All we know life can get expensive, which is why on this show,
we constantly look for small ways to save big.
And I spoke with Sarah Fryer, the co next door,
which is a platform that connects locals with businesses.
Take a look.
Thanks for joining.
Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
How can people use next door to stretch their dollar? Yeah.
So it's the perfect platform to stretch your dollar. Really? Three ways.
Number one is to find a job, find a side hustle.
People might have a full time job,
but maybe they dog walk in the evenings or maybe you find someone who
wants to make a local product and wants to sell it out of their home
is what we call for sale and free. This is a beautiful part of our platform.
If you don't know it
for sale and free is where you can put things that your kid has grown out of.
Maybe something that doesn't give you joy anymore onto next
door and make some dollars out of your closet,
out of your garage.
We see about a billion dollars put on next door every month
and about 20% of it, almost 25% now is free.
So it's also a way that people try to give back in their communities.
And then the final way of course is to also just help a neighbor out.
We just did a lot of research in the UK as an example of people saying, hey,
I'm willing to do some free babysitting for you because
I recognize you might be a mom in need.
So it can be a great way just to ask for help.
If you're finding things are getting a little stretched in your budget.
Free stuff is a great way
to stretch your dollar. Absolutely.
And the right connections,
how are you finding that businesses on your
platform are catering to customers in this environment?
Yeah. So next door is perfect for a local business.
And remember a local business might be a small mom and pop coffee shop.
We just had bunny cafe here in, in the NYC.
But it's also Walmart is a local business too.
What they get on next door is number one real people at real addresses.
So we are able to help them target right down to 0.1 of a mile.
Second thing they get is a really high intent audience.
So if you are a local coffee shop or a local plumber next door
is a great place to find people when they're actually looking for you.
And then finally, if you are a bigger business,
it's a great way to do a national campaign,
but to help it feel really local and we know that when it feels local,
it tends to perform better.
So these are just some of the ways that businesses are utilizing next door today.
Top tips in the midst of summer for people to utilize next door.
If they're looking to make a little extra dough this summer, maybe in a summer job.
Yes.
Yes. Yes.
So if you are particularly, I see students all the time,
maybe you're back from college,
maybe you're still in high school. People are doing gardening jobs.
I see someone with their dad's truck that's willing to go run
to the dump with stuff that people want to get rid of.
I see babysitting happening, tutoring happening and of course,
even little mini sports camps.
So be your best creative self.
But think about what could happen locally next door is
the perfect place to pitch your little business idea.
Artificial intelligence is such a popular topic these days,
people looking to be more efficient with their lives and smarter.
How can businesses and locals on your platform utilize A I.
So remember next door is founded on big data.
We have the local knowledge graph which makes it
a very unique position for us as a business.
What we've done,
we've used A I historically to help you
get the right notification to the right person
at the right time or the right ad to the right customer the right time.
But today we are also helping you with generative A I.
So if you are creating a post, you can hit the assistant button
and we'll actually rewrite the post for you based on training on our data
that says this is a better way to say this on next door.
So going back to that local business, let's say, I don't know,
you have local honey and you want to get that news out on next door.
We can actually help you create that ad using generative A I
for something that will work very particularly on next door.
So it's a great way to incorporate technology that people are just learning about,
but to actually make it productive, more business, better outcomes.
People might just ask, is it safe? Should they feel safe using A I on your platform?
Absolutely on next door because it's being trained on what locals already do.
There's no hallucinations going on.
It's truly just helping you rewrite that post or if we want to kind of
give you a prompt to be a little kinder to make your neighborhood more welcoming.
That's another way we utilize generative A I.
So for the good of communities and to keep helping communities thrive.
What about customers, people who are looking for a good or service on next door?
Are there ways that they can use A I to better find what they're looking for?
So it's almost the same idea if you're putting a
post up on next door because you need something.
Let's say you're a mom and you're getting ready
to go back to school and you maybe again,
budgets are a little tough and you're wondering if someone has back to school stuff,
maybe it's a school bag that didn't get torn to pieces like my kids often do.
Maybe it's soccer cleats. Something
seems to grow out of every six months.
But these are great ways to reach out to your community in a time of need.
Furniture is another good example in the UK.
For example, we see almost,
I think it's 160,000 pieces of furniture at any one
point of time offered for free on next door.
So whatever it is back to school, spring cleaning,
furnishing your home next door can be a great place to get that done again.
Keeping your budget in mind.
And I like that helping you stretch your dollar. Absolutely.
All right.
Thank you Sarah again for sitting down with
me earlier this week with some tips there.