SkillSlate or SkillSlate.com is a New York City-based start–up firm with the purpose of matching up individual service providers with customers via the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

. The firm raised $1.1 million in capital in October 2010 with investments from Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners is a multi-billion dollar global venture capital firm focusing on investments in early stage companies in the technology and healthcare sectors....

 and First Round Capital

First Round Capital

First Round Capital is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies. Managed by Josh Kopelman, Chris Fralic, Rob Hayes and Howard L. Morgan, the Philadelphia-based company typically provides seed-stage investment that ranges from $250,000 to $500,000...

. It helps small individual service providers, such as dog walkers, DJ

Disc jockey

A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...

s, handymen

Handyman

A handyman is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, both interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as "odd jobs", "fix-up tasks", and include light plumbing jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet...

, tutor

Tutor

A tutor is a person employed in the education of others, either individually or in groups. To tutor is to perform the functions of a tutor.-Teaching assistance:...

s and movers

Moving company

A moving company, removalist, or van line is a company that helps people and businesses relocate their goods from one place to another. Typically they use moving vans, but for international moves or where storage is required, they may use special containerised vans or shipping containers.National...

, market themselves on the web as well as help customers find them. According to a website description, SkillSlate helps the pages of service providers surface more prominently in search engine results. At present SkillSlate serves the New York metropolitan area

New York metropolitan area

The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...

 but there are plans to roll out service nationally. Competitors include Craigslist

Craigslist

Craigslist is a centralized network of online communities featuring free online classified advertisements, with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums....

, Geotoko, FoundTown, Closely, Proposable, Resource Nation

Resource Nation

Resource Nation is located in San Diego, California and has an office in Santa Monica, California and Boston, Massachusetts. The company connects businesses with local and national vendors and allows them to compare based on price, geographic region, industry specialty, and other specifications...

, Flowtown, Buzzuka, Spoke

Spoke (website)

Spoke is a business directory and social networking site co-founded by Ben T. Smith, IV in 2002 and launched in 2003 mainly used for professional networking. The site collects and aggregates information from public sources, private databases and member uploads...

, GoBuzz, Traindom, Hooray, Thumbtack

Thumbtack (website)

Thumbtack is an internet marketplace for local services, launched in December 2009. Thumbtack allows service providers and consumers to find each other and negotiate jobs online...

, and others, as well as classified advertising

Classified advertising

Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge...

 in newspapers. According to Fortune Magazine, the idea for the site was conceived by venture capitalist

Venture capital

Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

 Barkek Ringwelski while working at Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners is a multi-billion dollar global venture capital firm focusing on investments in early stage companies in the technology and healthcare sectors....

when he found he could not find a cleaning person; he raised $50,000 from family and friends in May of 2009 and launched the firm.