Archive for September, 2007

Updates on Launch - Nov 15th

OK everyone, time for another update on our progress.

Looks like our official public launch date is now set for November 15th. We have some great surprises for you all on that day, so make sure to be ready!

Other upcoming events for iRent2u.com founders are:

Tonight - Sept 26 - I will be attending a meeting of the CMO Club http://www.thecmoclub.blogspot.com/ in Santa Monica. They may be a little surprised when they find out I am the CMO with a staff of one, myself. But hey, they invited me, so I’m coming. =^)

Thursday - Sept 27 - Tomorrow Nils and I will be attending the TCVN Survivor III event in Irvine. The third event of its kind, Survivor is a chance for entrepreneurs to get up in front of a room and try to sum the last year of their lives as well as their entire business model into 30 seconds. Sound impossible? Well it is really, but wish us luck, because we are going to give it a shot and see what happens.

Between 50 and 80 companies will present, and from those the top three will be given a chance to expand on their elevator pitch with another 3 minute pitch. From those ten the top three will be given a final 10 minute Q&A session, after which they will announce the winners. They have great prizes, and we have nothing to lose, so we will give it a shot.

Every Day - Besides those events, we have the usual tasks we do of trying to save the world one garage at a time. If anyone is interested in having their garage saved first, and you live in the Inland Empire, shoot us an email at feedback@irent2u.com

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New Screenshots!

A lot is happening at iRent2u.com right now, and to all of you who aren’t presently alpha testers we would like to give you a little peak behind the curtain.

We will migrate these shots over to the “How” page, but we wanted to get them out as quick as possible. We have made a lot of changes, and in all things are working to make the site as easy to use as possible.

Here is a shot of the home page. Not too much new here, but it’s always nice to start the day at home.

Home Page

Next we have a sneak peak at Search Results page. Again, the changes may not be immediately obvious, but they are important. We have adjusted the results by user feedback, added more icons for ease-of-use, and improved the way search results and categorized.

Search Results Page

Next we have a peak at our message center. Of course our users want the opportunity to chat to each other about the different transactions they are executing.

Message Center

Another sneak peak is of our Lending Wizard. Many of our users said that they want the process of listing an item to be as easy as possible. We listened, and created a great listing wizard to walk users through the process of putting their items online.

Lending Wizard

Our final new screen shot for the day is of the view you have of your own item once it is listed on the site. From here you can easily see the details of the item, when it is available, and either make it available or take it offline.

Item Management Screen

Hope you like the new screen shots. If you are interested in being one of our alpha testers, let me know. We are pretty stingy about who we give these invites out to, but if you make a good case I might be able to sneak it by the team. =^)

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Quick Facts About iRent2u™:

• A simple to use website (www.iRent2u.com)
• A place to rent anything TO or FROM anyone
• EBay for Rentals
• The “Online Rental Marketplace”™

Features & Benefits:

• No Risk – Try the service for free, because we have no upfront listing fees. Forget your worries about paying lots of money to a marketing company or publication without knowing if it will return sales.

• Safety – Sure you could list your stuff on CraigsList, but you have no idea if you will ever see it again. We provide deposit systems to make sure you don’t lose everything, user feedback so you know who you can trust, and optional insurance to really protect your assets.

• Do it Online – Online reservation systems are shown to improve sales. One customer implemented an online ordering system and had a 23% increase in the first month.

• You Keep Control – Do sales the way it makes sense for you, not us. Publish your prices, or keep them secret. Allow discounts for frequent customers, or charge everyone the same rate. Deliver to them, or have them pick it up where you want. Either way, you control the process.

• Conquer the Internet – If you know how to do online marketing and search engine optimization, and can create an easy to use website, you can make lots of money online. But that is not easy to do! Now we make it easy because we handle all the tricky stuff for you. We are experts in the internet. We bring customers to you, you just need to supply the goods!

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Seattle Fights Back Against Evil Car Sharing Scheme!

To make this totally clear, the title I just posted is completely sarcastic. Car sharing groups are our friends, and are friends to the planet. The fact that Seattle just passed a law forcing people who are saving money and reducing pollution to pay higher taxes, well we view this as a disgrace to a city who is supposed to be the “greenest” city in the nation.

What is Car Sharing?

