You surely might have bought things online via Flipkart and SnapDeal or sold your items on OLX and Quickr, however the website in focus here is entirely different from all these e-comm websites. This new entrant allows you to barter (exchange items) online. Barterstreets is India's first networking marketplace for exchange of products and services. The company went live with their first draft and then shut down for 8 months before they came back targeting students in colleges all over India. In a conversation with Ambuj Singh and Sumit Sourav (the founders) we learnt about their journey through thick and thin.
"We aim to bring back barter. We believe that whatever is useless for you can be useful for someone else. Now, this fulfils many purpose like saving cash, time and also users get to meet new people over barter. For the time being, our target are students especially colleges,” says Sumit, who takes care of Technical part. “Sumit left few good job opportunities and gave his full time in building the website. We have dedicated team with people like Mobashir Nazri who have helped us grow," adds Ambuj. Mobashir Nazri helped the company to get to their first college (NIT Jamshedpur) in Feb this year.
The website was launched in Jan this year after a 6 month beta version. The signup and barter deals happen free of cost through the website and they are providing an additional feature of Network based on locality of the person. We asked them what kept them going and Sumit said, "The idea that we are contributing to something new and unique in the times of e-commerce dominance kept motivating us."
They are a team of 7 people, working with more than 40 campus ambassadors throughout the country. They aim to bring NGOs, give benefits to non-internet users, target flea market and go global as they expand.
As a message for future entrepreneurs, Ambuj said, "Be patient. Remember, there must be number of hurdles which you must have surpass on your own. Always learn from your own mistakes and how you overcame them."
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