Kashless was recently featured on the news in Philadelphia, PA on ABC6.  They did a fantastic job highlighting all of the benefits of giving and getting free stuff through Kashless.org.

We're especially excited about the fact that we gained over 6,000 members in the Philadelphia /NY / New Jersey area over the weekend!  We would like to welcome all of our new members, and encourage the rest of you to check out the news story below to catch a great segment about Kashless. 

PC World just put together an article covering the top "Money Saver Site" that you've yet to hear about and our very own Kashless.org was listed among them.

"You know how useful Craigslist and Free­cycle are for finding free stuff. Kashless is also a site for digging up free loot, but you get rewarded for your activity there, too. With the Kashless Rewards program, members earn points for posting an item, inviting a friend to the site, receiving an item, and so on. You can then redeem your points toward products and coupons from different brands like Amazon, Best Buy, Cold Stone Creamery, and more. And why do you get rewarded for scrounging through somebody's free pile? According to Kashless, you're extending the life of a product, reducing raw-material de­­mand, and eliminating waste. You definitely deserve that free sundae at Cold Stone."

To read more about great sites that will save you money after your Holiday spend-a-thon, check out PC World's article here.

Thinking alot lately about how to use on-line to drive local community and local purchases. Was in my favorite men’s store in Seattle, Oslo’s the other day and picked up the 3/50 project flyer.  Very cool project.  Didn’t know anyone had quantified the impact of shopping local.  Forget Obama’s stimulus funneled through DC and the politicians.  Shop local.

We launched Kashless.org last year after Christmas in Seattle.  I was surprised to see that the first item posted was a Christmas tree and Christmas decorations.  When I think back, it makes alot of sense.  What to do with all that extra stuff after Christmas?  All the extra trimmings, all the old things that you now have new ones of, the double gifts you received, the wrapping paper, boxes, etc.  Thoughtful people look to reuse and recycle all that and along came Kashless.org.  I expect a similar trend this year. 

Interestingly though, we have seen quite a spike in traffic, membership and postings this year BEFORE Christmas.  Not sure if it is people making room for all the new stuff coming, or looking for free Christmas presents, but traffic is up about 30% this last week and over 5,000 new members have joined in the last month.  Many new people are finding us through our recent partnership with RecycleBank.  Many members are also finding holiday shopping deals through our partnership with eBates to get cash back web shopping.  I have also found our partnership with NextWorth personally useful as they sent me cash for an old cell phone!

Merry Christmas all and to all good reuse and recycling!

My friend Susanna runs Citizen Coffee on lower Queen Anne. Citizen Coffee has set up an online deal, giving the first 20 to respond a $10 Citizen Coffee gift card for $5. Yep, that's $5 of free coffee. But the deal's only good for the first 20 people, not everyone in town (sorry Groupon). 




Go here to get this rad deal from Citizen Coffee.

The Kashless Krew is thrilled to say that Kashless members now have the ability to leave public feedback about other Kashless members!

Kashless members are only able to leave member feedback about other Kashless members. We decided to add the ability for our members to leave and receive member feedback in the hopes of adding a little more transparency to the giving and getting process, and make it easier for Kashless members to decide who they want to interact with, within their local Kashless community.  We're excited about this feature being added to the site and hope that it helps make re-using even easier for our members.

A few things to take note of:


1.  Feedback About You. On your public profile, which can be accessed by clicking on your name and profile picture in the upper right hand corner of the home page, you now have three tabs; "Offered", "Wanted" and "Feedback."  Your feedback tab will contain any positive or negative feedback that other Kashless members leave about you and their experience with you on Kashless.

2. Leaving Feedback.  To leave feedback about another Kashless member you can go to their public profile by accessing it through their public listing or through a message from/to them. Click on the feedback tab of their profile and at that point you'll be able to leave a "happy" or "sad" flag on their profile as well as a comment.  Keep in mind that while you can and should leave truthful and detailed information about your experience with members, the information that you provide will be public and is not anonymous. 

3. Feedback visible in the public listings. When browsing Kashless listings, after clicking on an item that you're interested in you can now view how many positive and/or negative ratings the member giving away the item has received. 

4. Commenting on Feedback. Every member who has feedback left about them on the site has one chance to comment on that feedback, whether it be to thank the other member for a kind comment left, or to explain their side of the story in the case of negative feedback.

  

Last week we spoke to you about a bug in the Kashless system that was preventing certain messages from getting through between Kashless members.  Particularly when Kashless members tried to contact people about listings that were originally posted on third party sites.

Well, we are happy to announce that this bug has been fixed and all messaging on the Kashless site should be working perfectly now!  We want to thank you for your patience and understanding on this issue.   So start celebrating the fix by testing it out and getting some great new free stuff off of Kashless this week!

* Please remember that while messaging is working and we hope that Kashless members, and those using third party sites, will politely respond to all inquiries they receive about their listings, we cannot guarantee that you'll receive a response from all members.  From time to time, member simply receive too many inquiries about their listing to respond to every member's message.  (But responding to all members who inquire about your listing is always appreciated by the Kashless Krew and all of our members :-) 

One of the most recent features added to Kashless is our Wanted section.  The "Wanted" section is a place for members to post items that they want or need.  Other members can then browse the wanted ads and respond to members if they have something that somebody else is in need of. 

We have had a great time watching the response of our members to Wanted ads and are excited to say that the section is growing and we've seen some great, positive outcomes from Wanted listings on the site.

In the last few weeks that Wanteds have been available on the site we have had people ask for and receive; a working printer, a wooden desk, a twin bed and mattress and a working treadmill, among other things.  We love seeing our members inspired to open up their garages to others who are in need of something.

Check out the Wanted listings in your area.
 
Create your own Wanted listing by going here and selecting "Wanted."

Learn more about searching for Wanted listings and using the Kashless Filter bar here. 

 

I have been having lots of discussions lately about how to effectively mix profit and non-profit activities in a software company.  Whenever I find myself answering the same question more than once it is time for a blog post. 

Here is how we have set up things here at Kashless.  Kashless, Inc. is a for profit (unprofitable = unsustainable) sustainable company.  Kashless, Inc. is venture funded, and expects to make a profit for it’s shareholders and to grow its business.  Kashless, Inc. develops software to enable reuse marketplaces.  Kashless.org is a non-profit demonstration consumer deployment of the Kashless, Inc. software platform.   Kashless, Inc.’s primary business is licensing the software platform to brands, companies, and organizations, not operating a destination consumer site.  In addition to operating Kashless.org as a public service, like many leading technology companies, Kashless, Inc. has committed a portion of its profits to a charitable foundation, the Kashless Foundation, which will promote Reuse and Recycling around the world.