If you’re involved in a startup, you no doubt have a lot of ideas and a lot of energy to get them done, but very little money to spend doing it.  Many times, services are either cobbled together in-house (with mixed results) or much-needed funds are diverted to pay for those services.

Often times, startups might get together and barter goods and services to accomplish this.  Usually the process if pretty informal, but it only happens between those who know one another directly.  A startup in New York might have never even heard of one that has the services they need, but is located in San Diego.

That’s where TheSwop.com comes in.  It formalizes those barter agreements by not only putting the two startups together, but creating a way for them to favor-trade in a more professional atmosphere.

The site runs on “favor points,” which are traded and earned when services are provided or purchased.  The setup and idea is pretty simple.  If your marketing guy is available, he could offer his services (in your startup’s name) on TheSwop for a number of favor points.  When a taker grabs the opportunity, the work is done and the points awarded.  Later, when your startup needs some copywriting done, you can save the cash hiring a copywriter and instead find one using your points on TheSwop.

TheSwop is free to use, though some premium items require payment (such as access to a total list of participants).  Obviously, money was invented for a reason, so at some point, actually paying for services will be the next step for your startup.  However, when money is tight during the beginning stages, this might be a great option.

So far, participants are mostly in the United States and Europe, but the site is world-wide.  Everything from design/development to office space and PR are offered on the site by other startups.  TheSwop was also one of the Tech50 at TechCrunch this year.