Image via WikipediaIt was the marketplace for “time buyers” and “time sellers” that was my start-up prior to joining Microsoft.
The objective was to connect people who needed small jobs (painting, errands, computers, etc.) with those who could perform the service.
You put in a request and within 24 hours, you got a list of people in your zip code, willing to do the job you wanted done, for the price you were willing to pay, and you could read feedback and ratings from other customers.
We had revenue, we were in the Wall St. Journal and Washington Post, but we didn’t have profitability.
Anyway, got a note from Ari Goldberg the other day and it was a trip down memory lane. This was the email that we sent out to our community members.
We like to think we were “ahead of our time.”
Found this while restoring an old .pst file. Made me laugh so wanted to share but also saw that I still have two clients from then that are still active
From: info@silentfrog.com [mailto:info@silentfrog.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 11:51 PM
To:
Subject: Welcome to SilentFrogDear Ari Goldberg
Welcome! We are excited that you have chosen to join the the Silentfrog community. Please keep this email for your records.
YOUR NEXT LEAP
Now that you're a Silentfrog TimeBuyer, your next step is to log on with your username (email address) and password and visit your home page, where you can:
- search for local Time Sellers, view their ratings, and read feedback
- send job requests to find help and get things done
- view your 'Track Jobs' page to see the status of any pending job requests you've sent and select a TimeSeller to hire
- start building your personal TimeSeller list, where you can save names of Time Sellers you'd like to contact regularly
SENDING REQUESTS
To help you out, we've answered some Frequently Asked Questions about sending job requests:
Should I send my request to multiple Time Sellers?
Not all the Time Sellers you contact will be available to do every job, so you can increase your odds of finding someone who is available to do your job by sending this request to multiple Time Sellers.
What if I don't have any Time Sellers on my own list? How does SilentFrog pick the Time Sellers to send my request to?
We base our selection of who receives your job request on several factors, including how close they live to the zipcode where you need the job done, a skill match with the task you request, their TimeSeller ratings and references, and the number of jobs they've completed successfully in the past.
BUYER TIPS
Here's what other TimeBuyers have requested recently:
- Need babysitter for my 2 year old 1 evening /week
- basketball
- Babysitter
- Handyman
- Preparing Mailers
Thanks again for joining.
If you have any questions or comments , please do not hesitate to contact us immediately.
Asher and Jeremy Epstein, Co-Founders of SilentFrog
ashman@silentfrog.com
jer979@silentfrog.com
