Book a Barber

A two-sided marketplace platform designed to connect customers with nearby service providers based on real-time availability and proximity.

Book a Barber is the first application and proving ground for the platform. It demonstrates the core marketplace workflow: a provider goes Open, a nearby customer requests a service, the provider accepts, proximity confirms the session, and payment is handled in-app.

The underlying platform is designed to be service-agnostic and could be adapted to other local, on-demand services such as gardening, nail salons, beauty services, home maintenance and other appointment or call-out services.

The initial focus is therefore not simply to build a barber booking app, but to validate and commercialise a reusable on-demand service marketplace platform, with Book a Barber providing the first real-world use case.

• Interactive dual-phone web demo — live and functional.
• Core product loop: Open → discover → request → accept → meet → pay → rate.
• React prototype with client and barber flows, service listings, and session management.

South African barbers and clients — starting in one city, expanding once density is proven.

• Free for barbers in year one to build supply density.
• About 10% platform service fee on completed paid jobs thereafter.
• Long-term: same matching engine applied to other on-demand local services (nails, cleaning, garden work).

• Ship production v1 with payment integration.
• Onboard barbers in one city to prove supply density.
• Validate demand before expanding to additional verticals.