Show HN: P2P Marketplace for renting stuff • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: P2P Marketplace for renting stuff

#11

Post by elbuo8 » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 7:50 PM UTC

marcospolanco wrote: post #5

This would work well if it were also a storage service...charge for storage, rent to offset costs, send me the difference.

Thanks for the feedback we really appreciated your input.

Re: Show HN: P2P Marketplace for renting stuff

#12

Post by elbuo8 » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 7:51 PM UTC

joenathan wrote: post #3

Rentzar.com where you can find next to near free stuff! Seriously, what's to keep people from just paying for one day only to never return?

Thanks You Joe for the feedback we really appreciated your input we will keep working hard to solve those issues.

Re: Show HN: P2P Marketplace for renting stuff

#13

Post by elbuo8 » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 7:53 PM UTC

rgarcia wrote: post #7

Some honest feedback, FWIW... What's your plan to get users? A large part of the success from other asset-sharing services is due to the fact that they initially chose a vertical (Airbnb: apartments, Getaround/RelayRides: cars) and made a small number of people in that vertical incredibly happy. Generalizing to "all things" has the advantage of making your target audience/market bigger, but also seriously risks makin…

Thanks for the feedback we really appreciated your input, well keep everything you mention on hand to solve those issues.

Re: Show HN: P2P Marketplace for renting stuff

#14

Post by elbuo8 » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 7:54 PM UTC

bravura wrote: post #9

You have a chicken-and-egg problem. Also, each renter now must do fulfillment themselves. If I'm renting my bike for $5/day, it's a huge pain if the person that is renting from me is twenty minutes late to pick up and return it. What I want to see is someone who focuses on have all the household essentials for rent, and does fulfillment themselves. I think electric drills are typically used for 5 minutes total by mos…

Thanks bravura for the feedback we really appreciated your input, thats great to see what type of listing you will get the most benefit.

Re: Show HN: P2P Marketplace for renting stuff

#15

Post by DanielOcean » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 7:55 PM UTC

Great idea, but without venture funding this is a tough operation to scale. With such low barriers to entry for this market, other local markets can easily replicate this model if it is indeed successful.

Re: Show HN: P2P Marketplace for renting stuff

#16

Post by 055static » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 10:13 PM UTC

Dear Would-Be Entrepreneurs Wanting to Use Buzzwords:

It's not peer-to-peer ("P2P") if peers are not communicating _directly_. If they are using your server to communicate, e.g. post ads, then it's NOT peer-to-peer. It's a bulletin board. There is a difference between a) a switchboard, b) a bulletin board and c) a person-to-person telephone call.

Sincerely

End-User Looking for REAL P2P Services Not Fake Ones

Re: Show HN: P2P Marketplace for renting stuff

#17

Post by johnrgrace » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 10:25 PM UTC

Not bad, but you've got a two sided marketplace you need both people with stuff to rent and people who need to rent stuff.

I'd start with a metro area and get ahold of existing rental places and get their inventories listed to break the chicken/egg issue you face.

Rgarcia makes a great point, you should think about focusing on a specific vertical as it will make it easier to get both sides of the market jumpstarted.