Is your startup missing a skillset? Don't have the budget to hire? Why not consider bartering?

Ian Tyack
7 replies
Alset is the first free mobile app for bartering, favors, and paid goods & services. We are currently onboarding individuals and small businesses to share their skills, talents, and passions. After joining Product Hunt and working with others in the startup community, we realized a great opportunity for startups to collaborate their skills using our platform. If you have a request for a skill or service you need, you can do it in the app. If you have a service or technical know-how to offer, sign up, and get yourself listed! What are the top skills you are looking for? What are the services you could offer? We are a startup ourselves and are currently looking for a digital marketing specialist. If you would like to barter with us, leave a comment below!

Replies

Wayne Smallman
Hi Ian, I like the thinking — it's the sort of approach I've taken in the past. At the moment, I'm looking for assistance with the product-market fit for the Under Cloud. As for what services I have, anything in the profile on LinkedIn ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/octa... ).
Ana Bibikova
@iantyack that's really awesome idea! Would you please, provide more details how it works? How do you calculate "exchange rate"? or is it bidding based?
Alex
@iantyack @anab this! How are the favours quantified against each other?
Ian Tyack
@iantyack @anab This is something that everyone needs to consider, the value of the proposal. Some examples are: 1. I'm a photographer and I need an assistant to help me out on a shoot. So I get someone to help me out for the day in exchange for a day of my time to help them out in their job. 2. I barter my recently new Galaxy S20 for an iPhone 12, but knowing the iPhone is newer, I offer $200 as well. We don't set rules on the platform to "monetize" peoples transactions as that would just be reinventing money. Instead, we leave it to the individuals to realize the worth.
Ian Tyack
@iantyack @anab Favors are free. In the same way I might volunteer at the animal shelter for a day. But hey, if I'm looking to become a vet, or work with animals, this might give me some great experience that I could leverage when applying for jobs.
Ana Bibikova
@iantyack sounds interesting. Good luck with your app! Hope, you've taken into consideration the so called Endowment Effect and have something to prove guys from UCLA had been wrong when they ran their experiment with mugs and chocolates:)
Stephane Ibos
@iantyack @anab Thanks for mentioning the Endowment Effect. Had never heard of it before - very interesting!