(Photo: Zaarly.com)

When Bo Fishback dropped by the Betabeat offices last December, the 9 million foot tall Zaarly cofounder told us how he had just added 1,250 New York-based small businesses to his burgeoning peer-to-peer local marketplace. That way, service providers like graphic designers and fitness instructors could use Zaarly almost as a lead generation engine for new opportunities nearby.

But from a consumer's perspective, it wasn't necessarily obvious whether a trained chef, say, would be responding to your request for a home cooked dinner, or just a neighbor with a beat up copy of the Momofuku cook book.

Today, however, Zaarly is upping the ante on empowering the top tier of talented service providers--no surprise considering Mr. Fishback's roots at the Kauffman Foundation for entrepreneurship. With the launch of Zaarly Storefronts, the company, which operates both through a mobile app and online, allows sellers to proactively showcase the services they provide, ideally giving them a venue to grow their business.

For now, the feature is only available in San Francisco starting with 120 featured sellers arranged into categories like Wellness & Fitness and Home Services & Repairs. But TechCrunch reports that Zaarly is already onboarding sellers in New York and Los Angeles.

Individuals have to apply to be featured in Zaarly's seller network, the company explained in a press release. Only after "carefully considering each application," will Zaarly select the "best-of-the-best" on its site. After taking a look at the initial crop of storefronts, it's easy to see why. The pages are sleek and customized, not just plug-and-play. But the company is currently taking applications from those who want to join the network.

As Mr. Fishback said in the press release, “Zaarly makes it easy for people to ‘favorite’ their preferred sellers -- or friends’ preferred sellers -- so they know where to turn for a great mechanic, chef, yoga instructor, handyman, dog walker, gardener or wedding planner.”

When Zaarly started in New York, the occasional glimpse at the app offered mostly listings and requests for products, like a camera or MacBook. It's interesting to watch the company try to build a community with the same intimate feel as TaskRabbit, its primary competitor.

The emphasis on homespun skills is particularly noteworthy considering TaskRabbit's acqui-hire of Skillslate in January.  Before it was bought out, Skillslate, a small New York City company, focused on a similar proposition. You know, for when you needed a last minute firebreather for your pivot party, but weren't sure who to ask.

Mark Ecko's office circa 2009 via Gawker

Back in December, Bo Fishback, CEO of the peer-to-peer marketplace Zaarly, which lets you buy and sell products and services from the people around you, told Betabeat that Zaarly planned to grow its presence in New York City from two full-time employees up to 10 or possibly 30 new staffers.

For the Kansas City-based company, which has raised $15.1 million in a little over a year since it launched, it was a signal of how important New York was both as a market and testing ground. “We hope to learn what we need to know from the New York community to help us go to scale in other cities,” Mr. Fishback told us at the time, along with the news that local staff would be moving into Marc Ecko's building at 40 West 23rd Street. Mr. Ecko is an investor, along with Ashton Kutcher, Michael Arrington, Crunchfund, and Kleiner Perkins.

But earlier today Betabeat was informed that Zaarly was closing down its New York office. "I've heard it's gone," said a source. Mr. Fishback confirmed the news, but said it was, "not really intended to be a big deal, and mostly just temporary moves," he responded by email.

According to Mr. Fishback, Zaarly had always intended for its local office to be more malleable. "It's actually part of the reason that we were paying for folks housing in NYC so that we could have the flexibility to move people around when it made sense," he added. Currently, all of the job listings--most for developers and engineers--on Zaarly's website are for positions based in San Francisco.

This recent adjustment, Mr. Fishback said, is tied to Zaarly's product development strategy. "We're in the midst of making some major product enhancements. So mostly for efficiency's sake, it just made more sense for us to have all our people working together under one roof, in one timezone."

Mr. Fishback said Zaarly is still committed to the community here. "We're regularly flying people out to New York, though, and New York continues to be one of the most active Zaarly cities."

