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Do you barter with other startups?
At Alset, we created a mobile app for bartering and I'm curious to know if your startup barters? For example, to barter programming skills for marketing, etc. We feel this could be a really useful way for startups to make strides forward using their resources creatively rather than burning through cash.
What are your thoughts on this idea?
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Bartering as a business model limits supply: startup A needing a SEO marketer can barter one with startup B only if:
(1) startup B has hired a SEO marketer but doesn’t need it critically for now
(2) startup B needs some other help from startup A, for which startup A has both expertise and availability
The bar on available supply seems too high. While you could imagine a system of credits to make the bartering asynchronous in nature (solving for the second condition), the first condition remains. It seems like a pool of highly skilled workers without a contractual bound to a company would eliminate condition 1... but now we’ve just reinvented freelancing 🤷
@theoblochet I agree, it needs to reach critical mass where there are enough opportunities to create good matches. And I see where you're coming from with credits as other barter systems use this, but for Alset, this goes against our principles as we wish to move away from monetary or equivalent credits.
I was just thinking of this the past days- I would love to have such a platform. For example, I'm desperately looking for tech people to guide me/ help me with the development, whereas I could help anyone with marketing, graphics, animations or anything else creative. So, would 9000% use it.
@andreea_bunica We are actually looking for some marketing advice. What do you need help with? Maybe we can barter?
@iantyack hello! I need some general brainstorming around my product development- I'm developing a hardware product, and I think it needs to run on a custom Android. So I need at least some general advice/ pointers towards what direction to go, and work things out with someone.
@andreea_bunica I spoke with our team and we'd like to barter with you! Perhaps we can schedule a call this week?
Here's our team so you can see what skills we have to offer:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robe...
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff...
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-...
@andreea_bunica @iantyack coolio, added you guys on LinkedIn- you can email me at andreea@mean-bean.com and we can set up a chat some day this week.
Interesting idea! I suppose it's like when teams trade players temporarily. I haven't seen it done but could imagine so as teams might start becoming slimmer and agile to combat the current climate
Have done some SaaS for SaaS access barters. Backlink for SaaS barter. Always looking for more barter opps - it's a fantastic way to save some money and provide value.
Admitting its cost-efficiency when exchanging access to services, adding backlinks, APIs, promo codes, and mutual advertising, I have certain doubts about bartering "programming skills" or any other human resources from the motivational standpoint.
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