OweYaa; One favour Can Change Everything!

by Startacus Admin

In the world of startups and Collaboration, what better form of philanthropy is there than trading favours? We talk to Startacus Collaborators, the OweYaaTeam, and find out about their new platform for helping the world.

For anyone who hasn’t seen the platform, what is “OweYaa”? 
“OweYaa is a place for people to trade favours and connect with each other better. In short, it’s a place where you do a favour to earn a favour.”

So, it’s a way to offer your skills and services for other skills and services, that’s Genius! What inspired you to make this a platform?
“I was working on my first startup over 2 years ago and I was in dire need of help to finish some things. I was short on cash and so I took to social media platforms to find someone that would help. I eventually found a great person to help me out, but the process was exhausting, having to go through social media platforms. I thought to myself there needs to be a better way to find people that are willing to help you accomplish your goals.”

Businesses trading favours isn’t unheard of, it’s nice to see a platform for it now, but did you envision ‘OweYaa’ being used for philanthropic purposes?
“Absolutely. There are often times where people who are building great things are too restricted by not having the amount of money it takes to make it into something real. There has to be a way for innovators and creative individuals to break the restrictive nature of money. Some of the great minds in the world aren’t wealthy, and they need a way to find others to help them bring their great ideas to life.”

The concept is pretty novel, and we think it’s great! How have you found the marketing aspect?
“We have found that appealing in the sense that building connections is the best way of sharing this concept. Sometimes it’s hard to think there is any value in doing something for no money. But when you step back and look at the value of forming a relationship with someone rather than just collecting a pay check, the benefits start to open up. A relationship that could lead to future work, job offers’, introductions, and many more things are all worth far more than cashing out a $5 project on a site like Fiverr.com” 

So, we have to ask, obviously any new platform will have difficulties, have you guys?
“We definitely have. We have had setbacks in building the platforms and setbacks with finding the perfect team members. Just like any startup we have had to be persistent and keep working hard. We relied on one another in the team to overcome difficulties and we utilized everyone’s individual skill to keep the project and the team moving forward.”

What are your plans for the future of OweYaa?
“We plan to expand our community in massive numbers. The more talented and awesome people we have as part of OweYaa the more value the platform can bring to one another. We are going to launch an iOS and Android app starting with the iOS launch in October. These will help expand the concept's abilities and allow for more favours to be easily traded. We have personally used OweYaa to get a lot of help throughout our beta phase. We have had multiple people build us demo videos, logos, graphics, blogs articles, and much more!”

Ok, this sounds great, now we just want to know; How does it work?
“OweYaa works very simply. If you need help, you post a favour to the site. People with the skills to help you bid to complete it and you select a winner. Once you select a winner that user helps you complete the favour and you form connections! You can then store their profiles in your “Favourites” and know there is always someone there to help you in the future. You then go to the marketplace and help someone else to earn more favours. Simple as that”

We here at Startacus wish you guys the best of luck, we look forward to big things from OweYaa, and we really appreciate you talking to us! 
If you enjoyed this article, why not check out some of these other articles on networking and collaboration.

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Published on: 23rd September 2014