Eating In: Gobble and Munchery Make it Easier

Rolling off the “ten-minute meal” myth(?) Gobble and Munchery offer the personal chef experience with a difference. Seemingly having launched at the same time, we wonder who will end up fairing better in the field. Some diversification already seems apparent, Munchery already lists a fair database of caterers, semi-professionals and the odd home chef whilst Gobble speaks strongly on the home chef front. The interface of Gobble is immediately apparent for non-users whilst Munchery takes a Facebook stance and hides it behind signup. The team behind Gobble are the movers and shakers behind the collaborative consumption ‘movement’ the CollabFund. So however limited it may be in it’s early alpha mode we’d like to assume that they would be the one’s revolutionising the home kitchen a little more so than the Munchery team. But Munchery is targeting an interesting market place with the professionals recruited and their marketing point of “work your own hours”, etc. So there’s Munchery’s weekly meals “from as low as $22/week” or Gobble’s highly personal home cooked meals.

Swapaskill

Turn your quilting habit into a repair for your car.

Swapaskill offers a network of individuals seeking for things they can't do themselves, and ready to swap a skill of theirs in return. Hairdressers offer up a cut for some website design, a Vietnamese speaker needs to learn how to dance, a stress management consultant needs some woodwork.

Heading back to the trade economy before the days of monetary trading for the internet age. Swapaskill also encourages listing of your unwanted items to trade up with the lists of skills available on the network.

Big skills in demand, design, gardening and massage, and big ones on offer, cooking, English lessons and all things computer related.

Sweet stories that have amounted are a holiday in India for creating a website, a patio for some French lessons, and legal advice for some Jimmy Choos.



Founder Nicole Wehden recalls the thought behind her initiative, "I remembered my Father who was passionate about boats. He had a friend called Tommy who loved to go out fishing in his little fishing boat. Dad would often come home after a day down at the boatyard with a big smile on his face telling us how he'd helped Tommy out with his boat. "His motor broke down so I fixed it for him". Or, "we gave Tommy's boat a lick of paint today". It was obvious that Dad got a great deal of pleasure out of doing what he loved best at the same time as helping out his mate. The smile on his face was just as big when he used to come home with a carrier bag full of fish that Tommy had caught and given him that day. "You can't buy fish that fresh anywhere", he would say, looking like the cat that got the cream.

This is the spirit I wanted to create in the Swapaskill community and some of our members' stories and experiences show us that this is exactly what's already happening – it's wonderful."

Get swapping yourself here.

Get Paid to Date

WhatsYourPrice.com is a dating site that sells first dates.

‘Attractive Singles’ receive bids on first dates from ‘Generous Singles’ and can choose to accept them in return for their time. The selling point for ‘Attractive Singles’ being that you get paid to go on a date that could potentially be more of a serious bet than on one where you’re not getting paid. And for ‘Generous Singles’, it’s that there’s more of a chance you’ll actually get to go on your ‘high standard’ date.

Potential implications of themes such as ‘gold-digger’, ‘shallow’ or ‘desperate’ influencing the course of the ensuing relationships aside, WhatsYourPrice introduces an interesting thought of monetary benefit into the casual dating sphere. Dating becomes a paid job, and not one where you’re a escort. Though the potential of this becoming a marketplace to regulate that industry is an interesting one as well.

WhatsYourPrice is a patent pending site from the makers of the InfoStream Group Inc. Founder Brandon Wade also has the classy titles SeekingArrangement.com and SeekingMillionaire.com under his belt.

But all sarcasm aside, we’ll give WhatsYourPrice a nod for executing a classless idea in what looks to hope to be an innocent, profitable transaction. And as they’re quick to mention, people do already pay for dates at charity auctions around the world. But then it’s not such a rare story is it, attractive’s the product and people are paying.

Home Elephant

An app bringing the neighbourhood together.

Home Elephant is a social networking app for your neighbourhood. A way to communicate lost dogs, garage sales, suspicious behaviour, and maybe the latest pothole on your street.

Paving a way for the hyperlocal sharing experience, Home Elephant is a location based app.

Currently already active in 20 countries numbering 1,039 neighbourhoods. Home Elephant have reached the communities as far as Panama, Namibia, Australia and into Japan.

A sweet little video that gets the point across here.

The app experience is centred around a map, your neighbourhood in blue, and your neighbours in red. Notices are left according to location and can also be viewed in convenient lists.

Overlay extras include data from Homeland Security and even Crimestoppers. Quick and easy spotting of your local sex offenders and the such. The alert section of the app notifies the neighbourhood network should emergencies go down, break ins, lost pets, gas leaks or fallen trees make the list.

Real-time chats are also integrated through your Facebook account. Home Elephant available on the app store here.

Co-working

From factory floor industrial era, to watercooler, cubicle times. The evolution of work and therefore the workspace continues.

Meet co-working, it’s been brewing around the world for a while, and is quickly catching on around Australia at this moment.

Inspire 9 in Melbourne, Co-worka in Sydney and The Hub in Melbourne (offshoot of coworking granddaddy The Hub Amsterdam).

About a collaborative space encouraging ‘co-working’, these new workplaces offer desk and facility rental to individuals working on absolutely anything. Struggling startups, one man agencies, one woman consultancies. The core drive being that when these individuals come together, cross-pollination happens, innovation happens and the world is a better, thriving place.

With these kinds of ideals, co-working spaces often play host to innovative events, Pecha Kuchas, Barcamps, Hacker Spaces. As co-working spaces tend to attract the young creative freelancer, it’s no wonder that the events are usually more along the design-inclined.

The Hub Amsterdam, mentioned above, plays host to over 30 locations worldwide, you’ve got a whole lot of independent co-working spaces in startup-tech-innovation hub San Francisco, and the trend is even buzzing up in China where a space called Xindanwei leads the pack.

So next time you’re not feeling the casual Friday at your office, perhaps think about what it would be like to command a desk at a coworking space wearing whatever you please each day. Surrounded by individuals working on their own initiatives and driven by cross-pollination. Go co-working!