Car sharing is a system where instead of buying your own car, you pay a membership to a company that gives you temporary access to a vehicle. This has many benefits, from reduced costs, to less cars being purchased and parked on the roads, and less subsequent pollution.

Why Do We Care?

We inherently believe in sharing. This is the basis for our entire company, and we believe it has incredible potential to change the world. We DO NOT believe that the government should discourage these beneficial environmental practices with additional taxes and fines. The next thing you know they will tax you for recycling, or maybe you should pay additional fees for placing solar panels on your homes.
Read the Article, Voice your Concerns.

You http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/09/cities_want_to.php

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iRent2u.com - A Company with a Mission…Statement

We have a fun little game for all our loyal readers. For the winners, “fame and fortune will follow you until the end of your days” (from a fortune cookie I got recently).

OK, well not a lot of fortune, but we will recognize anyone who does well (fame!). And recognition is supposed to be pretty important these days. According to (…) 70% of employees would rather get more recognition for their work than to get a raise. Wow! That is great news for employers who listen.

But what is the game you ask? It is “Guess the Mission Statement“.

Sound boring? No way! We have gone out of our way to get some of the greatest mission statements available today. Then we made it a little trickier. We hacked them up and changed them into something that WE would say.

So below you have eight mission statements. Six of them are altered versions from major companies around the world, and the two others are different parts of ours.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is “To identify the original company’s missions statements.” Now that is fun!!!

Good Luck!

1. “We help people rent practically anything on earth.”
2. “iRent2u.com aims to collect all the worlds’ rentals and make it universally accessible and useful online.”
3. “Our mission is to make the world more efficient. We will use technology to harness the power of community & increase rentals, and thus allow everyone to get more from what they already have.”
4. “Our goal is to establish iRent2u.com as the premier rental hub with the greatest selection and availability of rentals in the world.”
5. “iRent2u.com’s mission is to connect people to rentals, their communities, and help them get more from what they already have.”
6. “iRent2u.com’s mission to build a place where people can come to find and access anything they might want to rent.”
7. “To be the world leader in listing and facilitating efficient, cost-effective rentals based on advances in internet technologies and community interaction.”
8. “We help you rent anything, anywhere, from anyone, for less.”

Bonus Question - Think all these mission statements miss the mark? Send us your thoughts on what our mission statement should be. As long as it is not obscene (but funny is OK) we will post it along with the results from the contest sometime next week!
So there you have it. Send your responses to Contest@iRent2u.com

Make sure to include all important information.

A correct response will look something like this:

• Name: Harry Potter
• Email: HPotter@hotmail.com
• Website (optional): www.HarryPotter.com
• Answers:
  • Company A
  • Company B
  • Company X
  • Company Y
  • Company Z
  • Company P
  • Company D
  • Company Q

We can’t wait to hear from you. We will lavish the winners with recognition, and that can really keep you warm on those cool winter nights.

We look forward to seeing your responses!

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Alpha Testing to Start This Week!

For everyone keeping track, we have reached a great milestone.Our website is now ready for alpha testing!

What is alpha testing you may ask? Well I could tell you but then I’d have to…

Oh well, I’ll just tell you.

According to Wikipedia (my favorite resource for knowledge), alpha testing is:

“simulated or actual operational testing by potential users/customers or an independent test team at the developers’ site.”

Huh? simulated operational testing? You want it in regular English?

Basically what it means is that we have gotten so far with the site it is time for OTHER people to test it. This is right on schedule, as we had predicted letting the world in on our little secret in the beginning of September. That means now!

Unfortunately we cannot make it totally public yet (believe me, we would love to). We want to have some of our good friends test it out themselves first. That way if there are any obvious mistakes we can get rid of them before you, our most precious asset, gets a chance to run amok on the site.

So this week we send out some invitations to some very specific people we have chosen for specific reasons (ooh, sounds intriguing).

Besides that, a lot is going on. Much more than I can talk about here. Keep watching, you are going to see some really neat things pop up over the next couple of months!

Is this the first you have heard of iRent2u.com? Go check out our quick survey for a detailed understanding of our revolutionary new concept! http://www.surveymonkey.com

Look for something fun this Wednesday (tomorrow night). We are going to have a little contest for our readers!

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