More Money Podcast - 123 A New Way to Trade & Barter - Eli Klein, Manager of Publicity & Partnerships at Bunz

Episode Date: October 25, 2017

There’s a new way to get rid of stuff you want to get stuff you need, and I chat with Eli Klein, Manager, Publicity & Partnerships at Bunz all about it. Long description: The first time I heard about Bunz, I thought it was a really intriguing concept. Instead of being a copy of Kijiji or Craigslist where you trade your used goods for money, Bunz was taking it really old-school by being a platform all about trading goods for goods. The last time I heard about something like this, Hudson’s Bay was a fur trader, not a big department store. The more digging I did, the more I fell in love with what Bunz is all about. It wasn’t just about trading, it was about building a community, disrupting modern capitalism and focusing on good will and helping people in need. It’s also about helping millennials specifically navigate this new world we’re in where incomes are low, prices are high, and we also need to think about living more sustainable and environmentally consciously. So, I was really thrilled when Eli Klein, Manager of Publicity & Partnerships at Bunz, reached out to me because I actually really wanted to have someone from the core Bunz team on the show. In this episode, we chat more in-depth about what Bunz is and it’s main philosophy, as well as the different aspects of Bunz including trading with the app and the hundreds of Facebook groups (which I’m obsessed with). Helpful Resources Check out the Bunz blog to read stories from the Bunz team & community and more Learn more about how Bunz got started Listen to the Bunz Podcast Download the Bunz Trading app Read Bunz Wedding Zone’s feature in the Walrus (and how it saved one bride from the wedding industrial complex For full episode show notes visit: https://jessicamoorhouse.com/123 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 123 of the Mo Money Podcast. I am your host, Jessica Morehouse. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode. You're going to really like this one because I really like this one. I am interviewing Eli Klein. He's the manager of publicity and partnerships for one of my favorite apps, websites, and Facebook communities, buns. So if you're not a bun like myself and thousands of other people, we are going to get into the nitty gritty of what buns is, how it started, what it serves to do. And it really has an amazing philosophy behind it, which is I think why so many people have gravitated towards buns. It is not just another website or app that promotes trading. You can do that with a Kijiji or a Craigslist.

It's much more than that. It really is about creating communities and relationships and helping each other. That is kind of the core proposition of what Bunz is and why people are crazy about Bunz. Believe me, if you're not already in a couple Facebook groups, well, you need to because I'm part of a bunch and I'm just in there all the time seeing what people are talking about. And you just feel more part of your community. There's one specific to times in your life like weddings or locations like Toronto.

And you really get a feel for what is going on in your city or what people are going through. So you're going to really love this episode. But before I get to that, here are a few words about this episode's sponsor. So you're racing against the clock to wrap up three projects, prepping for a meeting later in the afternoon, all while trying to tackle a mountain of paperwork. Welcome to life as a freelancer. Challenging? You bet it is. But our friends at FreshBooks believe the rewards are so worth it. Let's be honest, the working world has changed. With the growth of the internet, there's never been more opportunities for the self-employed.

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slash mo and enter Mo Money Podcast in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Once again, that's freshbooks.com slash m o and enter Mo Money Podcast in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Thanks, Eli, for joining me on the Mo Money podcast. I'm excited to talk about buns. One of my favorite things. You're welcome. Thanks for having me. First, I've got to ask, what is buns or like where did that name specifically come from? So when buns was first born in the summer of 2013, it was called the bums trading zone b-u-m-s and as in as in can i bum a smoke oh yeah to bum something from somebody but it was pretty uh it was decided quite early on that that was probably derogatory probably not a good yeah yeah and it

was really a kind of a meaningless word. That it's just, you know, it's a little bit more of a respectful iteration, let's call it. It's a fun word, buns. Yeah, it is a fun word. And, you know, it's become a verb. It's become a lot of different things. I think people like being a bun, you know, we talk about buns, we use the word very fluidly in terms of like talking about the community or like, what is like an un-buns-like behavior, you know, just things like that. we talk about buns. We use the word very fluidly in terms of like talking about the community or like what, what is like an un-buns like behavior, you know,

just things like that. Totally. I know it's taken on a life of its own. I'm part of a number of the buns Facebook groups. And I love when people were like, Hey buns, as if we're all buns. I know.

I was thinking about that too. And in terms of like when they're trying to read somebody specific, like, Hey biking buns or like, Hey money management buns or hey, people who like chili buns. Exactly. And it's true.

It's like, it's not offensive. It's cute. It's short. It's fun. It's memorable, especially with the zen at the end. That's interesting. So it's, I would love to kind of know

what the story of buns and how it's grown to what it is. I didn't realize it started in 2013 because I feel like the first time I really started getting, you know, people started to really talk about buns. And it was more at that point, just for like the trading zone portion was, I want to say maybe in 2014, 2015.

And at the time, everyone thought it was like the craziest thing that you could like trade a bottle of wine for a house plant. Yeah, I know. And it just seemed, and people still are pretty amazed by the sort of the novel, the novelty of it, I guess. And I mean that like novel in like a, in like a new way, like a new, you know, that it still is very new to people.

I mean, I got on board late 2014. I think I signed on in January January 2015 to the actual Facebook group. But yeah, in the beginning, it was really about what Emily, it was sort of what she saw in her community was need, essentially, and that people didn't have money and needed something, a way to get things in their life that they needed. You know, for her, it was a matter of necessity for her life at the time. You know, she was living head to mouth.

She was working at a vintage store and she had sort of learned resourcefulness about her. She grew up in a large family in Ottawa. You know, it know, her, it's what her family needed to do to make ends meet. Um, and, uh, you know, it's Bunce is really built on talking about not just what you have, but what you need and, uh, also what you wish you had, you know, and that's where this sort of symbiosis slash sort of serendipity comes in, you know, it connects people, magic sort of happensiosis slash sort of serendipity comes in you know it connects people magic sort of happens it's kind of oddly organic but i think um that sort of stems from the truly sort of good nature of what bartering is about uh and you know to take it a

step further i think that's sort of where um capitalism maybe sort of fails now it sort of has no good nature um You know, good things can come out of people making and spending money. But I think what is left here is a real sense of goodwill that we can all move forward together in life. Definitely. And also like a big sense of trust because it's, you know, especially when I first heard it, first heard I'm like oh I don't know if I trust a stranger like to meet them and to trade something but it's also like well we're kind of a little bit used to that with like Craigslist and Gigi meeting up to sell your iPhone or whatever so you got a little bit of that and I think yeah like the people that participate in buns are you know yeah they're kind of a certain type of person. And what I really like,

too, is people are very passionate about it, very involved and very protective of it and protective of the community. I've seen lots of buns where people will call out other people for like not following the rules or being disrespectful, and then they'll be kind of dealt with or kicked out or whatever. And I really like that because it's, this isn't, you know, it could have easily turned into a huge, you know, forum where there's just a bunch of trolls and, you know, people that just want to say a bunch of stuff, which is, I think, hard to make sure it doesn't evolve into. The trolls are still there. They're still there, but it's not as apparent in my mind, like, because there's a lot of other things that are way worse. I mean, just like the comment section of any news website.

No, it's true. I mean, we really, we put the community first in terms of their needs. And that started pretty early on, you know, January 2016, I think is when we first really put the admin team together and wrote the standards, community standards, which still live now. And, you know, that was a long process of trying to figure out what people's needs were. How can we accentuate trust in an environment which is sort of rampantly anonymous? I think that, and I think we've done an okay job. I think where people... This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network.

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