Let’s get one thing straight—trust and safety isn’t a department. It’s a mindset. In Chapter 5 of Bulletproof Your Marketplace, I focus on what I consider one of the most critical components of a successful platform: creating and implementing your own trust and safety best practices.

If you’ve ever said, “We haven’t had any major issues yet,” I’ll stop you right there. That’s not a strategy—it’s luck. And luck runs out.

Let me cut straight to the point: if you’re not taking data privacy and security seriously, your platform won’t survive.

In Chapter 4 of Bulletproof Your Marketplace, I walk through why data protection isn’t just a compliance checkbox—it’s an existential issue. A single breach, an overlooked privacy policy, or a botched data handling protocol can tank your platform, alienate users, and land you in serious legal trouble.

Founders often ask me, “What’s the minimum we need to do to stay compliant?” That’s the wrong question. The better one is: “How do we build trust by treating user data like the high-stakes asset it is?”

If Section 230 is your first line of defense, then your terms of use are your second. And believe me, they’re just as critical.


In Chapter 3 of Bulletproof Your Marketplace, I focus on user contracts—what most people call terms of use, terms and conditions, or terms of service. I’ve seen too many platforms treat them as boilerplate. Copy-paste from another site, change the logo, move on. That’s a mistake. Because when something inevitably goes wrong—and it will—your terms can be the difference between a quick dismissal and a drawn-out legal nightmare.

In my previous blog post about the Communications Decency Act Section 230, also known as CDA 230, I discussed many of its positive aspects. No matter which side you fall on, CDA 230 is one of the most debated laws in tech policy. Supporters view it as the backbone of the modern internet, while critics argue it gives platforms too much protection. This time around, we’re going to look at some criticism CDA 230 has received over the years.

I’ve always believed that to understand the future of marketplaces, we need to first look back. In Chapter 1 of Bulletproof Your Marketplace, I take a step back from the legal frameworks and risk strategies to explore the big picture: how marketplaces have evolved from ancient trading posts to today’s digital platforms—and what that means for founders like you.