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!
@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
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?
@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.
Hey Product Hunt! Simbi is a network for bartering services. I love it because it allows anyone with a talent or side-hustle to earn credits that you can use to get things like artwork, fitness training, or graphic design you otherwise couldn't afford. Check it out!
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.
@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 !
@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.
@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.
@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.
Simbi is flat out amazing. It levels the playing field, allowing my experiences and unique talents to carry its fair weight, something that is extremely difficult to define without Simbi. Even better than that, it allows me to trade for completely new experiences I would have not otherwise tried. Please keep up the great work team Simbi!
Learned about Simbi a few weeks ago and I've been in love since. Awesome community, and you simply cannot find the services people are offering anywhere else.
I'm not an expert in psychology but I know a thing or two as psychology is my hobby and I grew up in the Post-Soviet world where people were completely exhausted from a planned economy and lack of free market and money flow.
It's a very appealing idea at a glimpse because it deeply resonates with our primal roots - tribe, skill trade, everything's perfect in this world until we evolve. And we've evolved and now we need another type of system - money.
The problem is not money but corrupted ideas about money. People just don't know what money really is and how to use them properly, therefore they process information about money incorrectly. Same as fears, for example (hi to Seth Godin).
I'm not bestselling author, super entrepreneur or public figure but mark my words: barter doesn't work. Money work and teaching people the right ideas about money is what really needed.
If you really want to help, create a platform for fair skill-to-money exchange where people will not fear of overpricing and underpricing their talents. It's a huge problem asking this question every time "Is it a correct price for that kind of work?".
@antonsekatski Agreed with you. Barter can solve a lot of problems around excess capacity, but ultimately we need pricing systems for efficiency. We've built that in to Simbi, and we're seeing a better/more fair distribution of pricing than in the dollar economy where corporations can drive down labor prices. Check it out to see how it works.
Unlocking excess capacity is one of the most interesting (and difficult) challenges any company can take on. Connecting skills with needs with less friction is just hugely valuable.
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 😄
@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!
@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.
@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.
Hello Every one I am Gaurang.
SIMBI the name its self is attractive , its like connecting sibling from different parts of the world. Feels like the best platform to GAIN and SHARE knowledge.
@gaurang0009 thank you Gaurang! The name Simbi is a reference to Symbiotic -- as we say we're "building a symbiotic economy". But we also like how it connotates simplicity. And you're right -- even siblinghood!
KJ I love your work, Simbi is incredible :) At the earliest stages of my company, http://brainbuild.io, we got a ton of validation for our product because I put our basic offering up as a Simbi service. The likes I get today are still so motivating!
@joejlam thank you so much for sharing this story! I'm so glad that we were of help in building your company. We do see that a lot -- people building out their business or side-hustle through Simbi. We plan to build way more tools for this soon.
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?
@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 :)
Simbi is a fantastic implementation of a social currency - I'm an enthusiastic user and fanboy, and have been enjoying watching as more and more features are added and we all get increasingly engaged in the platform. Happy this got hunted!
@jamon_alexander You got it! By my estimation, only about 20% of our skills reach the bar where we will sell them for dollars. But the rest of them are still valuable -- they just need a market-clearing mechanism. That's where we come in.
Very cool idea, KJ...
I was working on something similar (Producia) for college campuses back in 2014 and one of the biggest challenges we came across in our pilot project was a lot of students didn't know what skills they had to offer other students.
I'm a huge proponent for alternative economics and I even developed an economic model called Producism (http://producism.org). Would love to chat sometime :).
Replies
Public Market
Public Market
Public Market
Vimeo
Public Market
Vimeo
Public Market
Haywheel
Public Market
Yoshi
Public Market
Public Market
Public Market
Scout
Public Market
Scout
Public Market
Public Market
Public Market
HiOperator
Public Market
Public Market
Paragon
Public Market
GitHub Visualizer
Public Market
Public Market
Public Market
Famous
Public Market
Public Market
Public Market