Workstir aims to create a more trustyworthy Craigslist
You found a handyman on Craigslist who sounds great on paper. But how do you know he’s any good? A new startup, Workstir, hopes to take some of the guesswork out of the search process.
The site, a kind of Craigslist/Yelp/EBay hybrid, lets you post your ”looking for” requests to a forum where service providers can contact you directly through e-mail. Each service provider has its own Workstir profile with pictures, interests, and most importantly, reviews from other Workstir users who have dealt with the provider in the past. Service providers can receive mobile alerts so they can quickly respond.
Workstir is essentially a free version of the already popular Angie’s List which charges $5.25/month to consumers to browse. Service providers can list for free but only after they’re recommended first by a member. Angie’s List has some impressive numbers: 750,000 members submitting 40,000 reviews a month. There’s also a “penalty box,” a kind of wall of shame where bad companies go to die.
Workstir as a free Angie’s List is a good idea, but as with any new site, the proof will be in the number of reviews that appear on the site.
