Skip to content

Visual Skills Marketplace: AI-Powered Skill Trading for Creatives

Creatives need to constantly learn new tools and techniques to stay relevant, but courses are expensive and generic. Meanwhile, every creative has niche skills others would pay to learn. This app creates a liquid marketplace where creatives trade knowledge through AI-verified, bite-sized teaching sessions.

App Concept

  • AI agent analyzes creative portfolios and tool proficiency to identify teachable skills
  • Creatives list micro-skills they can teach (15-30 min sessions): "Mastering Cinema 4D cloth physics," "Color grading for Instagram reels"
  • Students browse skills, book 1-on-1 video sessions, and pay with credits or cash
  • AI monitors sessions (with consent) to verify quality, extract key learnings, and generate study guides
  • After each session: AI creates shareable recap with timestamps, resources, and action items
  • Skill verification system: AI analyzes students' work post-lesson to confirm skill transfer
  • Community reputation: Teachers earn badges for verified skill transfers and positive reviews

Core Mechanism

  • Portfolio analysis AI suggests skills you could teach based on your work quality and tool mastery
  • List your skills with example work, pricing, and availability
  • Students search by skill, tool, or creative challenge ("How to animate like [artist]")
  • Book 30-min sessions via integrated video platform (Zoom/Google Meet API)
  • AI assistant joins call (optional), takes notes, identifies key techniques being taught
  • Post-session: AI generates study guide with screenshots, resources, and practice exercises
  • Students upload practice work for AI evaluation and optional teacher feedback
  • Gamification: "Skill Trees" show learning paths, unlocking advanced sessions as you master basics
  • Credits economy: Earn credits by teaching, spend credits learning (reduces cash friction)

Monetization Strategy

  • Transaction fee: 20% commission on all paid sessions
  • Credit purchases: Buy learning credits in bundles ($50 = 5 credits, $200 = 25 credits with 20% bonus)
  • Premium membership ($29/month): Reduced fees (10%), priority booking, session recordings, AI study guides
  • Enterprise tier ($299/month per seat): Companies buy credits for employee skill development
  • Certification partnerships: Issue verified skill badges recognized by Adobe, Behance, LinkedIn

Viral Growth Angle

  • Public skill showcase: Teachers create free 5-min "skill teaser" videos that demonstrate expertise
  • Social proof loop: Students share AI-generated study guides on Twitter/LinkedIn with teacher attribution
  • Challenge campaigns: Monthly skill challenges with leaderboard (best Cinema 4D render, fastest Photoshop workflow)
  • Creator partnerships: Popular YouTubers offer exclusive 1-on-1 sessions on the platform
  • Network effect: The more teachers, the more diverse skills; the more students, the better for teachers

Existing projects

  • Anthropic Claude Skills - AI skill framework but not a marketplace (inspiration from HN)
  • Skillshare - Pre-recorded courses, not live 1-on-1 sessions
  • MentorCruise - Long-term mentorship, not micro-skill trading
  • ADPList - Free design mentorship, not skill-specific marketplace
  • Superpeer - Creator monetization platform but not AI-assisted learning

Evaluation Criteria

  • Emotional Trigger: Evoke magic (learn from the best), be prescient (stay ahead of trends), be original (develop unique style)
  • Idea Quality: Rank: 9/10 - High emotional resonance (mastery is core creative need) + network effects + AI verification adds trust + timely with Claude Skills launch
  • Need Category: Growth & Mastery (Self-Actualization) - Developing unique creative style and mastering new techniques
  • Market Size: ~50M creatives worldwide × $29/month membership + transaction fees = $1.45B+ TAM
  • Build Complexity: Medium - Video platform integration, AI session monitoring, portfolio analysis, credit economy, verification system
  • Time to MVP: 6-8 weeks with AI coding agents (core marketplace logic is standard, AI learning verification is novel but achievable)
  • Key Differentiator: Only platform combining AI-powered skill discovery, live 1-on-1 micro-teaching, session quality verification, and peer-to-peer credit economy specifically for creative professionals