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April 4th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The World at Work is powered by GE. This new series highlights the people, projects and startups that are driving innovation and making the world a better place.
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Name: Givmo.com
Big Idea: A (literally) free marketplace connecting users’ throwaways with new homes where the items will be appreciated.
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Why It’s Working: People don’t want to just throw their old things away. Givmo is a platform where people can come together to give (and take!) free stuff.
After college, software engineer Dustin Byrne hopped from job to job, moving about once per year for several years straight. Each time, he says, “I found I had a whole bunch of stuff I hadn’t even looked at or remembered I had since the last time I moved.”
So he launched Givmo.com last year. “The premise,” Byrne says, “is that if you can find the right taker for an item, people are willing to give their stuff away for free, with the knowledge that it’s going to be put in the hands of somebody who loves it.”
Here’s how the startup works: let’s say that you kicked the caffeine habit and don’t need that old coffeemaker anymore, but you know it’s a nice piece someone else would enjoy. Snap a photo and list the item on Givmo for free. Somewhere else, a coffee enthusiast browsing the site sees your sweet coffeemaker. All he or she has to do is pay for the shipping cost to transport it from you to them. Givmo provides a prepaid shipping label; you just box the item up and send it on to its new owner.
Everyone wins: The acquirer gains something new for very little cost, the giver doesn’t have to deal with the shame and hassle of throwing it away and the environment benefits from one less needlessly-junked landfill item. It’s basically free ecommerce for social good.
The company is self-funded, and Byrne and his business partner work as Givmo’s engineers. Uptake on the service has been slow, he says, but people are using it. The company negotiated a discount rate with UPS for shipping and takes a small commission (“less than a dollar”) from the shipping cost.
“It’s not enough to pay the bills on its own,” Byrne says. “But hopefully with volume it will get there.”
Check out the video below for a cartoon breakdown of how Givmo works. Would you use Givmo to give away your old junk? Let us know in the comments.
Series presented by GE
The World at Work is powered by GE. GE Works focuses on the people who make the things that move, power, build and help to cure the world.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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