Product·3 min read·12 May 2026
Why we are building WorkMate
A founder note on the gap in Irish services marketplaces and what we are choosing to optimise for.
By Oguzhan
A founder note on the gap in Irish services marketplaces and what we are choosing to optimise for.
By Oguzhan
If you have ever hired a tradesperson in Ireland, you know the drill. You search, you find a name, you ring them three times, you get a quote on the back of a receipt, and you cross your fingers. If you are the tradesperson, the same friction runs the other way: you pay a directory monthly, you buy leads that have been sold to four other people, and you chase the customer for a deposit that may or may not arrive.
This is not a complaint about Irish trades. It is an observation about the tools both sides have been handed.
Generic lead-buying sites charge tradespeople for the privilege of pitching, with no real check that the customer is ready to hire. Five quotes per job is good for the platform; it is expensive and demoralising for the provider.
Cheque-by-text arrangements between customer and provider work fine until they don't — and when they don't, there is no platform to escalate to.
International marketplaces that treat Ireland as an afterthought (one shared pool with the UK, no Eircode validation, no awareness of Revenue or the CRO) end up serving neither side well.
WorkMate is built around three commitments.
Payment held until the work is done. Customers authorise on a card; nothing moves until the job is marked complete. Five days to confirm release, fourteen days to dispute, and the funds release automatically if everyone is happy.
One platform, one verification. Providers go through Stripe Connect KYC — identity, business legal documents, bank ownership — once. We do not ask for the same documents twice and we do not process personal identity papers manually. That is a GDPR principle as much as a UX one.
Fair pricing both ways. Customers pay a small service fee at checkout; providers pay a transparent commission per accepted job. There is a Pro subscription tier with extras, but the platform works for non-subscribed providers too. No lead-buying.
I am writing this from a desk in Ireland. WorkMate is run as an Irish sole trader, registered under "Workmate" with the Companies Registration Office, and operates below the services VAT threshold while we get to scale. That is not a marketing line — it is why the prices on this site do not show VAT yet, and why our Terms describe a single-operator entity.
There are not a thousand jobs on the platform yet. Some of the providers reading this are people I know by first name. That is fine. The goal of this first phase is not volume — it is to prove that a small, transparent marketplace in Ireland can run honestly, pay on time, and keep its word.
About the author
Oguzhan
Founder, WorkMate. Building a transparent services marketplace in Ireland.
Payments
What the Irish Consumer Rights Act 2022 cooling-off period means before you accept a quote, after you accept one, and once work has started.
Security
The compliance bar for providers — what is required, what is encouraged, and how each signal moves you up in search results.
If you are a tradesperson considering joining, the Founding Pro programme is open while the first cohort settles. If you are a customer, post a job and tell us where the experience falls short. There is a real person at the other end of every reply.
— Oguzhan