Will Weinraub, CEO of LiveNinja, had the idea years back but had to wait for the technology to catch up in order to execute it properly. Now, with video conferencing becoming increasingly available, it’s possible to have meaningful interactions with people no matter their physical distance. In December 2012, Will, along with his team Emilio Cueto and Alfonso Martinez, launched LiveNinja in their hometown of Miami. LiveNinja is a platform designed for people to sell their expertise online. It uses video technology so users can get live advice or learn a skill simply by scheduling a session and then experiencing it right on the site (no third-party downloads necessary). Anyone who is looking to take a yoga class, learn Spanish, or even get legal advice, for example, can simply view the LiveNinja site to access a network of professionals who are experts in their fields. And, recently, the company added a feature for group sessions and events so multiple clients could benefit from a single class. According to Will, LiveNinja intends to be “the go-to marketplace for buying service-based video-chat sessions on any topic, and on the flip side, allow people – our Ninjas – to monetize their knowledge and create sustainable jobs/income through the use of video chat.” Through this video marketplace, LiveNinja adds value to their users’ lives by giving them jobs or teaching them a skill. The two-sided market created by LiveNinja addresses the following needs:
Education, by providing a flexible and unique learning experience for usersEmployment, by creating jobs or an extra income for the experts
LiveNinja even has the ability to impact the way people view “unemployment.” This outdated definition does not consider the middle ground; the millions of freelancers and entrepreneurs who are finding unique ways to make money (and who now have a reliable space to do so in). In the next few months, LiveNinja plans to launch a new website with a mobile version and release an iOS app with video-call and other capabilities. They are working diligently to capture the needs of their users by giving them more flexibility to monetize on their downtime. Now, with over 2,000 users, LiveNinja is making a statement that everyone has a skill, passion, or service to share and through their superior product, everyone should be able to educate others, and to make money while doing so.
