San Francisco startup Skyara launched last month with a cool concept -- it’s a marketplace where people can buy and sell new experiences. Now co-founder Jonathan Wu said the team has discovered a surprising side effect: Most of the money earned in the marketplace is going to charity.
The story seems like a good illustration of how a relatively minor feature can turn out to be a big selling point for your startup.
Users looking to do something cool and different can go to Skyara to purchase an experience, and people who have expertise can sell an experience. The activities currently featured on the front page include “Dating Tips for Dummies with 2 Wing-Women” ($25) and a culinary tour of San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood ($59). (For now, Skyara is limited to San Francisco.) Skyara takes a 12 percent fee when an activity is booked.
At the suggestion of Paul Bragiel, a partner at I/O Ventures (where Skyara was incubated), the company included an option where guides can donate their payment to charity. That option has been a big hit -- Wu said 80 percent of the bookings made to date have been for charity. Even among the for-profit sellers, Wu said “almost all of the sellers have commented that they offered the experiences just for fun.”
In general, the non-charity activities tend to involve more typical experiences like a kayaking or a biking tour, while the charity activities are unique and cheaper, so they’re more likely to get booked, he said.
“Most people aren't offering experiences to make money, because they value their free time more than what they would charge, but rather they are happy to share their knowledge and give back to the community,” Wu said.
Perhaps the most noteworthy of the charity activities right now is tea with angel investor Ron Conway and musician MC Hammer. Instead of accepting money from the highest bidder, Conway is asking people to donate $10 to the University of California San Francisco Children’s Hospital and to promote the charity on Facebook, then the winner will be chosen at random.
Wu declined to offer any user numbers, and like I said Skyara is currently limited to the Bay Area, so it remains to be seen whether this do-gooder model will continue to hold as the site grows.
[photo via Flickr/DownTown Pictures]