SellYourBoat.io · Multi-Tenant Yacht Platform

SellYourBoat.io is a multi-tenant, white-label yacht listing platform with a public marketplace layered on top. Two products share one codebase: a B2B SaaS that lets brokerages run their entire listing workflow under their own brand and domain, and a B2C marketplace that aggregates every broker tenant's published inventory into a single buyer-facing destination — automatically.

It's positioned as infrastructure, not features. Not a CRM, not a lead-gen middleman — one system that replaces three for a broker: their listing wizard, their admin, and their syndication. I led it from bespoke client tool to productised platform, owning product strategy, architecture, UX/UI, and front-end build.

Product Strategy · Multi-Tenant Architecture · UX/UI · Workflow Systems · Front-end Build

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Origin

It started as a one-off client tool — a single yacht broker who needed branded listing intake on their own website. Then a second broker wanted the same thing. Then a network of 100+ regional broker brands. That's the pivot point where a bespoke project becomes a product. I led the transition from custom build to multi-tenant platform, owning the product direction, architecture, and design through to front-end delivery — built as a venture of Wall & Fifth, serving brokers across Europe and Asia.

Thesis

Infrastructure, not features. That wasn't positioning — it was the constraint I designed around. A broker shouldn't need a CRM, a separate listing tool, and a syndication service. They need one system that runs their workflow under their own brand, and surfaces their inventory to buyers as a byproduct. Every structural decision was made to replace three tools with one, without the broker ever feeling like a tenant on someone else's platform.

The model reversal

Legacy marketplaces charge high listing fees, route leads opaquely, and strip brokers of control over how their inventory is presented. I designed SellYourBoat.io as a deliberate reversal: brokers own the workflow and the branding, their inventory surfaces on the marketplace automatically, and buyer enquiries go directly to the listing broker — no middleman ever touching the lead. The marketplace earns buyer trust because every listing comes from a vetted brokerage, not anonymous sellers or scraped aggregators.

Listing wizard

The seller-facing intake is an 8-step wizard, not a form — and crucially, no account required and fully mobile-friendly. Category, then specifications and dimensions, features and equipment, location and pricing, photo upload (up to 30, auto-compressed), description and highlights, seller info, and a final review. The structure captures the minimum viable data for a publishable listing while keeping the seller confident they're producing something professional, not filling out admin paperwork.

Admin review panel

Every submission lands in a broker-facing queue, filterable by status — pending, published, rejected — with a full listing preview before anything goes live. One-click publish, re-push for updates, and email notifications on every new submission. I designed the review surface around how brokerage teams actually operate: clear states, fast scanning, and explicit actions so nothing gets lost in an inbox. The review step is where listing quality is enforced without slowing the pipeline.

WordPress publishing

Most brokers already run their site on WordPress, so the system meets them there. Approved listings auto-create or update a fully formatted page on the broker's own WordPress site — full specs, photo gallery, contact details, and conversion CTAs — with inline styles that survive any theme. It runs through a custom plugin: a dedicated post type and REST endpoints, authenticated via Application Passwords. The broker keeps their site, their SEO, and their brand; the platform just makes publishing effortless.

06 — PUBLISHINGWORDPRESS

SOURCE LISTING

Sunseeker 76APPROVED

23.4m LOA20214 cabins

REST REQUESTNOT PUBLISHED

POST /wp-json/syb/v1/listing

Authorization: App Password ••••••

payload: { cpt:"yacht", gallery[8] }

← 201 Created · /yachts/sunseeker-76

BROKER SITE · ANY THEME

northpoint.co.uk/yachts/sunseeker-76

Astra themeHome · Fleet · Contact

Awaiting publish…

Sunseeker 76 · 2021

LOA23.4 m

Beam5.6 m

Cabins4

Price€2.4M

inline styles · theme-proof

Multi-brand architecture

The core engineering decision is one codebase, unlimited brands. A master dashboard creates and manages every tenant; each gets fully isolated data plus its own logo, colours, domain, WordPress connection, and email settings. Brand colours are stored per-tenant as CSS custom properties in the database, so the same codebase renders completely distinct brand experiences. Updates ship to everyone simultaneously, but tenants never bleed into each other. That isolation is what makes the economics work.

07 — MULTI-BRANDONE CODEBASE

TENANTS

Northpoint

northpoint.co.uk

Azur Yachts

azuryachts.com

Costa Marine

costamarine.es

Sakura Marine

sakura-marine.jp

Northpoint

northpoint.co.uk

Find your next yacht.

