SkillWho.com State of the Union

Welcome to the SkillWho blog! We’ll start with our story and where we’re headed. Since most of us don’t read online anymore, we just scan, I’ll try to use bullets for your easy scanning pleasure.

• SkillWho (www.skillwho.com) was started to enable people to share and find skills and talents within their social network (did I mention it’s all free?). For example, if I was looking for a piano player for my band, the first place I’d look would be friends, then their friends, then I’d look online. Same with an accountant, contractor, doctor, etc. It’s all about referrals from someone we can trust. SkillWho.com exists to make that easier.
• SkillWho enables members to create a profile that lists their bio, skills, connections, media, and other info. Members can view the skills and talents of their social network and share their own. There are also various community tools for networking, socializing, meeting others, and sharing/viewing  displays of others’ talents.
• Paul, my business partner, and I started the site in spring of 2007. We spent 9 months developing, then launched the beta site in May of 2008. We’re still in “beta” until some important features are released.
• In our first few months 10,000 users joined the site and now we’re at about 35,000 users. Our site averages about 500,000 pageviews per month, which we have plans to grow 10-fold within 6-12 months. We’re self-funded and cashflow positive, although Paul and I don’t take salaries yet.
• Some primary features of our site include:
  • Social Networking
  • Groups
  • Discussion Forums
  • “Talent Show” where users can share, view, and rate videos and images of talented members (coming next month).
  • Online Profiles with Members’ Skills, Bio, and Media (images / videos) of their skills, their network
  • Members can recommend other members for their skills
  • Job Board where members can find jobs in their local area (coming this month)
  • Other top-secret features we can’t talk about until we’re further along; don’t want our competitors to catch wind
• We’re currently in the process of moving our site to our own servers because we like having the control. Cloud hosting is all the rage, but I’m not impressed. Dedicated servers are still faster than clouds and speed to me is more important than rapid scalability. I don’t expect to become Facebook overnight.
• Our primary goal is making the site more valuable and entertaining for visitors. We also have some viral growth strategies up our sleeves, so keep your eye out for updates!