Tagged: collaborative consumption

A Sharing Feast to Remember

feastly low res

In May’s Let’s Collaborate! event, we gathered with sharing economy folks over an authentic Filipino dining experience through Feastly. It was truly a “sharing” experience as we ate delicious and colorful food together with our hands off banana leaves! Thanks to chef Yana Gilbuena for a memorable night. Photos of the event can be found here.

The Sharing Economy is Here to Stay

Inc Magazine

Inc Magazine covered our panel at Wharton University with Skillshare, Mealku, and ClosetDash. Read the full article here.

The sharing economy is tough not to love if you’re a consumer. It is all about, well, sharing goods and services at a reasonable price.

You can rent a spare room through Airbnb, rent out your car on RelayRides, and even rent some spare closet space at ClosetDash. For all those people thinking this collaborative economy is a trend–or companies suing the likes of Airbnb and Uber–Melissa O’Young, founder of the event series Let’s Collaborate!, says the sharing industry is only getting stronger. O’Young says the industry will pull in $350 billion in transactions this year alone.

During a recent lecture at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Social Impact Conference, O’Young moderated a conversation with founders creating businesses in the sharing economy. The panel’s message was simple: the sharing economy has changed the consumer landscape and is disrupting businesses in every industry.

Read the rest of the article here.

The Sharing Economy and Government

The Sharing Economy and Government

Caption: Elana Berkowitz (former Advisor to Obama Administration); Justin Ginsburg (Citibikes); Josh Mohrer (Uber): Milicent Johnson (Peers). Thanks to our partners, Suits to Silicon Alley and AlleyNYC.

See the full article below on Shareable.

Sharing economy enthusiasts gathered together to talk about the growth of collaborative consumption and the subsequent implications with government. Many peer-to-peer platforms face problems with outdated government laws designed for more traditional B2C industries or face no laws at all.

Milicent Johnson from Peers said, “The reality is, we do need regulation” but need to work together with various stakeholders to create laws that both protect citizens and lets innovation thrive. However, the legal landscape for collaborative consumption is currently confusing—”You want to comply with the rules but you don’t know what the rules are.” A recent example highlights this confusion where an Airbnb host got fined $40,000 but the fine was then removed—”Even the government seems confused what the rules are.”

When discussing best practices, Josh Mohrer from Uber advised to take an “Act first, and then ask questions later” approach to get the product in the hands of consumers first and to deal with issues with government when they arise. The alternative—to consult a new concept with the government before it has even launched—could mean years of discussions or even worse, your product will never launch.

In the case where there are no laws such as the absence of mandatory helmet law when biking in NY, there are other ways to encourage citizens to protect themselves. Justin Ginsburg from Citibike mentioned doing helmet giveaways (over 100,000 helmets have been given away in the past few years) and discount coupons for helmets. Regulation is not the only way to encourage helmet-use, and other tactics can be used instead.

Milicent Johnson caused laughter when she stated, “Cities are the OG (original) sharing platform” to illustrate libraries, universities, and schools all promote sharing. There is no doubt sharing economy platforms are creating positive impacts in our cities—we need to educate the government and public on the sharing economy and work together to make laws clearer. Organizations like Bayshare in San Francisco and co:NYC in New York are taking steps to do this.

Working in the Sharing Economy

Working in the Sharing Economy

The rise of the sharing economy has spawned a number of fast-growing organizations and this rapid growth has given savvy individuals an opportunity to build meaningful and rewarding careers in the field. We asked employees from ZipCar, the Collaborative Fund, and Skillshare what it’s really like to work in the sharing economy. Click here to see photos from the event!