Age-Old Business Practice Meets 21st Century

Business Wire, Oct 1, 1998

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 1998--Two forces have garnered much news attention: the economic fallout abroad and the rise of e-commerce at home.

Lasso!, an Internet company with offices in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, sees connections between the two forces in terms of its mission to help small businesses succeed in both the good and bad times.

As a leading Internet-based barter exchange, Lasso! extends an age-old business practice currently used by many of the currently ailing countries -- barter -- with the convenience and efficiency of electronic commerce.

Lasso! allows companies, from multi-chain franchises to freelancers, to barter their goods and services. By allowing members to earn credits for their bartered offers, Lasso! enables them to spend those credits on any available service within the network.

"The benefits of barter directly impact the bottom line of our customers," says Harvey Greenbaum, spokesperson for Lasso! "They conserve hard-earned cash, expand their network of customers and suppliers, and get rid of excess inventory, such as empty seats in a restaurant, unused time as a graphic designer, or even just goods lying around. It's pure win-win."

Lasso! distinguishes itself through its user-friendly transaction system, making it easy for users to define what they want to barter by quantity, item-code, and even time. It also exploits the Internet's ability to provide real-time transaction, email updates, and 24-hour access to account information.

At a time when electronic commerce focuses on either retail consumer goods (like books, CDs, or Beanie Babies), or large-scale applications between corporations, Lasso! provides a service targeting an overlooked population in the Internet revolution: small businesses and freelancers, particularly in the service sector. Areas they have already had success are graphic designers, restaurants, media publications, and bed-and-breakfasts.

"Our central mission is to provide value. Especially in the Internet-space, where there is a lot of hype and info-tainment, our commitment is to provide tangible, bottom-line value to our customers, and barter is a known, tried-and-true business practice that can achieve this. We help it along by being excellent in our technology and customer service," adds CEO Timothy Fong.

Lasso! is a California-based company with offices in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, California that targets small businesses and freelancers seeking to improve their bottom-line through Internet-based barter.

SOURCE: DigitalWork, http://www.digitalwork.com