Klepsydre, the first application for bartering services between individuals based on time money
Today, we'd like to introduce you to Klepsydre, a French service exchange start-up based on a universal and fair currency: time. Klepsydre promotes the use of free time for sharing and mutual aid. Exchanging services for the currency of time is now possible!
Meet Olivier Lacombe, founder of Klepsydre.
Can you tell us more about Klepsydre?
Klepsydre is the first mobile application for bartering services between individuals, based on the principle of time money.
From the outset, my partner Julien and I have been very aware of the issues surrounding the collaborative, social and solidarity economy, and we are convinced that their positive impact on society is a priority for the future of our society.
We wanted to be part of this approach and offer a service that would promote the values we hold dear, such as mutual aid, solidarity and sharing...
Over the last few years, we have seen the emergence of a number of platforms for exchanging services, also known as "Jobbing", enabling people to obtain services from private individuals for a fee. The aim is obviously to help others, but there is also the opportunity to generate additional income.
For us, this poses a number of obstacles, particularly in terms of unfair competition. Most of these platforms have taken this issue into consideration and now offer professionals the opportunity to identify themselves as such.
For our part, we wanted to target individuals only. It's not currently possible to generate income through the platform, because it's mutual help that we're trying to promote.
Services are provided between members in the same way as between friends. Klepsydre is simply like a very large group of friends with a wide enough range of skills to be able to find all the help you need.
Although there is no transfer of money, our model does offer something in return - time credits - to encourage members to do each other favours. We were looking for a way to create a virtuous dynamic, and it was through the time currency that we based our exchange mechanisms.
How did this project come about?
I've always liked learning new things, and I also had needs, particularly in terms of work. At the time I would have liked someone to come and help me with what I was trying to build, but my friends didn't necessarily have the skills to be able to help me. What's more, I was a bit reluctant to go through this payment process and/or I didn't necessarily have the financial means... I would have liked to be able to help out in return and give my time in exchange.
So I started looking for mobile applications or platforms that would restore the notion of service to its rightful place, once again, as a friend might do. Of course, my search was in vain. We very quickly realised that there was probably something to be done in this direction.
In trying to find out more about this subject, I quickly came across the concept of time money. It's a concept that's been around since the 70s and was born in Japan, by a lady called Teruko Mizushima. She wanted to propose a model, aimed more at senior citizens, so that in their 'old age' they could reuse the time they had devoted to the community to benefit from it in turn and get help when it was needed.
We found this concept very interesting and realised that there were no applications that were sufficiently democratising this time-currency principle, a sort of 'killer app'.
That's how the Klepsydre project came about.
We wanted to become this player, capable of federating a large enough community so that, when people need help, they have the reflex to go to Klepsydre with the assurance of finding the right person, at the right time, with the right skills.
Why the name 'Klepsydre'?
The clepsydra was a time-measuring instrument used in ancient times. It consisted of an earthenware pot filled with water and fitted with an opening. The time it took for the water to flow into the container just below it was used to measure time.
For those familiar with Fort Boyard, this is also what you find in front of the cells with the hourglass that you turn over but which is made of water rather than sand.
We thought the name made perfect sense for an application where time is the main currency.
How is your platform part of a social economy approach?
We believe that today there are a huge number of skills that can be put at the service of people without being part of a traditional consumer approach where you buy a service.
What's more, people from the generation we're talking to - the Z generation, or the 'slashers' - have a wealth of skills and expertise. In fact, this generation is always looking for meaning and is looking for actions that have value, that allow them to feel fulfilled and useful to society.
The fact that we can rely on solidarity, mutual aid and the exchange of skills can enable us to play a major role in our society.
We have also observed this in the context of the pandemic. The notion of time and the way we use it is changing more and more in people's minds, especially among the younger generation, who are part of the population hardest hit by this crisis.
Another important point for us is skills development. For example, if today I want to move into carpentry, how can I, within the application, get in touch with people who have the skills and help me to progress in this field?
