‘Verlocal’, is a service app that allows individuals to share their talents and knowledge. Its aim is to be a social marketplace where people with talent meet people with curiosity. It was revealed that a 1 million investment had been secured from Silicon Valley investment firms ‘Seven Seas Venture Partner’ and ‘Big Basic Capital.
The company was founded by two US university graduates. The CEO of Verlocal, Lee Won Hong, is a Stanford graduate and previously worked as a mechanical engineer at Quova, a Silicon Valley startup. Quova was then sold to Neustar which was separated from Lockheed Martin the US military manufacturer. The other founder, Kim Min Soo, attended UC Berkeley and is the Executive of the Business Department. Mr Kim was so captured by the vision of Mr Lee that he quit his UC Berkeley studies in Political Economics to support his cause.
Currently, ‘Verlocal’ line up consists of about 300 talents, experiences and knowledge sharers. These talent are based in 7 cities including New York, LA and San Francisco. The business model is the idea of selling an individual's talent, experience or knowledge for an agreed period.
After launching ‘Open Better’ in January this year , it has achieved over 20,000 membership within 4 months. Through the use of 'Open Marketplace c Platform' there are an increasing number of member that earn more than US$8,000 per month.