@article {1103, title = {The Core Interaction of Platforms: How Startups Connect Users and Producers}, journal = {Technology Innovation Management Review}, volume = {7}, year = {2017}, month = {09/2017}, pages = {17-29}, publisher = {Talent First Network}, address = {Ottawa}, abstract = {The platform economy is disrupting innovation while presenting both opportunities and challenges for startups. Platforms support value creation between multiple participant groups, and this operationalization of an ecosystem{\textquoteright}s value co-creation represents the {\textquotedblleft}core interaction{\textquotedblright} of a platform. This article focuses on that core interaction and studies how startups connect producers and users in value-creating core interaction through digital platforms. The study is based on an analysis of 29 cases of platform startups interviewed at a leading European startup event. The studied startups were envisioning even millions of users and hundreds or thousands of producers co-creating value on their platforms. In such platform businesses, our results highlight the importance of attracting a large user pool, providing novel services to those users, offering a new market for producers, supporting the core interaction in various ways, and utilizing elements of the platform canvas {\textendash} an adaptation of the business model canvas, which we have accommodated for platform-based business models {\textendash} to accomplish these goals.}, keywords = {core interaction, digital platforms, multisided markets, platform business, platform canvas, slush event, startups, value creation}, issn = {1927-0321}, doi = {http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1103}, url = {http://timreview.ca/article/1103}, author = {Heidi M. E. Korhonen and Kaisa Still and Marko Sepp{\"a}nen and Miika Kumpulainen and Arho Suominen and Katri Valkokari} }