July 5 – Building on its growth in the Italian market, the Cambiomerci.com Srl company, a network of companies and professionals that exchange products and services within the B2B system, embarks in a new challenge: the realization of the first international B2C marketplace. “Goodschange” wants to replicate in the barter sector (trade practice between companies for the multilateral exchange of goods or services) the success of e-commerce platforms, such as Ebay. The project is based on alternative theories of economic equilibrium. According to these theories, the economic system is in equilibrium when supply is equal and corresponding to demand in the market. On the basis of this simple statement, Goodschange, thanks to its marketplace, wants to allow companies to give platform users simple tasks (such as answering questionnaires, product reviews, information gathering, etc..) in exchange for products and services that are difficult to sell through normal distribution channels. To find the resources and partnerships necessary to start the project on the U.S. market, the CEO of the Italian company, Antonio Leone, went to the United States to take part in the “Silicon Valley Gateway” project. The latter, launched in June by the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, in collaboration with Globalstartups aims at promoting innovative activities for firms overseas. In the United States, the Neapolitan entrepreneur has had the opportunity not only to confront the leaders of the American web giants, such as Linkedin, Google, Skype and Apple, but also to meet with American investors and the Italian institutions of reference, which expressed interest and appreciation for the project, and have already offered to build the necessary relations to make Goodschange take off. “This experience, made possible by the Italian team’s commitment, formed by Francesca Scarpetta and Giuseppe Gargiulo, said Leone, is proof that Italian innovative companies are not always able to promote their products and services for various reasons: lack of knowledge of foreign markets, lack of confidence in venture capitalists, and misjudgments with regards to the potential of their project. Goodschange can and must prove otherwise.”
