The internet is bombarded with online stores where one can buy brand new as well as secondhand products. But the one thing that the web world lacks is portals for renting out anything under the sun.
Well to tackle this deficit, there is a new startup in town called Rentything. With the dawn of ‘sharing economy’ and the social behavioral shift towards ‘disowning things’, it seems that this platform is bang on trend.
Rentything is the AirBnB of renting items. It’s an online peer-sharing marketplace where people can rent anything from sports equipment, cameras, ladders to guitars on an hourly, daily or long-term basis.
Meet The Mastermind!
Conceptualized and co-founded by Martin Wong, Rentything gives you the privilege of renting and renting out things.
Martin has always loved building things. In his words, “it helps keep me sane”. Thus it is not a surprise that he likes learning about startups and upcoming technologies and trends. With the rise of startups like Uber and AirBnb, the sharing economy really caught his attention. He thinks it is a brilliant and growing idea that still has to catch fire. Rentything is Martin’s humble attempt at contributing to the sharing economy.
What Is It About?
Rentything is a peer to peer rental marketplace that let’s anybody rent anything to anybody else. Accessing unused inventory is a problem in many scenarios. Well this app is here to solve this very problem. It is doing so is by giving customers the ability to provide access to their unused inventory as well as get access to others’ unused inventory.
The Driving Force!
“I started thinking about Rentything in the summer of 2012 when I helped my parent’s move into their new house. We needed some tools that we would only need to use once or twice, yet there wasn’t really a place to borrow those items here in Canada. The very next day, my friend posted a message on Facebook asking if we knew any place where he could borrow a megaphone for his daughter’s birthday party. I took that as a sign that it was time to build Rentything, and so I got started”, says Martin.
On Hurdles Faced & Competitors!
For Martin, the biggest challenge was the decision to quit his comfortable job and take a plunge into the entrepreneurial world. This step was clouded with self-doubt but he is proud that he made through against all odds.
In terms of competition, other solutions do exist in the market that provides the same basic idea. However, these are very old and lack the polish of modern web applications, but they still provide users ability to rent items.
“Truthfully, the biggest competitor is inertia. That is, users who want to rent items but don’t do anything about it. Since it is a new behavior, it’s difficult to get a user to take pictures of their unused inventory and then post it online”, further adds Martin.
On Expansion Plans, Target Audience & More!
In the future, the team wishes to introduce Rentything into other countries and accept more currencies. Further, at the moment, this platform is mainly targeted at forward thinkers in large populated areas where it would make sense to rent items to each other and it is convenient enough for them to meet up with others.
In addition, revenue generation is needed to run and improve an application. Thus when it comes down to monetizing, the team follows the model of taking a percentage from each transaction.
To sum up everything perfectly, with Rentything renting out any item you desire is just a click away!!
For more details, do make it a point to visit: http://www.rentything.com
