Helping business owners find the right buyer—and take the next step forward.

As the baby boomer generation reaches retirement, a wave of small and mid-sized business owners are looking to exit. But most business brokers are still operating in a fragmented, offline way—focused on one piece of the process at a time. For sellers, this means limited visibility and missed opportunities. For buyers, it often means a scattered search across inconsistent listings.

Our client, Bridge, wanted to close that gap by creating a modern online marketplace: a platform where sellers could list their businesses in one place, and qualified buyers could easily browse, evaluate, and reach out.

 

MY ROLE
Design

Desired User Outcomes

Outcomes That Earn Seller and Buyer Approval

We needed to determine the benefit our customers were looking for from our product and what behavior changes would signal that they’d achieved it.

 
 

Primary User

Buyer

Goal: Quickly find vetted businesses worth investing in and easily reach out to sellers.

  • Sarah is 41 years old and works as an independent investor specializing in small business acquisitions. She’s always on the lookout for established, profitable businesses that can either be improved with better operations or expanded into new markets.

    Sarah is busy—she doesn’t have time to sift through vague listings or chase down missing information. She needs clear financials, trustworthy seller profiles, and enough upfront data to decide quickly whether a business is worth pursuing.

    For Sarah, success means finding strong listings with solid documentation, getting a clear picture of a business’s potential right away, and being able to message the seller easily when she’s ready to move forward.

Secondary User

Seller

Goal: Get qualified buyers to see and inquire about their business listing.

  • Tom is 66 years old and owns a small but successful chiropractic practice he built over the past 30 years. He’s proud of what he’s created, but he’s ready to retire and spend more time traveling and with family. Selling his business feels a little overwhelming—he’s never done it before, and he’s not sure where to start.

    Tom wants serious buyers, not casual browsers. He’s looking for a way to showcase his practice’s strengths—its loyal client base, steady revenue, and great reputation—without having to do a lot of heavy lifting. What he really wants is a platform that gets his business in front of people who understand its value and are ready to take action.

    If he can list his practice easily, attract real interest, and feel like he’s getting a fair chance at selling, he’ll consider it a huge success.

 

The Solution

Seller Listing

Help sellers share what matters most.

Sellers are guided step-by-step through uploading information that drives buyer interest.

Listing Thumbnails

Surface value at a glance.

Listing previews for both mobile and desktop to highlight the most important data with strong visual hierarchy and a clear CTA make it easy for buyers to scan, filter, and take action fast.

Mobile Conversion

Optimized for action anywhere.

Listings adapt fluidly to mobile, with concise business overviews, pricing, and a sticky CTA.

Bridge Certified Listings

Highlight businesses who use Bridge’s certification service.

A certification badge helps listings stand out and builds instant buyer confidence - while incentivizing sellers to use Bridge services. It signals that key financial and business details have been reviewed by Bridge—helping to drive up views, messages, and perceived credibility.

Measuring for Success

Tracking Business Outcomes

Adoption: Are Sellers Using It?

How many businesses are listing on the platform—especially those with Bridge-certified documentation, which we hypothesized would drive more engagement.

Engagement: Are Buyers Interested?

Key signals include time on site, message clicks, and activity on listings. If Bridge-certified businesses had a higher message rate, we could validate that our certification added real value.

Conversion: Are Connections Happening?

The ultimate signal of success? Messages turning into deals. We would need to monitor when a sale could be traced back to marketplace activity.