Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Sorta entrepreneurs

Forbes magazine had an article about the new "Share Economy" which they estimates is putting about $3.5 billion into the hands of people who can be either consumers or producers.

People rent from, or rent to, their peers:  parking spaces, cars, gadgets, tools, bikes, homes, apartments through digital clearinghouses like Turo, Getaround, Parking Panda, Rentoid, SnapGoods, Liquid, Airbnb.

Highlighted in this article as the premier share-type business is "Airbnb," started in 2008 by recent college grads Chesky and Gebbia.  They "thought they could make some pocket cash by housing attendees at an industrial design conference on air beds in their apartment. They put up a site, Airbedandbreakfast.com, to advertise their floor space.  After three people bunked with them that week, they decided to max out their credit cards and build a bigger site with more listings.  "We never considered the notion we were participating in a new economy.  We were just trying to solve our own problem.  After we solved our own problem, we realized many other people want this."

Right, just like author Jay Richards says, "At the base of the capitalist system is not greed or consumption, but intuition, imagination, and creation" (Cat lover market).

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