Sunseeker 76

€2.4M

Princess Y72

€1.9M

ACTIVE CSS VARIABLE · STORED PER-TENANT

--brand: #e0341f1 codebase · isolated DB · 0 bleed

The marketplace flywheel

Every broker that onboards adds their published inventory to the public SellYourBoat.io marketplace automatically — no extra work, no separate upload. That aggregation is the flywheel: each tenant compounds the buyer-facing destination, which in turn becomes a reason for the next broker to join. The B2B product and the B2C marketplace aren't two roadmaps — they're one system where supply and demand reinforce each other by design.

08 — FLYWHEELSUPPLY ⇄ DEMAND

BROKERS

LISTINGS

1,860

MONTHLY BUYERS

4,080

THE LOOP

01 Broker onboards

02 Inventory aggregates

03 Destination compounds

04 Demand pulls next broker

▲ NETWORK EFFECT — 100+ BROKERS

MOMENTUMLOW

Trust as the wedge

Marine marketplaces are plagued by scams and scraped, unreliable listings. I made supply quality the structural advantage: every boat on SellYourBoat.io comes from a vetted brokerage, never an anonymous seller or an aggregator pulling stale data. For buyers committing serious capital to assets they often can't inspect in person, that vetted-broker-only supply is the trust signal that drives conversion — and it's a moat scraped competitors can't replicate.

09 — TRUSTTHE WEDGE

INBOUND SUPPLYVETTING GATEMARKETPLACE

VERIFY ↓

TRUST SCORE

100%

VETTED SUPPLY

ADMITTED

REJECTED

Vetting

System architecture

SellYourBoat.io is built as a multi-tenant platform with a marketplace aggregation layer on top. A master admin manages all brands and their WordPress configs; each tenant runs its own listing wizard, admin queue, and branded experience in isolation; published inventory flows up into the public marketplace automatically. The architecture separates platform administration, per-tenant workflows, and the buyer-facing destination so the system can add brands at near-zero marginal cost without fragmenting any single broker's experience.

Actors
Listing Wizard — Structured Intake
Self-Correct + Submit
Admin Review Pipeline
Publishing + Media
Data Layer
SellerOwner / Broker
AdminYBA Team
ReviewerToken Link / QA
CategoryBoat Type Selection
DetailsBrand · Model · Year
FeaturesSpecs · Equipment
LocationCountry · Marina
PhotosUpload · Order
DescriptionCopy · Price
Seller InfoContact · Provenance
Review
ListingSelf-Correct Before Submit
Submit→ Pending Review
Admin
DashboardPending · Published · Rejected
Listing
DetailFields · Gaps · Media
ActionsPublish · Reject · Draft
Review
LinkToken-Based QA
WordPress
PublishSync to Live Site
Media
PipelineBlob Upload · Ordering
Email
NotifyStatus Updates
HTML
ExportListing Embed
Prisma / DBListings · Reviews · Status
Blob StorePhotos · Assets
Wizard flow
Admin pipeline
Data flow
QA feedback

Business model

Because every new tenant runs on the same codebase, the marginal cost of onboarding a broker is close to zero — and the pricing reflects that. Setup is live in 24 hours with no setup fee: the broker sends branding and a domain, and the instance is configured. Tiered subscriptions scale from a single brand to a multi-brand network, with no per-listing charges and a free pilot for the first brand. Enterprise adds MLS syndication, API access, and SSO. The commercial model was shaped alongside the product, not bolted on after.

11 — BUSINESS MODELUNIT ECONOMICS

MRR

€970

MARGINAL COST / BRAND

€3

GROSS MARGIN

85%

Starter

€99 · 1–9 brands

Growth

€79 · 10+ brands

Enterprise

Custom · MLS · API · SSO

BROKER TENANTS10

Free pilot · no per-listing charges · live in 24h

Outcome

SellYourBoat.io shipped as a live two-sided platform — a white-label SaaS and a public marketplace running on one codebase. Brokers run their entire listing operation under their own brand; buyers browse vetted inventory aggregated across every tenant. What began as a one-off tool for a single broker became infrastructure with three structural advantages: near-zero marginal cost per new brand, a marketplace that compounds with every tenant, and trust as a defensible wedge against scraped aggregators. One system replacing the listing tool, the admin, and the syndication for an entire industry.

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