Lendr: Peer-to-Peer Renting
Donation protected
"Financially insecure" and "university student" are terms that often go hand-in-hand.
This was the case for my co-founder and I. We, along with our peers, were always looking for ways to cut costs anywhere we could in order to sustain our day-to-day life while minimizing our reliance on the Bank of Mom & Dad, who themselves have their own financial responsibilities to worry about.
It was the start of a brand new semester, which unfortunately meant brand new textbooks. After experiencing the agony of dropping the financial equivalent of a modest vacation on a few books, we brainstormed the concept of an app where students could lend and rent their textbooks between each other.
After doing some research on the subject, we discovered that the current process of renting anything online is time consuming and inefficient.
The traditional online rental process goes as follows:
1. Search through various rental businesses' websites to find what you're looking for (most of which are poorly designed)
2. Compare pricing, terms & conditions, etc. Often times, prices aren't even listed on the websites, so you have to actually call the business for a quote.
3. Once you finally find an item to rent, you have to make your way over to the store, fill out paperwork, and go out of your way to return the item when you're done (why are all rental businesses in the middle of nowhere?!)
We knew there had to be a better way. After much deliberation, we landed on the concept of Lendr, a peer-to-peer renting platform. Over the past year we've put our idea into action by winning entry into a startup incubator, which has allowed us to validate our idea, grow a team of nine fellow University students, and produce our minimum viable product.
Here's how Lendr works.
Anybody interested in making some extra money by lending out items they have around the house can sign up and add items to their inventory.
Renters can then search for and locate items to rent based on budget and distance.
To book a rental, fill out a short request form and the lender will confirm your booking ASAP.
Meet up to pick up your item, and meet up again to return it. In the future, we plan to implement Lendr pickup & delivery to make the process even simpler!
The sharing economy is wildly popular in today's society. Airbnb has captured the peer-to-peer housing rental industry. Uber has captured the peer-to-peer taxi industry. However, there's still a race to capture the peer-to-peer consumer goods rental industry.
Many have tried, but none have prevailed. Other peer-to-peer consumer goods rental companies all fall short in one vital area: security.
We've made the safety and security of our users and their items our utmost priority. Security measures such as photo ID & payment verification, SMS veification, conditional security charges, our user rating system, and our no-tolerance policy virtually eliminates the possibility of fraud and ensures that both parties enjoy a safe & secure rental experience. What's more - all items are fully covered in the case that anything happens to them!
Lendr provides an opportunity for people to earn a recurring income off the stuff they have laying around, while simultaneously offering a way to save money by renting something as opposed to buying.
We aim to shift the way we consume by emphasizing renting as an alternative to buying. Why pay full price for an expensive item you'll only need a couple of times? Not only is renting easier on your wallet, but it’s easier on the environment as well due to the sharing and re-using aspect of renting goods.
In order to fully bring Lendr to life, we need capital to market our final product. We're currently in the process of polishing off our app for iOS, Android & web, and once that's done, we plan to run an intensive social media marketing campaign. If you'd like to see Lendr brought to life, we'd appreciate any monetary donation you can offer!
If you'd like to learn more about Lendr, click the link below to check out our informational site:
http://www.lendr.info
If you have an Android device, click the link below to download Lendr!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lendr.app&hl=en
This was the case for my co-founder and I. We, along with our peers, were always looking for ways to cut costs anywhere we could in order to sustain our day-to-day life while minimizing our reliance on the Bank of Mom & Dad, who themselves have their own financial responsibilities to worry about.
It was the start of a brand new semester, which unfortunately meant brand new textbooks. After experiencing the agony of dropping the financial equivalent of a modest vacation on a few books, we brainstormed the concept of an app where students could lend and rent their textbooks between each other.
After doing some research on the subject, we discovered that the current process of renting anything online is time consuming and inefficient.
The traditional online rental process goes as follows:
1. Search through various rental businesses' websites to find what you're looking for (most of which are poorly designed)
2. Compare pricing, terms & conditions, etc. Often times, prices aren't even listed on the websites, so you have to actually call the business for a quote.
3. Once you finally find an item to rent, you have to make your way over to the store, fill out paperwork, and go out of your way to return the item when you're done (why are all rental businesses in the middle of nowhere?!)
We knew there had to be a better way. After much deliberation, we landed on the concept of Lendr, a peer-to-peer renting platform. Over the past year we've put our idea into action by winning entry into a startup incubator, which has allowed us to validate our idea, grow a team of nine fellow University students, and produce our minimum viable product.
Here's how Lendr works.
Anybody interested in making some extra money by lending out items they have around the house can sign up and add items to their inventory.
Renters can then search for and locate items to rent based on budget and distance.
To book a rental, fill out a short request form and the lender will confirm your booking ASAP.
Meet up to pick up your item, and meet up again to return it. In the future, we plan to implement Lendr pickup & delivery to make the process even simpler!
The sharing economy is wildly popular in today's society. Airbnb has captured the peer-to-peer housing rental industry. Uber has captured the peer-to-peer taxi industry. However, there's still a race to capture the peer-to-peer consumer goods rental industry.
Many have tried, but none have prevailed. Other peer-to-peer consumer goods rental companies all fall short in one vital area: security.
We've made the safety and security of our users and their items our utmost priority. Security measures such as photo ID & payment verification, SMS veification, conditional security charges, our user rating system, and our no-tolerance policy virtually eliminates the possibility of fraud and ensures that both parties enjoy a safe & secure rental experience. What's more - all items are fully covered in the case that anything happens to them!
Lendr provides an opportunity for people to earn a recurring income off the stuff they have laying around, while simultaneously offering a way to save money by renting something as opposed to buying.
We aim to shift the way we consume by emphasizing renting as an alternative to buying. Why pay full price for an expensive item you'll only need a couple of times? Not only is renting easier on your wallet, but it’s easier on the environment as well due to the sharing and re-using aspect of renting goods.
In order to fully bring Lendr to life, we need capital to market our final product. We're currently in the process of polishing off our app for iOS, Android & web, and once that's done, we plan to run an intensive social media marketing campaign. If you'd like to see Lendr brought to life, we'd appreciate any monetary donation you can offer!
If you'd like to learn more about Lendr, click the link below to check out our informational site:
http://www.lendr.info
If you have an Android device, click the link below to download Lendr!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lendr.app&hl=en
Organizer
Lendr Inc.
Organizer
Guelph, ON
