Who?
Mark Ward, founder of Australian Vermouth brand Regal Rogue, is the company’s founder.
Why?
PIGEON aims to help unlock the potential of domestic talent to change the way people learn and share.
What?
Its technology connects people from all walks of life to learn new skills or share their passion and get paid in the process. Now launching out of beta, the platform will initially focus on food and drink skills at launch and broaden the skills offering as the community chooses into skills like handcrafts, DIY, languages, home fitness and well-being.
How?
Live 1-2-1 video chats enable ‘Sharers’ to pass on unique knowledge and expertise from a range of passions, hobbies and interests. ‘Learners’ can perfect existing skills or discover new ones, asking as many questions as they’d like and receiving personalised feedback and demonstrations through video chats.
Users can join for £4.99 per month or Pay as you Chat, while Sharers can set their own hourly rate starting at £12 an hour, which is roughly 12% above the London living wage.
Where?
The startup is based in Brighton, where Ward was born and raised, and has pulled together a local team: DabApps as development partner, addmustard leading digital marketing and FUGU for PR.
They say:
Ward: “I grew up watching my mum run her own businesses, all centred around caring for other people and being part of a community, and my father who has mastered his passion of handcrafts and woodwork. Sometimes my mum was running meals to elderly people for her domestic care agency, other times she was blowing up balloons on the weekends for parties. To this day, she continues to share with others. Meanwhile, I’ve spent 20 years working in the hospitality industry, founding Regal Rogue in 2011. Throughout this time, I’ve been contacted by friends and family to walk them through recipes or discuss party ideas. Supporting each other and sharing is human nature. We all have people we turn to for their tips and advice within our friend and family networks. So why not unlock that potential and allow people to monetise their homegrown talents? The most influential person in your life might have zero Instagram followers. My 98-year-old grandma taught me so much and was the most influential person in my life – she wasn’t on social media.”