It hasn't been easy to be a long-term investor over the last few years. Concerns about the state of the global economy and other prevailing factors in the aftermath of the pandemic have set investors on edge, and even businesses that recorded strong financial results have borne the brunt of that volatile sentiment.

The market is off to a fantastic start in 2024, but it's always an apt time to put cash into stocks that you believe in as businesses and are ready to become part owner of for the long haul. If you're searching for stocks with monster potential in 2024 and beyond, here are two names you'll want to add to the list for consideration.

1. Fiverr

Fiverr (FVRR 3.74%) investors have faced a volatile period as changing sentiment toward some growth stocks and the continued rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools prompted some to question the case for this business moving forward. While the rapidly growing adoption of generative AI could pose a threat to certain roles in various industries, these tools are far from perfect. They also often require a human element to train models, as well as to review and refine the final work product.

Fiverr is leaning into the demand for AI services, and has rapidly added a stream of new "gigs" to its platform, targeting customers ranging from individuals looking to hire a freelancer for one-off projects to larger brands with enterprise-scale needs. The company isn't just trying to beat the curve in what generative AI could mean for its business: Customers that use the platform are looking specifically for AI gigs. In the first half of 2023 alone, searches for AI consultants on Fiverr soared 650%.

Companies can hire freelancers who specialize in various tasks from AI chatbot creation to producing custom apps to AI voice models.

Fiverr is also incorporating AI into its own selection of available services and tools to benefit both freelancers and buyers. For example, Fiverr Logo Maker lets businesses choose an AI-generated logo based on designs submitted by vetted freelancers. Businesses can access a logo in minutes without undergoing a lengthy design process, while freelancers are still getting compensated for their work product.

Fiverr AI auditions lets voiceover artists train Fiverr's Voice Auditions model with their own voice, and buyers can plug a few words of their script into the system to hear what that specific artist would sound like for their voiceover project. This saves time both for the artist and the buyer, streamlining the talent acquisition process.

Then there's the company's Fiverr Neo service, an AI-matching tool that matches customers to the right freelancers for their needs. Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman shed additional light on management's vision for the service in the third-quarter earnings call:

We imagine Neo will serve as a personalized recruiting expert that can help our customers more accurately scope their projects and get matched with freelance talent, just like a human recruiter, only with more data and more brainpower. What we have done so far is leveraging the existing LLM [large language model] engines to allow customers to express their project needs in natural language, which Neo will synthesize and define the scope before matching the client with a short list of choices pulled from the entire Fiverr freelance database.

Fiverr turned a profit of $3 million in the third quarter of 2023, on revenue of $93 million. Buyers spent 4% more on services in the quarter than they had in the same period in 2022. And Fiverr's take rate of gigs is now 31.3%, compared to a take rate of 26.6% four years ago before the pandemic.

Businesses are still spending cautiously in a difficult economic environment, but Fiverr is steadily working on increasing its value proposition for both buyers and sellers of freelance services. Long-term investors may want to snag a slice of the action.

2. Etsy

Etsy (ETSY 0.34%) has experienced quite a few bumps in the road over the last several quarters. Shifts in discretionary consumer spending and slowdowns in growth from the heightened period during the pandemic have impacted its balance sheet on multiple fronts. It's worth pointing out that Etsy serves a very specific niche of the e-commerce market, a focus that is considerably more narrow than many other businesses in the industry, but which has allowed it to maintain a considerable total addressable market.

Etsy focuses specifically on vintage, specialty, handmade, and otherwise unique goods, from apparel to jewelry to home decor to collectibles. Management most recently estimated that this total addressable market was valued at around half a trillion dollars. Etsy says it has penetrated just 3% of this space at present. Beyond the flagship Etsy.com platform, that focus extends to the company's other properties within its family of brands.

For example, Depop, which it acquired during the pandemic, is a popular platform for buying secondhand clothing and accessories. The company also owns Reverb, a marketplace for new as well as vintage or used musical instruments. Also, Etsy sold El07, which it acquired during the pandemic, for an unspecified amount last summer. However, Etsy still generates most of its revenue and profits from its flagship platform.

In honing in on such a specific area of e-commerce, it has been able to build a platform that is known for specialty, vintage, and pre-owned goods where few companies are acting as direct competitors at scale to Etsy. One subsegment of its overall potential addressable market, the secondhand apparel market, is on track to hit a global valuation of $351 billion by the year 2027.

The most recent quarter saw Etsy bring in revenue of $636 million, on gross merchandise sales (GMS) of $3 billion. Net income for the three-month period totaled $88 million. Active sellers jumped 19% year over year to just shy of 9 million, while Etsy finished out the quarter with 97 million active buyers, up 3% from one year ago.

Internal data from Etsy shows that 87% of buyers use its platform because they can't find similar products anywhere else. Moreover, 80% of its GMS are derived from buyers who come to Etsy through organic traffic, which indicates a strong brand reputation among consumers. And habitual buyers (shoppers who purchased on Etsy on six or more days and spent $200 or more in the last year) comprise about 40% of Etsy's total GMS.

There's still a lot of room for the company to grow, and it is making progress in multiple areas, from its financials to steady user growth. Investors shouldn't necessarily overlook these green flags, even as shares are still down. In fact, it might be an opportune time to scoop up a few yourself.