“Capitalism boils down to barter between two willing parties, neither of whom uses force to work with other”- Ben Shaprio
Let’s Barter, a community for like-minded Indians to connect and barter their pre-loved goods. We aim to bring back the concept of barter and make exchanging cool. Who needs money anyway right?! Formed in October 2015, Let’s Barter started as a Facebook group to be a facilitator of barter and trade. The group is now home to over 1,32,000 people and is Asia’s largest group for barter. Bartering is now as easy as add a listing for your product! Other members of the community will get in touch with you with their offers.
You can barter anything from electronics to services, furniture, passes, clothing etc. Post your listing for free and enjoy the offers from our community. If you are looking for some interesting products, just search by product type on the website. You can make an offer using the Make Offer button or chat with the owner of the listing via our secure chat. Headquartered in Delhi, Let’s Barter strives to make a protected and secure community for you to barter in the most convenient way possible.
The truth is stranger than fiction as per an old maxim. I agree as it applies to the story of Let’s Barter perfectly.
An average introvert guy, Sahil normally bunked school, doing all sorts of mischief without ever participating in worthwhile activities. All because he didn’t know what he wanted to do in life.
He took admission in a law college, hoping that was his calling since everyone in his family aspired to be a lawyer. But after 3 years of college, he realized did not enjoy the course since I had chosen it without introspection of my abilities.
Quitting studies midway, he joined his dad’s business where he came up with the idea of MEDIROOF: his first startup that envisaged providing all medical facilities under one roof. Unfortunately, it ailed due to his inexperience, lack of skilled staff and technical glitches, burning Rupees Fifteen lakhs of precious money with no tangible results.
It was for Mediroof that he met Pooja, an old school friend, and during a drive back home, they struck upon the idea of bartering goods, thereby forming a FACEBOOK group of friends who were enthusiastic about the idea.
Pooja meanwhile had come back to India after studying in Singapore, and recently quit a well-paid job after two years of PR, to look for happiness. When she quit, she didn’t know anything about what she was going to do. She just knew two things: She wanted to create something new, something from a scratch and it had to be something that would make other people happy. When she spoke to Sahil about Let’s Barter, it was a moment of happiness and the search ended.
The idea of Let’s Barter eventually grew up to a great success, enabling them to launch LETS BARTER through the Facebook community. Initially, of course, the going was tough. They had no funds to invest so they lived frugally to run the LETS BARTER platform. It was primarily because of this reason that they chose Facebook community to promote our idea with the campaign “What to Barter†on Canva, designing posters and graphics ourselves.
On the second day itself, Let’s Barter registered their first barter of an audio system against a 32 inch LED TV. What was most exhilarating was that within a week, the group notched up 27000 members and then it went up to 50000 within a month. Thus, Facebook became the main source of business development and revenue too.
And hence, for the growth of Lets Barter, they built a new website, www.letsbarterindia.com, with added features to eliminate the loopholes and enhance the connectivity.
Their advice to start-ups and young entrepreneurs:
Pooja: It took me quite some time to realize that what matters is that you be the best version of yourself; unique and different. I don’t think I have achieved many of the milestones that I wanted or I am yet the best version of myself. But it is a work in progress that is moving in the right direction.
Sahil: The only thing I wish to convey to young aspiring entrepreneurs is that, we could have chosen to live a comfortable life but we chose a life of struggle. “All that glitters is not gold†and though it may seem that entrepreneurs live a luxurious life, yet success is made up of hard work, struggle and conquering a lot of bad times.
Team News Aur Chai wishes Let’s barter great success in their journey ahead! Drop in your views on this wonderful startup in the comment section below. Also, read more about startup journey in our featured section NAC’s Chai Pe Charcha.
