The team behind ChipDrop, the popular service that provides free wood chips to gardeners, is taking its philosophy and marketplace know-how to another Portland institution: the free pile.
The new app is called Freeya and it’s an attempt to improve the user experience for both getting rid of extra stuff and finding free stuff.
Here’s how it works: Those looking to get rid of items can post on the app and place the items outside their front door. Members nearby get pinged and can claim the item and pick it up. All interactions are with the app so users don’t have to go through texts and emails with strangers like on Craigslist or other message boards, said co-founder Bryan Kappa.
“Free piles are on the side of the road. That might be an option (for people),” said Kappa, but that leans a lot on luck for someone to go down the right street to happen to see something they are interested in. “The missing piece is the technology. We can be intentional and deliberate and make something that solves a specific problem. It’s only free goods. No services and no selling.”
Kappa and the team are finalizing the app, which is slated to be released Aug. 15. On Aug. 27, the startup is hosting an event with Pedalpalooza to pick up items around Colonel Summers Part in Southeast Portland, and then donate those items to a local homeless shelter.
Anyone interested in the app can sign-up on Freeya’s website to get alerts on the launch and giveaways and events around the launch.
Ahead of building Freeya, Kappa did extensive user research on existing solutions like Craigslist, Nextdoor, and Facebook Marketplace. He found a heavy reliance on message boards: Users post that they have something and watch it disappear. They don't have to message 10 different people about it.
"People don't want to be wasteful but if they don't have an option; exchanging for free has to be as easy as throwing it away or buying it at a store," he said. "That is what we are solving."
Since there is no selling on the app, there isn’t a place for Freeya to take a cut for revenue. Instead, Kappa sees revenue potential in offering users extended exclusive time windows for pick-ups. Or if an item isn’t claimed, users can pay to have someone pick it up.
Once the app goes live, the four-person team will market it in Portland, then look at other cities once it hits critical mass.
Like Kappa’s other business ChipDrop, Freeya is self-funded.
With ChipDrop, Kappa has a profitable business. That startup connects those who want wood chips to arborists who have wood chips to dispense. Arborists who are part of the program can access that list and, after working in a given neighborhood, can drop chips off at nearby residences.
ChipDrop counts 50,000 users in Portland and 1,000 tree companies in the program overall. It has more than 500,000 global users.
