I recently learned about Betterfly, a site that lets you find people, such as makeup artists and stylists, who provide professional services.
The site excludes companies and aims to connect you with an actual human as opposed to a business. For example, you might hear glowing praise for a salon in your area, but not know which particular stylist is likely best for you (perhaps you have curly, fine hair #$&%@! and have a touch of difficulty taming it).
On Betterfly, you can refine your search based on more than 20 factors such as availability, friends’ recommendations, verified reviews and value. It’s free for clients to use the service, according to the company.
There is no approval process or cost to become a Betterfly service provider, or “betterist,” and set up a customized page. In addition to outlining qualifications, services, locations, special offers and payment policies, pages display reviews from clients. A client must be verified by the provider in order to write a review. Once verified, the client may review anonymously or under his or her own name. Service providers cannot delete or hide any reviews given by a verified client.
Joshua Schwadron launched Betterfly two years ago in New York, when he was 28. He obtained his startup money by winning $125,000 from the reality show “Fear Factor” in 2003.
Was being a contestant on the show good preparation for founding the site? Says Schwadron: “Being on ‘Fear Factor’ and running a startup share a lot of similarities. In some ways, running a startup is worse because there is always a constant fear of something not going right or Google announcing they are getting into your space. At least on ‘Fear Factor’ you know who you’re competing against and when you’ve won.”
I’m impressed that he sat on the cash for a while and didn’t blow it on, say, a gigantic-screen TV, an enormous sofa and a bad-ass DVD library.
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From FNB readers