Simbi

Welcome to the Symbiotic Economy

3 followers

Welcome to the Symbiotic Economy

3 followers

Simbi is an online marketplace for freelancers and hobbyists to cashlessly exchange services. By providing a way for these independent workers to turn their unbooked hours into real economic value, Simbi simultaneously increases the size of the economy while supporting small-scale entrepreneurs to do the flexible work they love.

Launch tags:Web App•Freelance•Tech

Launch Team

ClarifyThe full-stack AI CRM for modern GTM teams

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Public Market

Maker

Hi everybody, I'm KJ. I built Simbi to solve my own problem. As a small business owner I used to do half of my income in trade -- it was a magical experience that completely transformed my quality of life. And yet, when I wanted to trade for a specific service (getting my hair done), no hairstylist had ever walked through my door. With Simbi, we're trying to expose you to a creative universe of opportunities to exchange your skills for real-world experiences and value. Looking forward to your feedback!

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10yr ago

@kjer how do you earn from this?

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10yr ago

@menjvillalobos how do you monetize? I think Reddit Gold might be a decent comp to give you an idea of how it could be done.

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10yr ago

Public Market

Maker

@menjvillalobos we don't right now as we focus on getting the experience right and building the network.

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10yr ago

@kjer Love LOVE this idea! Can't wait to test drive it. Really curious how you'll monetize. No matter what you're gonna max out on karma points for sure

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10yr ago

@kjer @menjvillalobos - seems like you could just siphon off a simbi from each transaction and use your own system to "monetize" :)

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10yr ago

A lot of the services on Simbi would actually cost lots of money, really excited to see how this spreads. What's the craziest exchange you've seen so far @kjer?

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10yr ago

Public Market

Maker

@panashemahachi oh there are so many! One story I love is a guy who booked a Latin translation service, and used it to translate exorcism spells for a ghost who was too old to respond to English.

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10yr ago

The Twenty Minute VC

@kjer @panashemahachi that's amazing

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10yr ago

Scout

The app is super heavy, there are 15 menu items, and it asked me for my phone number right off the bat to text me (why?). Plus, there's a weird Tinder swiping interface and it's gamified. I love the idea, and I posted a service, but I feel overwhelmed every time I open the app. If I can get over the heavy experience, maybe I'll find great value beneath 😄

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10yr ago

Public Market

Maker

@inventitorfixit Hey Jordan -- thanks for the feedback. A horizontal marketplace like ours in particularly hard on mobile, and we're still refining everything about how that should work (especially without having a native app yet). The Tinder-swiping interface is to allow us to find matches who like what you do and vice-versa. It's totally optional -- you can also just browse categories. Stay tuned for a native app that can better solve some of these challenges!

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10yr ago

Scout

@kjer I'm not usually an early adopter, so take my feedback with a grain of salt. I hope you do exceptionally well. I was a big fan of Weave before they shut down and I love helping people. Hopefully Simbi can help me help more people.

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10yr ago

Public Market

Maker

@inventitorfixit Pro-tip: As an entrepreneur, I bet you get a ton of people asking you for informational interviews and "coffees". You can run these through Simbi to give of your time, but also have built-in reciprocity.

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10yr ago

Vimeo

I think this is a fantastic idea and I'm personally excited to give a try. The idea of a skills trade has the power to change the local economy on a massive scale and even the playing field between the wage delta.

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10yr ago

Public Market

Maker

@michaeldorian Thanks Michael. We agree -- when people can be valued for all the skills the possess, everyone ends up much better off. Looking forward to your feedback !

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10yr ago

Vimeo

@kjer Yeah. I feel like this would be awesome in places where the balance of power is out of whack. I wonder how we can get kids to start doing this with each other and teaching this idea to a younger crowd so it becomes just a way of life.

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10yr ago

Public Market

Maker

@michaeldorian Totally. We plan to start with colleges and expand down into high schools, where so many young people want to follow their hearts for their careers but don't know where to start. Also, the study/tutoring use case is pretty compelling.

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10yr ago

@michaeldorian Exactly. While not everyone has disposable income, everyone has a skill. Literally every single person on earth has a currency to trade for Simbi. Potentially revolutionary.

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10yr ago

HiOperator

This is super interesting! I love the idea of being able to reduce the friction between service bartering without having to go through cash$ as an intermediary. I'm not entirely sure what skills I have anymore but I'll be taking this for a spin soon. Is there a way that the platform suggests skills that you might have from social media by any chance?

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10yr ago

Public Market

Maker

@elizabethtsai Check out https://simbi.com/quiz We do find that people can take a while to realize just how many skills they have. We don't yet have a way to pull your skills from social media directly, but the quiz should help jog your memory on how talented you really are :)

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10yr ago

Taking about Simbi with the founder now! https://www.facebook.com/loic/vi...

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10yr ago

Public Market

Maker

@kevin_wolf thanks for joining the Facebook Live!

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10yr ago

@kjer Such an awesome company!

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10yr ago

The users adding and exchanging value without paying taxes, or? What are your thoughts about the situation when the success of simbi could be against the interests of a state to collect taxes for every exchange?

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10yr ago

@llabball fair question, but what a great milestone for humanity when wisened communities can smoothly self-organise without needing a ‘state’ to mediate? Across the world ‘state’ is synonymous with tribalistic, power-grabbing, self-important, out-of-touch bureaucrats. As an industry, the ‘state’ has latched onto the most powerful business model: heighten your primordial fears, sell you security/nirvana, and divert your money to entrench its negotiating power at the next sales event (election, if that). Meanwhile, the ‘state’ is the biggest enabler of the rigged economy: when did the state last shift tax-payer money to bail out your startup misadventures, or print money to credit your little balance sheet, or cut you slack on your real tax-rate, let alone invite your opinion at the advisory council on the economy? ... ended up with a long-winded response/rant so thought it better to spare PH folks the stress and expand my thoughts with a rare post on medium if anyone is curious: https://medium.com/@wahome/think... not clickbait, but might interest @antonsekatski @arisalexis @inventitorfixit @kjer

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10yr ago

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