Verification and shared-blacklist API for niche marketplace operators to vet workers and providers without building compliance infrastructure in-house; sold as B2B infrastructure. · marketplace compliance infrastructure
DEAD SLOW · CAUTIOUS
5.8 ShipScore / 10
Productized API is strongest; tiny tracked revenue makes need weakest.
Condition: Three niche marketplace operators prepay for per-check volume before you touch FCRA-grade data plumbing.
Part I — The Verdict what the instruments read
01 — The ShipScore breakdown
Control
6
C6 — own API, but leans on swappable data/ID vendors, no single landlord
Entry barriers
5
E5 — regulation and shared-blacklist network effects possible, but Yardstik's $30M looms
Need
5
N5 — tracked verification tools stall $1-3k MRR; zero Reddit, no complaints
Time-freedom
7
T7 — API productizes well, though disputes and compliance support stay manual
Scale
6
S6 — global B2B, but niche marketplace operators plus per-country rules cap reach
What the five commandments measure
C — Control
Do you own the customer, or does a gatekeeper stand between you and revenue?
E — Entry
How hard is this to copy once it works? A rival's existence isn't the question — the durability of their advantage is.
N — Need
Is demand proven with money rather than vibes?
T — Time
Can income detach from your hours, or did you buy yourself a job?
S — Scale
How far does it reach without linear cost?
Scored on the evidence below, against CENTS as we've adapted it plus a Buffett-style moat reading of every rival — the same referee for every idea, including the ones we generate ourselves. The verdict follows the arithmetic: we never relabel a score to make it read better, and the weakest commandment is always named. The exact rubric stays in-house so the scale can't be written for.
02 — The pace test — $1M/yr
At $299/mo (assumed category price), you need 279 subscribers for a $1M/yr pace.
Nearest tracked rivals on that curve:
My Rental
$3k 4%
VERIFYID
$3k 4%
SMSVia
$1k 2%
BillionVerify
$1k 2%
Part II — The Evidence the receipts, good and bad
03 — Rival scan — corpus tracks 6 similar, 4 stalled under $2k MRR
Yardstik — $30M Series B for background screening/ID verification — funded, moving into same API lane
Checkr — Established screening giant with partner distribution; marketplaces default to it
deepidv — Multi-module verification API claiming hundreds of companies onboarded — direct feature overlap
04 — Demand evidence
Six tracked lookalikes verified at only $1-3k MRR; four stall under $2k
My Rental and VERIFYID top the tracked set at just $3k MRR each
Zero Reddit signals and essentially no complaint chatter on verification/compliance APIs
Only real demand proof is upmarket: Yardstik's $30M raise and Checkr's partner volume
05 — Risks
Shared blacklist invites defamation, FCRA adverse-action, and GDPR exposure from day one
Acting as a de facto consumer reporting agency triggers licensing you cannot afford solo
Blacklist has no value until many operators contribute — cold-start network problem
Small marketplaces have tiny check volume; ACV may never cover compliance overhead
06 — Kill switches — what kills this with one decision
FCRA / CFPB classification as a consumer reporting agency — One ruling forces dispute, accuracy and licensing obligations that end a lean build
Upstream data supplier (court-records or ID-verification aggregator) — Losing the single data feed leaves the API with nothing to verify against
First anchor marketplace customer concentration — One churn event removes both revenue and the blacklist's seed data
Part III — The Plan if you insist on proceeding
07 — What this scan can't tell you
Cannot tell whether niche marketplaces will legally accept a shared blacklist
No data on actual per-check volumes or price tolerance at small marketplaces
Unclear how much of Yardstik/deepidv revenue is marketplace vs employer screening
Scores judge the market and business model — not your ability to execute. Verified MRR = independently tracked revenue; reviews/upvotes = platform-reported. Judged 2026-09-04.
08 — The wedge & the next step
Compliance-as-a-service for sub-100-provider marketplaces: turnkey adverse-action workflow they legally cannot build themselves.
Cheapest next step: Cold-email 25 niche marketplace operators offering a paid manual vetting pilot at $299/month; count prepayments.
Not quite it? Spin the model
Business-model variations of this idea, engineered to beat 5.8 — different vertical, audience, model, or wedge. Same harsh scale. Pro feature.
One evidence-backed gap a day, free
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