This is the basic problem Zaarly tries to solve.
"Every person is in a bazaar," explains Zaarly co-founder Bo Fishback. "And they don't know what's for sale and what's not."
Indeed, the name "Zaarly" is a play on the word "bazaar." The startup, which launched Wednesday, is an innovative market for odd jobs. Anyone who signs up for the service can post a job -- bring me a soda, lend me your lawn mower, teach my child algebra -- and the price they are willing to pay for its completion. Users in the area who are looking for cash can browse offers and apply to complete projects that appeal to them. It is, Fishback says, "a proximity-based, real-time, buyer-powered market."
If an experiment at SXSW is any indication, it's also something that people want. The team launched an experimental version of the product at the conference, hanging a banner from a rented trailer to announce its arrival and paying about 20 people to distribute brochures to spread the word. The platform processed $10,000 in transactions within a 48-hour period.
"We have a shot to foster a behavior people have always wanted to do," says Fishback. He raised a seed round of $1 million to launch the service.
Ironically, the mobile and browser apps aim to facilitate in-person transactions without revealing the identities of the participants. There are no profile photos and no usernames; the two parties involved in a transaction can message, text, pay and even call each other through the Zaarly platform. Like paying with cash at a physical store, there's a certain anonymity. Nobody can link you to your willingness to pay $100 for banana ice cream (now!), unless you opt to broadcast your request to your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Fishback admits that the whole idea might freak some people out at first glance, and that there's a level of trust involved. Most people on the platform, he says, do end up introducing themselves. Zaarly also acts as a credential, filtering and blocking unreasonable requests and tracking users' task completion history. Eventually, it will add track records and trust mechanisms to the site.
"Trust isn't associated with a name and face, it's associated with actions," Fishback says.
