Zaarly has a different way of conducting commerce online. The startup offers a real-time Web and mobile location-based platform that can help people get what they want or need from the community around them. Zaarly launches to the public today to bring the mobile local commerce platform to neighborhoods everywhere.
Zaarly launched for a test run during SXSW in Austin in early March and did $10,000 in less than 48 hours during the conference. The startup is backed by some high profile investors including Ashton Kutcher, Felicis Ventures, Bill Lee (Tweetdeck, etc.), Gmail inventor Paul Buchheit and others.
Zaarly works a bit like a message board in a town center. Say you are looking for a hat. Here’s how it works: post your request on Zaarly, list how much you are willing to pay for it and people will submit bids to fulfill the request. Zaarly will share your request via Facebook and Twitter in addition to its mobile/web presence. The buyer then can peruse the bids and pick who they want to fulfill the service. Buyers can pay with cash or use the Zaarly integrated payment system.
When we wrote about Zaarly right before it launched at SXSW, here is what our Audrey Watter’s said about the service; “A better explanation might invoke one of Demi Moore’s most famous movies, Indecent Proposal, and the notion that everything and everyone has a price. Zaarly’s job: facilitate that transaction.”
Think of Zaarly as a local commerce facilitator. It brings people with needs and services together for an exchange. In the end, everyone walks away happy.
Zaarly reminds me of being a kid looking for some extra money mowing lawns. I would print out a bunch of flyers and walk through my neighborhood putting the flyers in people’s mailboxes and screen doors. If was growing up now, I would still probably go around putting flyers in mailboxes, but instead it would say something along the lines of “Odd Jobs Available, Check Out Zaarly To Hire Me.”
“Commerce between individuals happens all around us every single day,” said CEO Bo Fishback. “But until now, the opportunity to discover who in your community might already have what you are looking for was lost in a sea of noise. Now, whether you are buying groceries, need to find a caterer, want a ticket to a sold-out playoff game or are looking to borrow a flatbed truck for the day, you can use Zaarly to find out if someone close by has what you’re looking for.”
Zaarly is currently open for business via the Web or on iOS. An Android app has been promised but is not yet available.
