The Inspiration: Although I am not proud to admit it, I play fantasy baseball. For those familiar with the imaginary sports, one of the most exiting activities is successfully executing a trade. However, it is hard to find a fair swap among two parties, and unlike real baseball management, there is no way to execute a three-way trade.
The Initial Idea: My first idea was for someone to create a website for helping fantasy baseball leagues propose and execute three-way swaps. Given my own interest, I think such an application would be useful and popular. But why stop at baseball?
Inspiration Part Deux: Kyle MacDonald famously traded his way up from one red paperclip to a house. Obviously he didn’t do this in one swap; his series of twelve trades took a whole year and netted him a real house.
The Situation: Obviously there plenty of ways to trade online already. Ebay is the world’s biggest online auction house, but that’s not quite barter. Freecycle.org is a forum where users post objects to give or receive, without monetary transaction. Craigslist offers some trade postings as well, but no one site coordinates trades between multiple people, each with a unique set of values. Who knows what equity you might generate on SwapMeetup.com with your household stationary?