What is a good reputation worth to you? In a professional context, a lot seems like a good answer. CharityBuzz illustrates the power of a good reputation selling platform. In return for some valuable company names on a CV, people participate in auctions for jobs. They pay to work. Companies that have a few spots available for interns, can put their positions on the Charity buzz auction platform. And with success! It seems that interns pay thousands of dollars. The winner will work for ‘free’ in return for a kick-start of his or her career. The companies that participate don’t receive the money themselves. The collected money will be donated to charity. 
Charity for buzz is not the first platform that sells reputation, but it is remarkable due to the high prices that get payed for it. In the end this action is not different from buying virtual gold with real dollars to get a better equipped avatar in an online game. It’s all about earning respect from your peers. Although the context (gaming vs professional) differs, the transactions stays the same. More and more variations on this concept arise. Therefore we can conclude that the business of reputation and respect selling will probably flourish in the coming years. Something to keep an eye on!
Reputation auction: Pay to work
Yes, We Are Fans Of Kiva’s Business Model!
As many other entrepreneurs these days, we feel that sustainable development is an integral part of being an entrepreneur. Our aim in this is to support simple but effective initiatives; in the mindset that many small intiatives can make a big impact. In that perspective, Board Of Innovation started to support women entrepreneurs in Asia and Oceania through Kiva loans – Sina Pele from Samoa, and Jocelyn Melanio from the Philippines. We wish them all the best with their plans, and invite all our readers and fellow-entrepreneurs to support entrepreneurs through Kiva as well. Also, special thanks to our business partner Christian De Neef of Fast Track to remind us about Kiva recently. When using the system, I was again surprised about the strenght of Kiva’s business model, and couldn’t resist to visualize it. The 1st flow of transactions shows how loans are given to entrepreneurs, through Kiva’s Field Partners. The Field Partners are in-country based microfinance institutions that approve and disburse loans, and then upload the loan and entrepreneur’s profile on Kiva’s platform.
Lenders like you and me can browse those entrepreneurs’ profiles and choose someone to lend to, using credit cards or PayPal. Unlike other broker platforms, Kiva doesn’t charge a fixed commission on transactions (100% of the loan goes to the entrepreneurs). Kiva lenders choose an additional percentage that want to give to fund Kiva’s costs. The 2nd flow of transactions shows how entrepreneurs repay their loans, and what options lenders have when they get repaid.
The total value of loans made through Kiva amounts to $134,575,785 now. Also interesting to note is that PayPal provides Kiva with free payment processing. Kiva’s is actually the first account at PayPal with a free payment processing agreement. Have you used Kiva or similar funding systems before?
Pay-what-you-want for gaming & charity
In the growing series of pay-what-you-want concepts we can now add the Wolfire Indie gaming bundle. Gamers come to their webshop and decide for themselves what the bundle of 6 indie games is worth to them. Not only do they decide how much they are willing to pay, they also decide where their money goes [...]
Freeset, an eco and people-friendly business model
The busy holiday period is a good time to highlight one of the many charity based business models. The revenue model that is being used by these organizations is often not that complex. Many of them simply ask for a donation while others will give a commodity in return. A pencil, a plant, a newspaper [...]
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