The application has been available since 24 May. Can you tell us a bit more about how it works?
It's as simple as that. All you have to do is download the application (which is mobile-only, but available on ios and android), then create an account in just a few seconds. You then target the areas in which you think you can help. Of course, you don't have to have specialist skills in any one area! All you need is a car for transport services, for example, or a pair of hands to help with a move, or simply time to share a sporting activity. Creating and developing social links is also one of Klepsydre's key missions.
Requests will then be driven by needs, i.e. there is no possibility of creating an ad offering your services in a particular field. It's all about demand. So you can create an ad saying, for example, that you want childminding or gardening help. The application will then notify users who have the right skills and who are geographically close to you, so that they can position themselves to take up this request for help, with a question of time transfer afterwards.
Each user who registers earns 2 hours of time credit. We also offered our beta testers extra hours to reward them for their investment during this phase. We also ran an Ulule campaign, in which one of the rewards was extra hours.
Getting back to the application, you start with a certain number of hours credited to your wallet, which you can immediately use to ask for help.
Klepsydre was launched in a special context. What impact did the pandemic have on your construction?
So this did have an impact on our decision to officially launch the application.
It's true that in a context of confinement, where travel is limited, it's complicated to launch an application that encourages local exchanges. After that, our application doesn't just enable physical exchanges. Sometimes you need help, and that can be done remotely. Typically, in the beta test, we had a user who asked for help filling in his tax return... There are a lot of things that can be done remotely.
We did feel that it was complicated to have a relevant launch at this stage, so we gradually backed off.
This also enabled us to make progress on the future features of the application and we decided to schedule the opening for May. We felt that the signals would be more favourable. We also wanted to open quickly so that we could start testing our application with its audience and enter this 'product market fit' phase as quickly as possible.
We were able to check during the beta phase that it was working properly, and the feedback from our beta testers was very positive, so that confirmed our decision.
Secondly, as we know, when it comes to a community application, it's largely the number of users that will contribute to the application's success. So our aim was to get it up and running quickly so that we could concentrate our efforts on communicating/promoting the application and building awareness of it as quickly as possible.
Following our successful crowdfunding campaign, what are the next steps for Klepsydre? What are your plans for 2021?
The campaign was a success and we're very pleased with it. But it wasn't necessarily easy to run!
It's good to talk about the successes, but it's also good to talk about the difficulties. For a long time, we didn't communicate much about Klepsydre because we were afraid that a competitor would emerge who would take up our concept and be able to release an application more quickly than us!
Later, but probably too late, we went back on this observation. We are now convinced that, on the contrary, an idea needs to be confronted with criticism, comments and suggestions as early as possible.
It's not so much the idea that makes an application successful, but rather all the decisions required to execute it. We need to listen to our users and our market, and know how to pivot when necessary to ensure that we always meet our users' expectations.
The difficulty for us was therefore to develop Klepsydre's communications at the same time as the crowdfunding campaign. We didn't have a very strong community behind us, so we were able to run the campaign very smoothly.
Beyond the financial aspect, we used this campaign to test our concept on the public for the first time.
Even so, the campaign was a success, and it will enable us to finance the production of a promotional video: a video that presents the Klepsydre concept in a very simple and fun way. We'll be able to promote this video to raise awareness and encourage users to adopt the application. So this video is what we'll be working on over the next few weeks.
We also have a community management trainee - press officer - who joined us recently and is taking charge of communications on social networks. We thought it was a good idea to get closer to students and offer them the chance to really participate in the early days of a company and the launch of an application.
We're then thinking about developing the functionality, but we're really concentrating on developing our user base before we even set up our business model. We want to make sure that the audience is there and that the application meets our users' expectations as closely as possible.
These include features such as ad sharing, which we see as a good way of developing our community and acquiring new users.
The last word?
There's a quote by Victor Hugo that I love: "There is nothing in the world as powerful as an idea whose time has come".
We sincerely hope that this will be the case for Klepsydre!
Contacts
Website: https: //www.klepsydre.com