Home · How requests work
Two ways to ask for data, and what happens next
Buyers used to email us asking whether a dataset existed, and suppliers used to email us asking what buyers wanted. Both questions now have a place on the marketplace, and the process is the same for everyone. This page is the whole of it.
Which one
A signal or a commitment
An interest card says “we would look at this if it existed.” A dataset request says “we will buy this, here is the spec and the budget.” Start with whichever is true.
Interest card
The light and fast version. No budget, no deadline, no bidding. Anonymous to suppliers. On the board for 90 days, renewable in one click. Suppliers answer with a listing or a lead time.
Dataset request
The full version. A specification suppliers are judged against, a budget, an optional proposal deadline and quality floor. Open to every supplier, or invited: sent only to the suppliers who answered your card. Proposals from certified listings only. Ends in a selection, a delivery and an acceptance decision.
By email
Still works. We post what you asked for as an interest card on your behalf, tell you where it is, and attach it to your account when you have one. Your name never appears on the board.
The light version
Interest cards
3 cards are open on the board right now.
Post a card
One screen, no budget, no deadline: what you would look at, where it should be captured, how, roughly how much and roughly when. Two minutes.
Suppliers answer
Every approved supplier sees the card, without your name. They answer with a listing they already have, or say they can supply it and how soon. These are statements of supply, not bids: there is no queue, nothing is reserved, and a shop can point at most three listings at one card.
You decide
Read the answers side by side. Buy a listing that fits. When you want something made, write a request with the spec and budget, open to everyone or sent only to the suppliers who answered. Or leave the card open and keep collecting. The card is never itself a deal.
The full version
Dataset requests
For when you know what you need and are ready to pay for it.
Specify
The full spec: tasks, environments, modalities, devices, minimum hours and episodes, format, licence, exclusivity, budget, and a proposal deadline if you want one. Optionally a KB Quality floor.
Suppliers propose
Only certified listings can be proposed, and only ones that clear your grade floor. You see proposals without supplier names until you select one.
Select, deliver, accept
You pick one proposal. The supplier delivers. You have 7 days to accept or reject a commissioned delivery, and payment to the supplier follows acceptance, not the click.
What suppliers see, and what they do not
A supplier reading a card or a request sees the specification, the kind of organisation asking and, if you gave one, a region. They do not see your name, your company or your email. A buyer reading answers sees what was said and, for a listing answer, the listing; they do not see which shop said it until a proposal is selected. Kinetic Blocks sits in the middle so the conversation goes through a listing or a request rather than round the marketplace.
When money moves
Buying a listed dataset: your payment is captured at checkout and the supplier's share is held for 5 business days, the acceptance period in the Data Licence Agreement, before it is transferred. Commissioning through a request: the charge is raised when you accept the delivery, and a delivery you have not decided on within 7 days is deemed accepted. An accepted rejection cancels the supplier's share instead of clawing it back.
What we do not do
We do not match you to suppliers by algorithm, we do not sell your request to anyone, and we do not let a supplier mark their own answer as the winner. Every state change on a request is made by the buyer who posted it, and every change Kinetic Blocks makes to a card on your behalf is logged with a reason and shown to you.
Ask for what you need
Post an interest card in two minutes, or write the full request when you are ready to commission.