[ed]

Those are all great points so maybe I just misunderstood your service. Is this a general marketplace or does it only appeal to a niche market?

Either way, the social component makes it sound like you'll need to get over the cold-start "hump."

One more thing -- another poster suggested trying to generate a little bit of pre-launch hype. I've never, ever ever ever, seen this work out in a positive way. Once the floodgates open, users are almost invariably disappointed by what's available. The result is that you lose the (critical) attention of early adopters.

[JoeEntrepreneur]

Thanks lot ed. Point very well taken. Same thing happened to me. There was a company called www.riya.com who hyped lot before launch. They were building some image comparison and search technology. I saw there demo on demo.com and signed up for beta. I was following their blog everyday and waiting for release. When release actually happened, the product was POS (Piece of Sh..) I never visited riya.com again ever.

[ed]

I know riya well (they are in my competitive space) and agree completely. Best of luck and keep us posted on your progress!