Yuup, a new online marketplace where you can book and gift experiences in Bristol launches this month. With the aim of helping local businesses and individuals with a talent or an idea to create new opportunities, find customers, and unlock new means for sustainable income, Yuup is forecast to inject £1.1 million into the local economy and create 125 jobs in its first year.
Yuup launches with 100 experiences to book or gift ranging from creating ceramics in Southville, discovering blood and butchery in Bedminster and learning to cook Thai food in Totterdown. It aims to have 500 experiences live within the next 12 months.
Yuup was developed over the COVID-19 lockdown and fuelled out of a desire to support small businesses, solopreneurs and creative and innovative people with a passion they want to turn into an income stream. The business’ goal is for over 90% of its experiences to be run by Bristol-based independents and people sharing a skill or a side hustle. Yuup is also going to be working with community-led partnerships to ensure the experiences offered are inclusive of the city’s rich and diverse culture.
The brainchild of Bristol resident and serial entrepreneur Dominic Mills, Yuup was born from his own personal experience. He commented, “Everyone knows there’s so many amazing things to experience in Bristol – from arts and craft, to food and drink and sports and adventure, but there wasn’t a resource where you could easily find it all and book (or gift) in one place. Yuup is a new, sustainable and mutually beneficial way to support the local economy and it couldn’t be easier – anyone can go onto the marketplace and book or gift an experience from 21st September.’
“The events of this year have been really hard on everyone, with many small businesses within the city feeling the full brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic on their bottom lines. We believe Yuup will be a true force for good, enabling small and microbusinesses to unlock a whole host of new opportunities to help bolster their revenue streams. At the same time, following months of being under lockdown, what could be better for local people than the opportunity to get out and try something new in the city.”
Dominic is a former Board Director at Bristol-based digital agency Zone, and he enlisted some of the alumni to become part of the Yuup founding team, who have invested their own money to support the launch.
Yuup is a local business designed and developed by people in the city, and takes the Bristol circular economy very seriously. All parties involved in bringing Yuup to market, from sales and marketing to web development, are based in the city.
All experiences have been carefully thought through to ensure they are COVID-19 safe, taking place in small, socially distanced groups that make for a great personalised activity.
Yuup is always on the hunt for new experiences to add to its marketplace. For those who have a skill to share, a talent to expose, a coveted craft or an exciting side hustle just go to Yuup.co to sign up as an experience host.
Shona Wright
Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to.
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