Will Lee, the founder of Verlocal, is going to change the world with peer to peer experiences. At least, listening to him talk, it’s easy to see his passion and commitment to a larger goal than just making some money. His company’s vision is “empowering people to generate substantial income through their passions.” I had the opportunity to talk with Will recently in Verlocal’s San Francisco office.
He’s been working on this concept for two years, instead of, as Will explains, staying in software engineering, buying a nice house and a nice car, and making a six-figure salary. But “By taking the opportunities given by society I could develop my skills and I was able to make good money. I needed to make a decision whether I would take a stable life or I would give back to other people. I had two different options. [I decided] I need to give back.”
Will is young and idealistic, and he’s actually executing on his vision with demonstrable results. One San Francisco sculptor is offering Verlocal pottery classes on the weekends and has earned over $10k in the past six months. It’s not hard to see how people could turn this into an opportunity to quit their day jobs and pursue their passions full time.
Verlocal launched their peer to peer experience platform in late 2014 in San Francisco and recently expanded to roll out services Los Angeles. They currently have three areas of activities: arts, culinary and adventure. And Verlocal is planning to add in a professional vertical. This marketplace of activities will appeal to locals by offering unique experiences and learning opportunities.
In San Francisco, the chefs on Verlocal are teaching people how to cook global cuisine: French cuisine, Italian pasta, Spanish tapas, Korean kimchi, Japanese sushi, Ecuadorian food, and even the art of pickling. The arts and crafts classes include leather working, terrarium making, print making, embroidery, paper mache and pottery. And there are listings for a street art tour, conga playing lessons, a wilderness skills class and a food market tour. From the traveler perspective, if you want to get some real local SF experiences Verlocal is a good place to look.
Verlocal graffiti tour
ShareTraveler: Can you talk about what it means to you to offer genuine experiences?
Will Lee: From my point of view, when people provide their experience based on their passion, it is genuine and authentic. I feel like this connection is lost in our current society.
ST: How does Verlocal differ from some of the other companies offering peer to peer experiences like Vayable?
Will: Two main differences between our service and that of other competitors. Other competitors merely focus on a single conventional vertical such as: culinary, tourism, arts & crafts, and etc. Instead, we have created a unique vertical by combining heterogeneous verticals of local experiences.
The second difference is that we not only offer an experience marketplace, but also offer multiple values to our users. Through our platform, our hosts can generate coupon codes and share them through their own social channels to promote their own experiences. We also offer an affiliate marketing tool to our users, so they can promote experiences and generate extra revenue. Moreover, we provide a platform where people can share and interact with each other. Through our Talent page, people can nominate talented individuals and share their suggestions with others.
Overall, we are not merely building a marketplace to generate revenue – our mission is to empower individuals by maximizing their potentials. Through this process, they can generate output as much as a small business.
Verlocal is here to help people discover their passions.
ShareTraveler: Do you envision peer to peer experiences gaining a significant part of the travel tour market in the future?
Will: Definitely! When people travel, more people like to do local experiences and activities instead of taking conventional and typical tours. It is not merely for the tourism industry.
Customers and businesses have pursued a more efficient paradigm. I believe that the ideal form of a marketplace is centralized for the demand side and decentralized for the supply side through peer-to-peer connections. That way, customers can purchase a service at lower costs while the providers can generate more revenue due to the high volume of demand.
Because both demand and supply sides can be satisfied by this business mechanism, the supply can offer better and hospitable experiences, and the demand can appreciate the experiences more.
ST: Verlocal launched in 2014, and it looks like you already have about 50 activities offered in San Francisco and most of them have a significant number of reviews from users. How did you build interest from both hosts and travelers to use your service?
Will: We officially launched our service in October 2014. Since our official launch, thousands of people have used our service. Our business strategy is very simple. We constantly interact with our users and listen to their feedback. Moreover, we truly appreciate their suggestions, so our team strives to implement their suggestions into our service and product. I believe that genuine interaction and credibility are the keys for a successful business.
ST: How do you vet the quality of the hosts?
Will: If possible, we meet them in person. Otherwise, we speak on the phone or schedule a Skype session with them. We screen our hosts through online research to see if they fit with our mission and values.
ST: Will you prevent tour companies from advertising on Verlocal?
Will: We prefer to work with small business or individuals. We used to work with large tour companies but it’s not that unique and there’s no individual personal stuff.
One of our hosts is one of the first French pastry chefs in San Francisco. If you take his class you learn how to cook, drink wine, and talk and exchange knowledge and experiences. This is more than just a regular tour. Only individuals and small business can offer such a value. Big companies can’t offer this experience, but individuals can offer more personal attention.
50% of our hosts are small business and the other 50% are individuals who we want to help convert into small businesses. We want to help individuals generate output as much as small businesses. We could make money by working more with big companies, but what is the point if people don’t get value from our services and products?
ST: Where do you hope to see Verlocal in 5 years?
Will: Within 5 years, we would like to share our mission with people in 30 different strategic cities with over 1000 hosts in each city in the world, so that these people can make a living by doing what they are truly passionate about.