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Ask HN: Had an idea for a web app to trade favors with strangers. Feedback?
I had an idea this morning and put this landing page together: http://minutefavors.com/
To be more specific, my thoughts at this point on the process are as follows
- A user ("requester") posts a new favor request, something that can be done in 1 or 2 minutes at a computer
- Someone else (the "helper") sees the favor as something he can do and marks it as "spoken for"
- The helper has 5 minutes to complete the favor
- If it gets marked as complete, and the requester user accepts it, the asker gets (karma|points|rewards|something|credits-to-post-favors|something?)
- If it gets rejected or it isn't completed within 5 minutes, then it goes back into the pool of open requests for someone else to fulfill
Possible favors include stuff like:
- Converting a PSD to a PNG, for people without Photoshop
- Testing a small website feature in a version of IE that you may not have
- Combining multiple PDFs together into a single PDF
- Anything else that can be done in a minute or two using only a computer, by a person with the know-how and necessary software
Is there any potential here? I'm having trouble finding a business plan (and I'd be happy doing it as a free for-fun service, but I'd love for it to be a startup if possible) since paid memberships doesn't really make sense in this context (am I wrong?), so do you have any ideas there?
- mcrittenden 15y agoClickable: http://minutefavors.com/ http://minutefavors.com/
- gamechangr 15y agoPretty much sounds like Zaarly
- mcrittenden 15y agoYou think? Zaarly seems pretty different to me in that 1) it's not quick favors, it's anything, 2) it's meant to be used only with people in your local area, and 3) you are doing the buying and selling yourself with actual money, rather than the site handling it with karma or credits or whatever. Basically, Zaarly seems a lot closer to Ebay + Craiglist than my idea. Do you disagree?
- AznHisoka 15y agoZaarly solves the problem you are trying to solve. The other parts are just details.
- bglenn09 15y agoYou might want to take a look at http://favo.rs http://favo.rs.
- PsyVisions 15y agoDo something more on the lines of crowd-sourcing and use bitcoin to distribute payments ;)
- nurik 15y agoYou can monetize with this: add the feature that the ones who do the favors also can explain other how they did it, if you want to know how to do it you have pay a very small fee (maybe 10 to 50 cents). I know there are already code review pages outthere, but I would definitely add the feature to review/add code snippets. You would rather "tax" the user for digital services (a bit like itunes which "taxes" users for digital products). Depending on a lot of stuff this might actually be a very good idea. When you have your fvp send me a mail.
- bkyan 15y agoI agree with the "tax" idea, but I think the small fee needs to be much higher, to get serious buyers and sellers. As a buyer, I would be more concerned about the job being done quickly and correctly, than trying to save some pennies. As a seller, I would be more inclined to participate in the system on a regular basis, if I could generate a reasonable income from it.
- nurik 15y agoI see your point. However, jf you have a smart solution that's worth buying, people will buy it over and over again and even when it seems "cheap" it could generate significant revenue (just like the songs etc. on itunes)...
- bkyan 15y agoI totally agree with you on those favors where the deliverable can have multiple buyers. I tend to think of most favors as being one-offs, however.
- nurik 15y agoI think you are right. If you look at Amazon's site for small digital tasks most "favors" are one-offs: http://www.mturk.com http://www.mturk.com
- mcrittenden 15y ago
- bkyan 15y agoI think you should consider a business model similar to fiverr.com, but with your unique timer/availability concept. I've gotten decent results from Fiverr (as a buyer), but find it impractical to send work over there needs to be done right away.
- mcrittenden 15y agoSo basically you're talking about having people pay real money to get requests fulfilled, and receive real money for fulfilling requests? Maybe like $1 per request, and I'd keep 15% of that or something, so the fulfiller gets $0.85? It's an interesting idea - I'm not sure how willing people would be to pull out their credit card for such small favors, and I'm also not sure about the logistics of charging such small payments, but I'll do some market research and gauge some interest on it. Thanks a lot for the thoughts!
- bkyan 15y agoYou can always have buyers purchase a bundle of credits and then pay for favors with their credits.