Last June, after Zaarly had been in New York City for a month, Betabeat wasn't able to find a "peer" to deliver us a pack of Dentyne Ice in real-time, even at a considerable markup. And the requests on the site were scant, limited to just over a handful. But a perusal of the iPhone app this afternoon shows a number of requests from users in the five boroughs including a $200 for a Wordpress expert and $2000 for a wedding photographer from the past few days, although it's doesn't appear that those requests have been fulfilled since they were posted.

The Zaarly NYC Twitter account, which had 700 or so followers last June now has more than 5,200 followers and has been actively tweeting at locals--even, in the case of one Elmhurst resident, responding in Tagalog when necessary.

UPDATE: Mr. Fishback offered some clarification, also by email. "I wouldn't actually say we're shutting down given that we've got people there every week still and we didn't get rid of anyone... more just that we're getting a big product push ready to go so it made sense to have as many folks in one place as possible for the moment."

New York staffers are indeed being moved out to San Francisco. "We've got a bulging office there currently. :)," he wrote. He also added that, "NYC is our number one or two market in almost every category and continues to be one of our fastest growing Zaarly communities."

The office, circa 2009.

Zaarly's New York team is about to get a whole lot bigger, from two full-time employees up to a possible ten to 30 employees. To facilitate plans to make New York City an central Zaarly hub, the startup, which is part of a growing crop of companies trying to build a real-time mobile market for people to bid on tasks and goods, has moved from temporary space in Marc Ecko's building at 40 West 23rd Street into an official office under the same roof.

Back in 2009, when Mr. Ecko's urban apparel empire was reportedly facing sizable debt post-recession, the 28,000 sq. ft. space, complete with half-size basketball court and a rumored $9 million-a-year lease, was on the market. But perhaps Mr. Ecko has had better luck with his venture capital fund, Artists & Instigators. According to the fund's website, its portfolio companies claim over $5 billion in revenue.

Both Mr. Ecko and his fund invested in Zaarly's $14.1 million series A round led by Kleiner Perkins.

At the Betabeat offices yesterday, Zaarly co-founder Bo Fishback, a veteran of the Kauffman Foundation for entrepreneurship, said Mr. Ecko had been "Spending some time at Kauffman, leaning from there how to set up Artists & Instigators." But the two didn't actually cross paths until three weeks after Mr. Fishback left Kauffman when they both spoke at the much-loved Big Omaha conference in May. "He came up to me after and was like, 'Dude, love it. Is there anything I can do to help?'" Weeks later, Mr. Ecko offered to invest. Since Kleiner led the round, Mr. Ecko and his fund's investment was in the "hundreds of thousands, not millions," said Mr. Fishback.

As for establishing a New York City hub, Mr. Fishback explained that fairly early on, the startup realized New York would be a vital testing ground. "We hope to learn what we need to know from the New York community to help us go to scale in other cities," he said. Part of that feedback is for an going initiative to incorporate small business into Zaarly to bid on requests.

The company just announced that it has signed agreements with more than 1,250 New York-based small businesses from fitness instructors to writers, graphic designers, tech professionals, catering companies, childcare, pet services, and more. For small service providers, that could transform the site from a peer-to-peer market into a lead gen engine since the companies get text message and email alerts when relevant keywords pop up and chance to bid on request from a buyer for something they've expressed they want. Mr. Fishback said the interaction wouldn't look different for consumers, but there's a chance when you ask for someone to walk your dog, say, a professional dog-walker could be also be bidding for your task.

Zaarly also does all of its community engagement with power users in New York. "We have two guys who are already here now fulltime and it is there job to meet with every single possible user that we can out of thousands. All of the feedback we use to improve our product, that comes from people in New York."

Currently, Zaarly employees are scattered around the country. Its design team is based in Greenville, South Carolina, its mobile team is in Seattle, and Mr. Fishback said he made three hires in Denver recently. "The option is open to all of them: Hey do you want to move?" he said. "I think what’s gonna practically happen is we’ll end up with two major hubs, one will be here and one will be in San Francisco. It turns out a lot of people like to be in New York, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we had quite a big office here."

As a beta testing ground, Mr. Fishback said, New York is unparallelled in its diversity. "Our group of users here has been so awesome and so varied. It’s not just the tech scene. It’s like real humans and that helps us learn so much faster."