HourVille Where Everything Is By the Hour

By Craig Agranoff    December 8th, 2008

Are you a freelancer or someone who does something that bills by the hour? A DJ or a dog walker, perhaps? Whether you work at something full or part time, you might be able to use HourVille. The site seeks to match providers with those who need them, with matchups focused on by-the-hour payments.

If you’re a person or business who’s looking for a professional for a one-off or part-time, contracted job, then HourVille might have a match for you. Just enter the job description as a search term into the site and see who’s available and looking for work.

If you’re a provider who needs a way for prospective clients to find you, then you can build a profile on HourVille and set up shop. Anyone on the site who searches for your job description will see your profile and can offer you work.

All in all, the site has a lot to offer, but nothing more than sites of a similar nature. Granted, HourVille is less “professional-oriented” than most sites of this type, aiming for a more laid-back market. The site’s design and layout make it obvious that slacks and ties are not required, but is useful enough that most can find what they’re looking for—if it’s there. The site is new, so there aren’t a lot of prospects for finding or getting work.

Many of the profiles on this site are for people offering their services as dog walkers, house cleaning, car detailing, party DJs, dance instruction, and more. Definitely not the usual for this kind of site. Right now, while the site is in beta, use is free and those who sign up as providers will receive a lifetime free account, so you’ll never pay for the service. Smart thinking on HourVille’s part, as this is sure to get a lot of interest from providers, populating the site’s database.

It seems that HourVille is worth looking at, but don’t expect it to be your only income stream or advertising venue. If you’re looking for a provider, though, you’ll likely find someone who can help.

Most Commented

  • Seems like a good idea, to put every service on auction online. I hope it works out and grows!

    /Daniel
  • HourVille, according to its website, is a market place and community where people can buy and
    sell anything, priced by the hour - services, rentals, classes, spaces! There goes my opportunity to find some freelance jobs. Has HourVille changed its business plans???
  • I have seen this before. This idea is actually similar to the mobile job locator in Japan where people are able to match directly on the go with the required hourly job requests near their GPS location.
  • If it is so, then it is a great loss. It would have been a useful platform for jobseekers or part timers to look for part time or freelance jobs to supplement their income or lack of it.
  • HourVille, according to its website, is a market place and community where people can buy and
    sell anything, priced by the hour - services, rentals, classes, spaces! There goes my opportunity to find some freelance jobs. Has HourVille changed its business plans???
  • Such site should have mechanism in place to reject spammers and other so-called online typing jobs and PTC or PTR "jobs". I have seen many such free sites being subject to abuses and degenerated into junk jobs. Lets hope HourVille does not fall into this category.
  • I love the concept. I'm involved in various businesses as an entrepreneur, and one area of interest is online job boards. The trend there (as the folks at HourVille are no doubt aware) is niche/vertical. In short, Monster is out, niche job boards are in. No one is claiming that these verticals will individually overtake Monster, but that collectively they will far outstrip that ubiquitous company's growth and innovation - that latter of which shouldn't be too difficult, IMO.
  • A simple idea yet expandable web 2.0 site. This idea is actually similar to the mobile job locator in Japan where people are able to match directly on the go with the required hourly job requests near their GPS location. Keep it up Hour Ville
  • Thanks for the coverage Craig. During our beta period we continue to focus on growing our community of providers and have seen an encouraging uptake in the first few weeks since we made the site publicly available. Certainly posts such as yours are helping more people learn about us and we appreciate it.

    I'd like to take the opportunity to note a few things that HourVille does indeed do differently from other sites that readers of Rev2 might find interesting. We have taken the chicken and egg problem faced by online marketplaces to heart - need sellers to attract buyers, need buyers to attract sellers - and have come up with a value proposition that makes the site immediately useful to providers while we are growing our community and notoriety.

    HourVille offers providers tools such as our 'BOOK ME' button that they can embed in Craigslist postings and other online ads, including their own websites to, the extent that they have them. The button links back to the provider's schedule on HourVille. Whether it is buyers who find our providers through other online postings, or customers that the provider is already doing business with, the HourVille schedule manager is a valuable tool that helps them more efficiently manage their time, reduce the friction points of schedule coordination and communication (no phone or email tag), and as a result helps them to increase business. In other words, HourVille is complementary to their current way of doing things, and is useful even if they don't find a single new buyer through HourVille while we're growing. Of course, once the community reaches critical mass and providers find new buyers directly through the site, the maximum value of HourVille will be realized.

    We also offer our providers tools to help optimize their pricing, including the ability to auction off their time. This is a great feature for new providers who aren't sure what to charge, as well as for established providers who want to maximize their earning potential by letting buyers determine what they are willing to pay for business during peak and off-peak demand times.

    We are excited about the response we've received from the web community so far. With the economy in disarray we hope that HourVille will help buyers save money and time, get some needed help with things around the house, or find new and interesting ways to spend their time without spending a fortune. For providers, we hope to help people find new ways to earn additional income from their skills, knowledge, talents, stuff, or spaces. We look forward to ongoing feedback from our users and will strive to continuously improve our product. Thanks again for taking a look.

    Matt
    Co-founder, HourVille
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