I have been trying to solve the complete mystery of needs vs. wants in India. I have seen cases where people buy gadgets, books, and bicycle out of excitement and then don’t use them at all. During my stay in Bangalore for 5 years I ended up setting up my place with microwave, refrigerator, TV, study table, stove etc.
When I decided to shift back to Delhi, I couldn’t sell 80% of my stuff and I didn’t have enough time to try out selling websites like Quikr and Olx. I was ignoring them as I didn’t want to get involved in a lot of back and forth with the buyers. I shifted back to Delhi and realized that there has to be some kind of a fix to this.
So a friend of mine, now business partner, introduced me to the concept of Collaborative Consumption and sent me Rachel Botsman’s TED Video. After watching the video I realized that there has to be some way to put a structure to the whole thing and build a renting/sharing marketplace for the Indian consumers. We started digging deeper and realized that there aren’t many players in the segment apart from the listing websites like Bhaadepe.com, Rentongo.com, Rentalmasti.com, Rentkart.com (now shut) etc.
We wanted to be an end to end service provider from the beginning and decided to provide logistics, payment and security, and verification to the user, this feature is our USP. On June 14th 2013, we launched IRentShare.com, a community based marketplace for renting and sharing physical products.
It was difficult for us to convince users to add their idle goods online and we were trying to solve the security of goods issue through a security deposit, which in itself was not a foolproof method. So later that year, one of our close friends from IIT Roorkee suggested us to build focused groups/communities where people within a community can rent/share goods with each other.
IRentShare can put its effort and verify users for each and every single community by partnering with the community members. We decided to launch this in colleges, schools, corporates, and housing societies. Some of the colleges/corporates/schools that were happy to collaborate with us were IIT Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Expedia.com, and Ryan International School, Gurgaon.
Additionally, we increased our vendor tie-ups and started offering wide variety of goods and built a rental marketplace. Currently we offer cameras, camera lenses, air conditioners, refrigerators, deep freezers, mac books, dekstops, trekking equipment, furniture, projectors, tablets etc. Strong vendor tie-ups, logistics services, and verification of the users helped us in building a safe model for renting/ sharing of goods. In quarter 1 of 2014 we were the winners at IIT Kharagpur’s (Jury award) and Runners Up at IIT Delhi’s business competition.
We are currently improving our community UI and making it more secure/social so that it becomes easier for people within a community to rent and share goods with each other. Please provide your input on what would motivate you to put your idle goods for renting/sharing on our website?
Anyone in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai looking to rent out any equipment feel free to contact me at Vardhman@irentshare.com .
We would appreciate if you could look at our website and provide your valuable feedback. Feel free to quiz us on our model. We would be happy to discuss!
Our website: www.IRentShare.com
Check out our slideshare presentation on benefits of renting:
asha chaudhry
vardhman – i love your idea and LOVE YOUR VID!!! who made it?
i think your venture can be a huge hit for colleges. it’s not new but it doesn’t need to be 🙂 there’s lots of space for everyone. i remember something similar coming up on trhs – will pull out when i can….
all the best – keep rocking!!
Vardhman Jain
Thanks Asha. Couple of my friends made it in my basement. We are slowly collaborating with colleges across Delhi. Sure, please send me the link. Cheers! 🙂
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Consider this link on your site – https://www.irentshare.com/computers/laptops/dell-inspiron-laptops.html
Question:
How can deposits be so low that renting turns out cash friendly (the reason why buying was not possible)
Vardhman Jain
Hi Alok,
Deposit for certain products are low as the vendors have a huge risk appetite and make sure they do proper verification checks before handing over the product including reference checks. For products like expensive cameras and lenses, vendors take post dated checks which is returned after the camera is used. The deposit and rent value is decided by the vendors and we dont interfere with their procedure considering they have been doing business for a long time. We make sure that we also verify the person before handing over the product. One of the reasons that we have very few renting vendors is because its a high risk game. We have not seen a case where a consumer has not returned the product but yes thats a possibility.
Thanks!
Vardhman
Mukesh Kumar
Hi Vardhman…lovely idea and lovely website. Clear and uncluttered. Couldn’t resist browsing almost all categories and checking the rents. I would actually love to take a projector on rent for weekends for watching movies on big screen with friends.
1. Do i have the option of first physically checking the product that its in working condition? Do you guys do such kind of checking? After the renter has used the product and given back to you, the owner claims that it has got damaged, what would you do?
2. What if it gets completely damaged while i am using it? How would the compensation amount be decided? Who decides it? How would the dispute be settled? This is bound to happen sooner or later.
3. Above points suggests that you may want to rope in an insurer so that both owner and renter feel safer and comfortable. This is all the more important as you are playing the role of courier boy as well. What if your delivery vehile meets an accident and the projector is all damaged. The liability falls on you.
4. Regarding communities, consider one company as one community. So i am working with HSBC, then i will not feel afraid to rent out my stuff to other HSBC staff.
Keep us the good job!
Cheers!
Vardhman Jain
Thank you for taking time out and exploring our website. Really appreciate it. Sure, feel free to connect with me vardhman@irentshare.com and ill be happy to arrange a projector with you. Very interesting questions, here you go:
Answer: Since all the products are rented out by a renting company, we make sure we check everything before delivery. We confirm the specifications and the model over email so that the client knows that he is getting. For every damage that happens we take a deposit and check if everything is all right during the pick up. We have not seen a case till now that we had to fight with the customer regarding the product but yes it is possible.
The compensation amount is decided the by the company owning the product and the deposit taken for that product. We also get involved in the process as we are the middlemen. Also, we do reference checks and a thorough background check before delivery of the product. In case of small mishaps we have tie ups with lawyers who can negotiate between the owner and the renter.
Yes, we would like to tie up with an insurance company that will come with scale. Yes, during delivery if something goes wrong we take the responsibility. Sometimes, the vendor manages the delivery on its own.
Yes, that is what we are trying to solve. We have one corporate community where you can rent,share,swap and give stuff within a single community. We can verify the users by checking theor HSBC email ID or LinkedIn Profile.
asha chaudhry
hey vardhman,
how are things at irentshare-land?!
do update us – would love to know!!