Timerepublik success in turning time into money

It took only a few months to Timerepublik to become famous for its innovative philosophy: the company is the first Internet platform working as a global TimeBank.

It offers almost 60,000 services, divided in 350 categories including teachers, gardeners, technicians and much more. The users registered come from about 100 different countries and they do not need to pay money to benefit from the services, instead they pay with their time.  Each performance is later assessed and evaluated by the beneficiaries publicly on the web.

The founders - Gabriele Donati and Karim Varini - can be very proud of their innovative start up and the way in which it has been welcomed by its users. This is certainly the case of "Gea", a Timerepublik user known by her nickname. All of a sudden her oven stopped working and everyone can imagine how worried she was about calling a technician and have it repaired, in terms of money, skills and time. But she found Paolo, a former manager unemployed who started doing these little jobs as "handyman" and joined the time bank. He repaired her oven for free or, to be precise, he earned time for any service he needed. Another successful testimony is Raimondo Brandi's story. He registered Timerepublik and started working with a photographer, organizing theatre performances in private houses. This creative idea gave life to a real business and he could find his colleagues right on the platform. Timerepublik stood as a great advantage for them especially at the beginning of their activity when the absence of money did not hinder the continuation of their newly launched job. In fact, the lack of funds was brilliantly replaced by the time and the services gained.

If the sharing economy is our future, Timerepublik is bearing good fruit and its popularity will definitely increase. The founders have signed agreements with remarkable Italian and European research centres and institutions, but Timerepublik is not only interest in going global. At a time in which everybody needs more time, the company is looking for ad hoc solution to help people to optimize its use: connecting people, helping them to share their skills, maximizing the division of tasks in an already established working community, and promoting co-working hubs are only a few examples of how Timerepublik is achieving it.

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