It’s the question that comes up in every demo, when we get to the vendors section: “are you going to have a marketplace? Like an internal directory where I can find new crew, lighting, sound, transport?”
The short answer is no. And we want to explain it, not just declare it on the roadmap as “won’t build”.
What the question assumes
When someone asks for a marketplace, they’re assuming three things:
- That production companies need to discover new vendors often.
- That a centralized system can recommend better than their own professional network.
- That production companies want their software to insert itself into their relationship with vendors.
All three are false, in our experience.
How serious production companies pick vendors
We talked with many production companies before starting Producit. Vendor selection works like this:
- 80% of vendors are recurring. They’ve worked with the production company for years. The relationship is relational, not transactional.
- 15% are peer recommendations. “Call so-and-so, they worked with us on X”.
- 5% are new for a one-off need. And in that case, the search goes through LinkedIn, referrals, or industry circuit — not through a software marketplace.
A marketplace inside Producit wouldn’t solve the 80% (they already have their vendors), wouldn’t compete with the 15% (human recommendations are superior), and wouldn’t add anything to the 5% (we don’t have vendor volume or enough data to recommend well).
The cost of doing it anyway
If we built a marketplace we’d have to:
- Build and maintain a matching, ranking, and reviews system.
- Deal with disputes between production companies and listed vendors.
- Decide whether we charge commission, premium subscription, or something weirder.
- Distract ourselves from what does solve a real problem: operational and financial control.
Every hour spent on marketplace is an hour not spent on bank reconciliation, SII integration, or multi-org. Things our customers actually ask for, not things that just look logical.
Why declaring it matters
Serious people respect it when you tell them clearly what you won’t do. It gives them confidence that the decisions you do make are deliberate, not inertia.
Saying “we won’t build a marketplace” on the public roadmap is a costly promise. If we change our minds in two years, that change will need to be explainable and deliberate, not opportunistic. It’s public discipline that forces us to think before changing course.
The things we will build, and why
What’s coming is what solves the real, repeated pains we see:
- Multi-org for production groups with several legal entities.
- Consolidated financial reports by show, season, client.
- Accounting integrations with Defontana, Nubox, Bsale.
- Mexico expansion with SAT, MXN, and the local operational reality.
Things that are costly, but that solve. That’s what deserves our build time.
If you’d like to see the full roadmap, it’s public. [View roadmap →]