Imagine you have an old bike you want to get rid of and, instead of selling it for $50, you have the opportunity to trade it for some rare albums you want for your record collection,” says Sascha Darius Mojtahedi.
“Wouldn't it be great if someone really wanted that bike and you could get something for it in return?”
What Mojtahedi is purposing is that I take money out of the equation and barter away my beloved fixie for something else. As an idea, bartering is one of the oldest in the book. It's also the concept that Mojtahedi and his co-workers at Shufl, a Toronto-based startup, are building their company around.
“A lot of companies innovate on new ideas, but we wanted to innovate on a really old one,” he says.
Once Shufl becomes available later this year, users will find a local online marketplace where they can trade their unwanted items for things they want. In fact, according Mojahedi, Shufl is first and foremost built and designed to help users find a compelling reason to complete transactions without the use of money—though, of course, they'll still be able to use cash if they so desire.
In creating Shufl, Mojahedi says his team's goal was to help people discover new found liquidity in the items they already own.
“There’s a large underground community that is already bartering,” he says. “They’re very active, but because what they're doing is viewed as being less sexy, it's never been allocated the same respect from a platform perspective as more traditional tractions.”
It's his hope that Shufl is able to change that.
The service is set to become available to the public in May. In the meantime, those that are keen on checking out the platform can
sign up to take part in the company's beta.
Source: Shufl