A classified ads marketplace for the Sri Lankan market, built with Laravel and MySQL. The platform included category-based browsing, user accounts, promoted listings, and a messaging system.
Architecture
Built on Laravel with a MySQL backend. The frontend used server-rendered templates with progressive JavaScript enhancement.
Challenges
The classic two-sided marketplace problem: without listings, buyers wouldn’t visit; without buyers, sellers wouldn’t list. We addressed this by manually seeding initial listings and running targeted social media campaigns.
Lessons
Building a marketplace taught me that product is only a fraction of the equation. Operations — customer support, fraud detection, payment reconciliation — consumed far more effort than the software itself.