The Sharing Economy- Time To Invest!

Opportunity For Direct Early Investment.

This article is two fold, I believe in transparency from the outset.

Firstly, Why I became involved in the sharing economy (RentMy) and Secondly, the opportunity to invest in what has been referred to as a 'Sparkle' (I am reliably informed this is what a baby Unicorn is called). Those who know me, will raise an eyebrow as I detest the constant talk of Unicorns within the investment world, but rather selfishly, like the reference in this instance.

So, why did I become interested in the sharing economy?

In truth, it found me; well the founder of Rentmy and pioneer of the sharing economy did. As part of our day to day service offering, we support founders in preparing themselves for entering the world of scale, form Start-up to Scale-up. It was off the back of a referral that I met Tom West, the founder of RentMy. Tom was embarking on a new journey. Already having been successful in several other sectors, his passion was clearly driven to realising his vision that was born some 10+ years previous during a vacation. "He wanted to hire a kayak, but couldn't, despite the abundance of idle Kayak's sitting in front gardens".

The first step was for me to really understand what it was he was trying to do and most importantly what it meant to others (what problem did it solve, who cared, how would users benefit...) This was followed by a reportedly gruelling 'Founders Fitness Test'. This doesn't involve any screaming PT's or Push-ups! It is designed using several non-industry techniques and models to identify strengths, weaknesses and impingements to driving the concept or business forward.

Having spent much of my career supporting Digital, Software, Technology and Data innovation and businesses, predominantly within the Health, Security, Law Enforcement and Environmental sectors, I was immediately able to see the rapidly approaching tsunami of need for a better solution to our growing Collaborative Economy ( more commonly known as the Sharing Economy)

It wasn't more than 6 hours into session's with Tom that I could see where he had come from and where he was wanting to go to! I could also see where others who have tried to address this market had failed, or more to the point, where they will fail to embrace the needs of this rapidly growing demand. Applying technology from other sectors, perceived by many to be a similar transaction is far from the answer! This needed ground-up innovation, subject matter experts, participatory design and forensic modelling, pretty much how we have previously approached many of our innovative solutions delivered into the aforementioned stringent and unforgiving sectors.

What a waste! What an opportunity!

This is where my fascination started. I was immediately thinking of the multiple items in my garage: chainsaw, strimmers, chop saws, mowers, drills and the ubiquitous gazebo. All of these are used occasionally, sitting idle for the majority of the time. What a waste! What an opportunity!

Talking of waste and association to being more sustainable, having spent years advising and implementing solutions around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's), the outputs of the Sharing Economy are aligned to so many of the SDG's!

$336 billion by 2025 (only three years away)

Of course, as an investor, we all need to know the potential return. To set the seed, the market is growing faster than my waistline during the month of December! With the sharing economy set to deliver revenues of $336 billion by 2025 (only three years away) which is a 2,133% increase from 2013, give reassuring market sentiment. The contributing factors for such statistics would result in this being a relatively short article to something requiring considerable time to peruse. Of course, for those interested, I can share plenty of insight and papers.

So, in summary; the Sharing Economy market is one which resonates with my personal beliefs and needs and certainly addresses my commercial entrepreneurial drivers. This is why I became so interested in the sharing economy, leading to my personal involvement in the development of RentMy, with the inspiring Founder Tom West firmly at the helm (I am pleased to announce his fitness test results even impressed Joe Wicks of tech start-ups).

Opportunity To Invest!

In November we decided to open up a 'Cornerstone Investor Round' for RentMy. We hit our first target within 6 hours.

I want to extend the offer of investing into Rentmy at the very earliest stage to my LinkedIn network. Please follow this link to access our pitch-deck.

As this is very much focusing on the rapidly evolving Collaborative Economy (specifically the #sharingeconomy ), LinkedIn seemed a great place to open it up.

Of course, if you simply want to be one of the Founding Member you can claim your place here, ready for when we launch in your area! (Its Free and you will get Founding Member benefits!)