# Prefer

> Prefer was a New York-first mobile marketplace that helped consumers find independent service professionals through recommendations from their own contacts. Professionals could manage bookings and payments while paying a 3% to 5% transaction fee. The company later closed; cofounder Scott Belsky published a retrospective on its referral network and product lessons.

- **Founded:** 2015
- **Headquarters:** New York and San Francisco, United States
- **Founders:** Scott Belsky (Cofounder and executive chairman), Julio Vasconcellos (Cofounder and CEO)
- **Products:** Prefer consumer app, Prefer professional app, Soloist Collective
- **Notable:** Launched publicly in New York City on May 1, 2017., Reported more than 400 professionals in beta and a few thousand test users at launch., Built a member-led Soloist Collective that Belsky said continued growing after the app ended.

## Products & services

- **Prefer consumer app** — A mobile marketplace for discovering and booking service professionals recommended by friends and phone contacts.
- **Prefer professional app** — A companion tool for independent professionals to manage clients, scheduling, bookings and payments.
- **Soloist Collective** — A member-led peer community for independent service professionals.

## Achievements

- Launched publicly in New York City on May 1, 2017.
- Reported more than 400 professionals in beta and a few thousand test users at launch.
- Built a member-led Soloist Collective that Belsky said continued growing after the app ended.

## Latest updates

- **2017-05** — Public launch in New York City with Series A backing disclosed.
- **2019-07** — Scott Belsky published a postmortem saying the team had closed Prefer after at least three major pivots.

## Links

- Website: http://www.prefer.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/preferapp
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/prefer
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PreferApp/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/prefer
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-29