A NEIGHBOR IN BECKLEY FIXES A LEAKY FAUCET, A NEIGHBOR IN BERKELEY SPRINGS TEACHES HER SOURDOUGH STARTER. NEITHER PAYS THE OTHER A DOLLAR.

That's the West Virginia we grew up in. The one where a wave from a porch turns into a borrowed ladder. Where a casserole at the church potluck turns into a tutoring trade for the kid down the street.

But that informal economy, the one that kept our hollers and small towns standing for generations, is fading. Outmigration, broadband gaps, and the slow erosion of "third places" mean a lot of West Virginians don't know who lives three doors down anymore, let alone what they could trade.

SkillRoot is how we bring it back at scale, on purpose, across all 55 counties.

WHAT SKILLROOT DOES

SkillRoot is a free app that matches West Virginia neighbors based on the skills they have and the skills they need—within a 25-mile radius by default.

A retired electrician in Logan trades a panel inspection for guitar lessons from a college kid down the road.

A homeschool mom in Morgantown swaps math tutoring for a neighbor's help re-shingling her shed.

A laid-off coal worker in Welch offers small-engine repair in exchange for someone teaching him how to build a Squarespace site for his side hustle.

No money changes hands. No algorithm trying to keep you scrolling. Just a hyperlocal, ZIP-based matching tool—built for the way West Virginians already help each other.

WHY $135,000—AND WHY NOW

This isn't a pilot for one city. We're launching across all eight WV regions at the same time, because waiting to "prove it" in one ZIP first would betray the model. The whole point is that a neighbor in the Eastern Panhandle should be able to find one in the coalfields if their skills line up.

Here's where every dollar goes:

What

Amount

Share

App development & infrastructure

$45K-$55K

37%

Statewide marketing & user acquisition

$25K-$35K

22%

Regional community partnerships (libraries, colleges, extension offices)

$20K-$28K

18%

On-the-ground launch events (5 regions)

$15K-$22K

13%

Operations, legal, trust & safety

$8K-$12K

7%

Contingency buffer

$10K-$15K

10%

We're publishing a full transparent budget at skillroot.lovable.app/fund and we'll post quarterly updates here showing exactly what was spent and what was built.

OUR NORTH STAR: WAST/1K

Most apps brag about signups. We don't care about signups. We care about real, completed neighbor-to-neighbor exchanges, normalized by population.

We call it WAST/1K—Weekly Active Skill Trades per 1,000 residents.

It's the one number that proves we're actually helping West Virginians, not just collecting email addresses.

Year 1 target: 0.5 WAST/1K (proof of demand)

Year 2 target: 2.1 WAST/1K (regional saturation)

Year 3 target: 5.0 WAST/1K (statewide infrastructure)

If we hit 13, that's roughly 9,000 completed neighbor trades every single week across the state. From a $135K seed.

WHY WE BUILT THIS IN WEST VIRGINIA, NOT BROOKLYN

Because the problem is sharper here. Because the solution scales better here. And because if you can build neighbor-to-neighbor infrastructure that works in a state where 40% of residents live in rural areas and broadband is uneven, it works anywhere.

WV is the proof. Once it's running, we federate the model to other rural states that have asked: Vermont, Maine, eastern Kentucky, the Mississippi Delta, the Navajo Nation.

But it starts here. With your help.

WHAT YOU GET FOR CHIPPING IN

(We're not a 501(c)(3) yet—we're exploring fiscal sponsorship), so donations aren't tax-deductible.

HOW TO HELP EVEN IF YOU CAN'T DONATE

Share this campaign—text it to one West Virginian who would get it.

Join the waitlist at skillroot.lovable.app; drop your ZIP so we know where to launch first.

Reach out about a regional partnership—libraries, colleges, county extension offices, faith communities.

Become a regional ambassador—we're recruiting one in every WV region.

WHO'S BEHIND THIS

SkillRoot is being built by a small team whose family trees are firmly rooted in West Virginia. We reside in West Virginia and want to bring a healthy way to expand your network of friendships. We have no investors. No VCs telling us what to do. Just a commitment to building something that's still here in 10 years, owned by the communities it serves.

You can read our Privacy Pledge at skillroot.lovable.app/privacy-pledge—it's five plain-English promises we make about your data, including that we'll never sell it and you can export and delete everything in two clicks.

HELP US PROVE THE MODEL IN WEST VIRGINIA, THEN TAKE IT NATIONAL

Your neighbor already knows something worth sharing.

Now we're giving them the tools to do it.

Donate. Share. Or just join the waitlist.

→skillroot.lovable.app