Now that the Better Finds app is in beta and people are downloading it, we’re finally starting to have real sales between individuals benefiting charities! I interviewed Better Finds CEO David White about his first purchase through the Better Finds platform, and asked how it went and if the experience was as simple and easy as we hoped.

Mitch: “You bought your very first item through Better Finds recently. What did you buy and what charity did it support?”

David: “It was some natural wooden blocks for kids, and it was for $35 and the proceeds went to the seller’s preferred charity, One Hundred for Haiti. The nice thing about it was that it was really convenient to negotiate the pickup time and location with the seller. They were located in Redmond and I live in Maple Valley, I was heading up north the next day so I asked the seller if I could just pick it up on the way. She offered to leave it on her porch, and I was able to swing by early in the morning when it was still dark out. The bag was on the porch, I picked it up and our kids have some more lovely toys to play with now.”

Mitch: “How long did it take to message the person selling the blocks and agree on a pickup time?”

David: “It took me about 5 minutes to negotiate pickup, make the payment and to get everything in place. The pickup location was super convenient because she let me know what her address was, so overall it was super simple. It was also easy because the seller probably had her phone on hand when I requested the blocks.”

Mitch: “Did you wait to pay for the blocks until you saw them or did you just pay beforehand in the Better Finds app?”

David: “I paid beforehand and trusted that the seller would have the toys on her porch for pickup, and she left them there and everything worked out perfectly.”

Mitch: “What did your kids think of the wooden blocks?”

David: “Funny you ask, one of our kids has a lot of energy… he started playing with them and immediately broke one of the blocks! Luckily there were plenty more blocks to go around… but we had to give him some pointers for how to play with the blocks and remind him that they’re not meant to be destroyed!”