“You can empower two different types of people.”
In my experience, people fall in one of two categories: they have time but need more money, or they have money but need more time. If you are a person looking for more money, it means you are probably willing to exchange a little bit of your time in order to perform various odd jobs (foreshadowing alert!) for extra cash. This is reasonable to assume. And if you are a person in search of more time, you are probably willing to outsource various odd jobs associated with life — lawn upkeep, handyman work, moving duties — and pay somebody to do them, thus freeing up more time. This is also reasonable to assume.
OddJobb is an app created beneath this umbrella, providing users a marketplace to post jobs, specify a dollar amount, and allow other users to perform those jobs. People who want to free up time can post any job their heart desires (known on the app as Posters), people who want to make a little extra money can swoop in and do the deed (known on the app as Jobbers). Easy as 1, 2, 3.
“I wanted to create something that allowed people to earn money and free their time,” said Ryan Husk, CEO of OddJobb. “You have two different markets. You have people who don’t want to work a standard nine-to-five job — maybe they’re college students or part of the Uber economy — they have a skillset and they want to earn money with that skillset. They can go onto OddJobb and subscribe to different services that interest them. And then you have the other demographic — professionals, adults, stay-at-home moms — who don’t have a lot of time on their hands and need a bit of extra help getting things done. They can post the jobs that they need and hire somebody to help them. You can empower two different types of people.”
The OddJobb app was unveiled for iOs users on June 1. Here’s how it works: assume that it’s Friday and I just finished off a grueling 55-hour work week pounding out articles on Beehive Startups. My heart is overcome with joy because the weekend has finally arrived and now I can spend my time doing useful things, like watch the entire season 2 of Fargo while eating frozen burritos. But wait, I just remembered I’ve been pushing off my home workload for weeks and now it has finally caught up. I need to mow the lawn. I need to fix the faucet. I need to wash my car. My heart is now overcome with sadness because my hopes and dreams of binge-watching tv shows is dead. But wait, I just remembered that OddJobb exists for this purpose. I jump on the app and post all of my odd jobs, providing potential Jobbers with all the necessary details (price, location, photos, additional comments). Anybody who wants to apply for the job can do so, sending a private notification to my phone that allows us to enter into a private chat room, finalize the details, and go from there. When we both agree to the job and price, the full payment amount is put into escrow and held securely until the job is completed, then released by the Poster. Both parties can rate the experience, giving future users a baseline for who they should and shouldn’t be interacting with.
“Our whole idea is this is an on-demand service,” said Husk. “That’s the goal we want to achieve. Saturday morning, you wake up and don’t want to mow the lawn, post the job and get someone over there within a hour or so and then the rest of your day is free.”
OddJobb is currently available only in Utah, with plans to expand shortly. If you’re interested in saving some time, give OddJobb a try. If you’re interested in making some extra money, give OddJobb a try. Either way, let them know about your experience.
“Based on the startup culture here, a lot of people are very interested in new technology,” said Husk. “We have some early adopters who have just been phenomenal with the feedback they’ve given. We want to improve our concept on a basic level before we add a bunch of features.”
