Myths about borrowing

At neigh*borrow we think that clarity will go a long way in helping people embrace the new sharing economy. So we want to help clear up a few myths about borrowing.

Myth Number 1: Borrowing = Free

Borrowing does not necessarily equal FREE. Borrowing refers to the fact that you are going to return it, it has nothing to do with pricing. You are borrowing everything you rent, but you are not necessarily renting everything you borrow. The perfect item to borrow is something that you do not need to use all the time, regardless of whether you need to use it ONCE or ONCE IN AWHILE. We know better than to try and re-write the dictionary or try and re-teach our audience about the definition of a word- the point we are trying to make is that borrowing is not about a price, it's about access. It's about "velocity of use". Since a drill is used infrequently on an individual basis, the goal is to get it used frequently, collectively; regardless of the underlying motivation.

We are getting a whole bunch of feedback about pricing. Some lenders want the option to make a few bucks when they lend something out. Some just want to lend things to support their community and do good deeds. Both are perfectly awesome reasons:)

Again, the economics are secondary, anything that motivates you to USE AND SAVE rather than OWN AND WASTE is our goal..

So next time you think of borrowing, think FREquency, not necessarily Free.

-thanks to Cameron Tonkinwise for his wise feedback

Myth #2 - borrowing is just for people who can't afford to own... (coming next week)

Looking to borrow a soldering iron. Filled in 2 seconds!

We have been seeing some great stuff happening in our Seattle facebook group recently, but nothing as cool as the offer that was filled in 2 seconds.

We have always admired the efficiency and scope of Freecycle. It is a great organization that provides free items to people who need them and keeps these items out of land fills. I've heard many times of the efficiency of a simple yahoo email list; when something good is listed, it GOES, FAST.

I was curios to see if the same thing could happen in the opposite direction, and it did!

Conventional wisdom suggests it should be no surprise that where there is a giver, there are takers. But would the same be true for people just asking for stuff? Even if they are not offering direct compensation? The answer, which we were pleasantly surprised with, was yes! In 2 seconds flat.

I think it could be a sign!

A rose by any other name

Is it underused asset utilization? Collaborative consumption? Allocative efficiency? Idle capacity reduction? Fractional ownership? Timesharing? 


Or is it just sharing?


When multiple people use the same asset, it's just sharing. And it's just smart. Hotels aren't known as "p2p room sharing networks" (for good reason)- but it makes no sense to buy a whole new house when you go on vacation for a few days, or to bring your existing house with you. 


Access is the new own. Assets will (should) be more like that famous coffee commercial, "good til the last drop".

Get your viral url ID here...

Some of you are starting to discover a great new tool we are using to introduce people to new features and upgrades on the site. Rather than keep it running in the background, we wanted to introduce our integration with LAUNCHROCK.com and how it will affect your experience on neighborrow.

If you already have a group or if you are already verified, your account most likely will not be affected, but we still would LOVE IT if you go to v2.neighborrow.com and get your unique URL and use it to invite people to the site.

If you don't have an account already, we are using this tool to manage how new members can access the site.

As a site that relies on not only geographic proximity but social proximity for exchanges, as well as a critical mass of users in each "neigh*borrow-hood", launchrock is a perfect fit for us.

If you try to create a group or borrow something and are redirected to v2.neighborrow.com, don't despair, it's super easy to get started and these tools help us keep the community close knit and thriving.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS

1. You will be directed to v2.neighborrow.com and asked to enter your email
2. You will receive a unique url
3. Post this url anywhere you can- Lauchrock tracks the people who follow that link and sign up because of you
4. The more people you get to sign up, the more quickly you will gain access yourself. We will also have contests and upgrades based on your invites. 
5. You can check your progress (Launchrock is a 3rd party site we can't touch the numbers) by going back to v2.neighborrow.com and seeing how you are doing.. We will post the exact number of invites needed to reach your goal (for example, you need 8 to start a group)

Help her borrow...

Support 3 great organizations at once!

Investing in our raise helps support Profounder's launch, GoodsforGood's incredible mission, and of course... neigh*borrow.

We are thrilled to join the other entrepreneurs in Profounder's first class of companies to seek public "crowdfunding."

The Internet is one of the most disruptive mediums in history and will continue to drastically change the way people communicate, consume and live. Peer-to-peer networks and transactions are thriving and we continue to see amazing innovation in this space. It has even begun to change how start-ups raise their initial capital! :)

You need the hole, not the drill.

Borrowing (heavily) from the simplistic experiment, goingtorain.com, we are adding (another) experiment to neighborrow, drillavailable.neighborrow.com. We are building an inventory of every drill in America and creating a marketplace for short term use.

The page shows the real-time availability and current price for access to a power drill within 3 miles of your current location.

Rachel Botsman and Roo Rodgers point out in their book, "What's mine is yOURs" that the average drill is used between 7 and 13 minutes in its lifetime. They also guess there are around 50 million drills currently sitting in people's homes today.

That just doesn't make any sense! Even @ $50/drill (and power drills cost much more) people are paying $300 an HOUR just to own a drill. Silliness! We can do better than that. Let's see how many of them we can catalog (and help the other half of the households when they need a hole and not a drill).

Victor Papanec would be proud!