I saw a demo of Workstir earlier this week, a new startup founded by Ryan Merket and Duncan Winter. The site is still in private alpha and is at least a few weeks away from launching, but they have an interesting approach to cracking the local services market. Think Craigslist + Yelp, where people sometimes post listings looking for service providers, and service providers sometimes post listings saying what they do. But listings, profiles, reviews and other data are more structured, and the site works hard to put service providers and customers together.
This is a tough space to launch a new service because of the chicken and egg problem. Until there are customers the service providers don’t show up, and vice versa. There’s some secret sauce there that they shared with me as well that I think gives them a fighting chance of succeeding (and doesn’t rely on paying people to leave reviews, as Yelp did in the early days). in particular, local service providers may see this as an excellent tool to get new customers right from day one.
If you are interested in these kinds of services, sign up on their home page to become a beta tester. The first 100 people will be invited to their launch party coming up soon.
I think I will try out this service. Will find out how good it is!
http://blabtech.blogspot.com
I signed up for the beta, they said if they have a slot I will be contacted.
I guess we have some computation love it.
Mike, Did they not tell you what their “secret sauce” is?
I signed up — how is it different than FelloForce ?
Oops — I meant FellowForce: http://www.fellowforce.com
weird, they asked for my twitter l/p after I registered for the beta… any idea what that was about? Do they store that information? What do they use it for? There weren’t any links to policies on the site…
why bring up secret if you wont say it
So that people know the start up is addressing the issue.
Seem their “secret sauce” is techno snobbery – if you don’t tweet, they don’t want you. Can’t even register! The last thing I need in my life is even more noise.
Found via Twitter… I’ve registered.
yeah I’m guessing the secret sauce is to mass tweet people using the accounts of people who signed up and gave them twitter login info
Local search is experiencing a lot of growth right now and its exciting. The best part is that we are starting to see a lot of different business models attempting to solve the problem. I think in the next few years will be have a winner/solution and it may not be any of the current industry leaders.
Jippidy.com – Socialized Video Yellow Pages
The future is in sites that don’t rely on “secret sauce”, but instead of a good solid community. Also, I’d like to point out that Brownbook.net is in this same space and is succeeding quite nicely on cracking this chicken and egg problem, and TC has not discovered us yet.
Note to Mike: check us out on Crunchbase: http://www.crun...y/brownbook-net. We’re large in Europe, active and growing in America, and funded.
I’ve been waiting for something different…. Excited.
DP – it is a tough space, indeed (like everything else it seems)
do these guys have funding, or a proven track record?
That’s really interesting. Craigslist isn’t anything like Yelp. Merging a classifieds and a directory sure is an interesting concept.
TL – http://xrl.us/moretechnews
Community is the key – FlatDoor.com is in the space with a broad approach to all services – and a global mindset.
Soulnds cool.
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their “secret sauce” – knowing mike and gettin a write-up on techcrunch!
but i still want to see how they do this because while the consumers are generally tech-savvy enough to be online, the service providers usually have no freakin clue about the internets, nor do they want to pay for anything.
Helllo…The Camp!
This ought to be a GREAT help to folks lookin’ for a specialized type of service or help. The web is so vast now…that you just aren’t able to find anyone….say a good gunsmith…or a saddle maker….there are some out there on the web…but how do you know if they are good at it or just a sham with a good website. If this thing is set up right…you should be able to contact the folks that put their name out there and be able to scope out their work…much like the web is supposed to do.
Some…don’t have the elaborate websites. Chair/cabinet makers….blacksmiths….bookbinders…..antique repair….painting repairs….good caterers….housekeepers….personal shoppers….and on…and on…..this could be BETTER than Craiglist…..JMHO….l
Vaya Con Dios,
Sinful Jones
Knight of the Iron Pots
Reminds me of my first ‘dot-com’ gig during the boom days – imandi.com.
A simple, low barrier, demand and supply solution! This sounds VERY interesting.
Sounds very much similar to the web site that I work for currently, over here in the UK. Curious to see what this ’secret sauce’ is!
http://www.mybuilder.com
Chicken or the Egg problem is solved by engaging community.
the bright green is gonna give some one a seizure
i find it ugly and an instant turnoff
Here is another derivative site: http://sf.garysguide.org/
Looks like a very thoughtful entrant into this space.
Worth checking into, especially since CL seems a bit over run with bogus adds
Cool – look forward to trying it out. Another site that has an interesting approach to this problem (and some initial traction) is http://www.myjambi.com.
Tried posting what I needed and this is the error I received:
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We’ll be back in a moment!
GO FIGURE.
Another entrant in this space is Kudzu.com (http://www.kudzu.com), which is expanding nationally after initially launching in Atlanta. I’ve successfully used it to find an electrician, HVAC installer, and movers.
Disclaimer: In the past I worked for a sister company of Kudzu. Now I’m just a happy customer.
Please see Respond.com, circa 1999. Here’s hoping their launch party costs less than Respond’s did.
Interested to see what’s in the secret sauce. I tried signing up but was put off by the twitter request. There’s already companies in this space like angieslist and kudzue, and yelp can very easily enter into this space as well. I agree with Michael that they have a chicken vs. egg problem, the market is way to big to enter into. Workstir would probably be better off starting in certain cities first – like Yelp. Also my father is an electrician and like many local service providers, he is not internet savvy.
There’s another site that launched last week that’s taking a different approach in matching service providers and customers together – http://www.LeadVine.com.
We launched a similar service back in January in Germany (check: http://en.susuh.de).
And despite all the nice stuff (e.g. service provider profiles with skills & videos, SEO for ads and service provider profiles, automated skill-based matching etc.) is still is a chicken-eggish job to increase the user-base. But we are patient.
I wonder if they’re storing your Twitter password. I would be weary about providing this. I quickly googled the name and saw a few tweets that same very similar. Looks like they use it to mass spam about the site. I would have at least waited until there was something there…
Nice secret sauce!
Another website with “Wish-Share-Offer” idea: http://www.moimart.com was launched sometime in January 2008
Hands down the strongest site on the market today for finding great local service providers is http://gigpark.com. It’s centered on asking/getting recos from your group of friends, so the trust factor is always going to be much higher.
Covered here in May: http://www.tech...om/tag/gigpark/
Its an area we are in and taking a different approach. We are looking at property and motors (not the best sectors at the moment I will admit) and have partnered with existing established media to add the expertise and presence. We’ve no secret sauce, but think we have a way around the chicken and egg bit. We could still do with some feedback though. Demand based approach is structurally better than supply lead – especially it is free!
Sorry – we are at http://www.findsyou.com
Have a look.
reminds me of http://www.egenie.co.uk..
There are a lot of eGenie type sites out there with different models. They might start to find it tough as suppliers get more selective. We are not going into local services yet.