Innovative Classifieds: Buy and Sell with Short Videos

How a side project started to become reality

I started a side project while I was still working at Hyves. I got a bit frustrated with selling my stuff on Marketplaats.nl. I found it slow and clumsy. My idea was to merge classifieds and social media. Fast-growing apps such as Instagram and Vine (Twitter) were getting popular, making shooting shorts and chatting about it so simple. Could we build the same thing for trading (classifieds)? To use a quick snapshot or videos to sell your stuff, discuss it in a chat, meet up and get the deal done? Fast and simple; nowadays, apps like that exist. Vinted is the perfect example.

I started developing the idea with a friend, he built the tech, and I focused on design, finding customer traction and funding. With an MVP in the AppleStore, we tried to find users, but that was the really difficult part. In the end, we had a product too soon in the Market. People were not ready yet, so we pulled the plug. Zero content, Zero buyers, and visa versa. Chicken egg.

Rockstart: Paving the way for purpose driven founders

In 2013 I submitted my idea at Rockstart. The team was invited to join the accelerator program with 500 other European startups competing for funding and office space. It was a fun and exciting week. We even won and got selected with nine other startups. 

The name of our app was called – Selfie. Such a ridiculous name for an App, but back then, I thought it was a great word joke: Sell-fie. It sounded good, then. Well, maybe with a name like that, it was doomed to fail... 

Speed dating with investors

Amsterdam 2013

Brand colour

The aqua colour was less popular back then. It connects quickly to medical care, at least, that's my association – so I need to be mindful not to lean too much into the healthcare space but into fashion that is for her and him.

Logo and Typography

Swiss Design is the foundation of layout and Typography. "Contrast makes hierarchy." The use of white space – guides eyeballs towards focus areas. The logo for Sellfie isn't that complex; it's a solid logo that doesn't take up to much horizontal space (even with seven letters). What I find charming is the ligature that occurs where two letters join to form a single glyph. The horizontal width is compressed, making it easier to use the brand name on a large scale and keep the Design ecstatic. See the example on the right.