coming up this month and I decided to upgrade my drivetrain to celebrate. However, I was a bit disappointed with existing used market spaces; ebay has become Amazon 2.0 and I have been burned too many times on craigslist. Buying from forums seemed like a great way to go, but I wanted to be able to customize and streamline my search.
Panjo gave me the professional tools (an existing marketplace with free posting, secure transactional services and a solid support staff) to design my ideal p2p platform. My goal is to build a comprehensive marketplace with a flexible search engine, a wide variety of goods and a high signal to noise ratio (by that I mean high-end rather than “commonplace” stuff!). I hope this will help users find the exact parts and models they are looking for at a fair price or find something amazing while browsing. Eventually I want to develop ways to do community work and sponsorships with existing organizations, teams, and aspiring riders.
Since I built this marketplace for enthusiasts, I want to hear what you think! What do you look for when you are buying or selling equipment? What features would make this experience easier and more enjoyable? All opinions/feedback are deeply appreciated. Thanks everyone!
James
Community Manager at Panjo, the Enthusiast Marketplace