The Twitter of Marketplaces
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Audio versionMicha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr, says he wants his company to become, “the eBay for the service economy.” But a better comparison is Twitter. Fiverr takes the complexities of work and tries to reduce jobs to tiny little tasks. It launched with a flat rate for gigs: $5 for everything.
It was a “freedom through slavery” move (see Opportunity Notes #0). “We reduced the grand vision into the starting product, which was to take frictions out of the process. One of them was price negotiation.”
But as Fiverr grew up from its 2010 launch, and its users got more experience with the platform (and wanted to make more money), Fiverr grew with them. “If you are a good user and get good ratings,” Kaufman says, “then you can raise your prices.” Start doing Fiverr gigs as a hobby, in other words, and then go pro.
Kaufman says Fiverr’s pricing isn’t a gimmick. “People building careers now are in a new landscape. People become entrepreneurs at 13. The learn trades at 15. In their 20′s they start their own businesses.” Fiverr, Kaufman says, lets users level up, not just in work experience but in business acumen. Taking the pricing question out of the equation for beginning users is one way to make the Newbie Mode of his task market a winnable game.
A lot of new tech businesses launch with “minimum viable products.” I’ve never seen one before launch with a minimum viable economy. But I like the idea.
- Rafe
See also:
Fiverr Outsources Your Small Jobs for $5 (LifeHacker, 2010)
Fiverr Raises $15M From Accel And Bessemer (TechCrunch)
7 Of The Strangest Services Offered On Fiverr (MakeUseOf)
Why You Can’t Settle For The “Minimum” In Your Minimum Viable Product (ReadWriteWeb)
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