Archive for the ‘iRent2u’ Category

Eco Festival - Recap

As you know I (Tim McCormack) spoke Saturday at an event in Malibu called the Wallflower Organic & Eco Festival. You can see pictures from the even here.

Well it turned out to be a fun event, with a lot going on and very interesting speakers. I thought I would give you a quick recap.

I was on the first panel of the day, and it started out better than I expected. We spoke about green investing and the ways that new green startups were being funded and have the potential to change the world. This was of course a great time for me to tell everyone about our upcoming launch, and how iRent2u.com gives everyone the ability to get more from what they already have. They liked the analogy that it is recycling on steroids, because it allows people to cycle around useful items, and not just recreate things from what is otherwise trash.

The resounding message that came from our panel was that there is a revolution occurring right now in the United States. Something happened recently, when Al Gore’s movie caught so much attention, and people are really starting to understand the importance of taking care of the environment, and the potential impact of our enormous national consumption. Because of this, entrepreneurs with incredible inventions have stepped up with great ways that we can make the world more efficient, and thus hopefully reduce our impact on it.

We are seeing huge advances in alternative energies, with everything from solar to alternative oils popping up all over. Additionally new technologies that reduce energy consumption, reduce pollution and save money are also more common.

Plus there are many companies like ours, who offer unique new ways to get more from less. All of these together, along with a growing trend towards green investments, have the great possibility to change the world. It is exciting and inspiring, and you could feel a real buzz at the event.

Speakers throughout the day included such well known activists as Robert Craymer of RC Green, who recently did Live Earth and creates toxin free furniture.

We spoke after his panel, and he really likes our idea. He said that he would like to cover us on his blog, so check in a couple weeks and we may be there.

Also in attendance was Ed Begley Jr., who on top of acting and speaking, also now has his own line of eco-friendly cleaning supplies, called Begley’s Best. Check out his store here

As you probably know I co-host a podcast regarding emerging green technologies with Robert Mechielsen of StudioRMA. He spoke on a couple panels, and talked a lot about his new building system that is 80% more energy efficient than normal homes, is highly earthquake resistant, hurricane resistant, has a fire rating 400% higher than the normal home, and is virtually impervious to all insects and vermin! Wow. It is called SCIP and has the ability to revolutionize the housing market in the US.

Another person I met was Lisa Osborne, of Lisa.fm. She interviewed me after the panel, and so you may get to hear my voice on her show sometime in the next couple of weeks. I will let you know when it is posted. Lisa seemed to be particularly interested in what the majority of people can do to help, and a common theme that was heard yesterday is “voting with your dollars”. The idea behind that is to try to understand what companies you are purchasing from, and buy from companies that sponsor sustainable and healthy business practices.

Well there was more, like a fuel additive that reduces emissions and increases performance on your car, as well as shirts made from bamboo and cars that run on cooking grease, but this is enough for now. Suffice it to say that it was an interesting event and I was glad to be able to feature our company to such a lively and motivated crowd.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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. =^)

Popularity: 4% [?]

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!

Popularity: 6% [?]

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

Popularity: 7% [?]

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!

Popularity: 6% [?]

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!

Popularity: 12% [?]

A Tale of Two Neighbors - “Charlie the Consumer & Rachael the Renter”

Recently someone asked us who our typical customer is. As opposed to going into detailed demographic explanations about age and income, we believe that the typical participant in iRent2u is based on attitude and behavior. Anyone could make the smart choice to rent when it makes sense. The real question is, what type of person are you?

So we thought we would share with you a comparison between two different people - one who likes to rent things, and one who doesn’t. Then we will let you decide who you are more like.

Charlie the Consumer

Our first person is Charlie the Consumer. Charlie likes to buy things. In fact, he loves to buy stuff. It makes him feel good to get the latest technologies, that brand new car, or a new shirt. You should see him at the dollar store, because he goes crazy. Doesn’t matter what it is, Charlie has to buy it.

Of course most of us enjoy buying things, but Charlie is a true consumer. He believes all the commercials that tell him if he just buys that new (insert product here) he will get all the ladies. When he goes to the mall he only buys expensive stuff because “the name means quality.” Every time you see him he is carrying a bag from a different store. He has three iPods (his first was too big, the second too small, but his third one is jussst right). He has an RV, a boat, and spends his weekends at his cabin on the lake.

There is one more thing that Charlie has more of than most other people, debt. He has more credit cards than a pickpocket at Mardi Gras. He racks up $10,000 in revolving credit and doesn’t blink an eye. He has a second AND third mortgage, school loans from 10 years ago that are only half paid off, and enough money to last him one month if he loses his job. But Charlie is happy, at least until he sees the next thing he needs to buy.

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Rachael the Renter

Our other person is Rachael the Renter. Rachael likes to rent stuff. She likes the freedom to use something, have fun with it, and then drop it off. While Charlie’s garage is so full stuff is spilling into the street, Rachael’s is perfectly clean and almost empty. She has a new car - that she leases, a beautiful home - which she rents month to month, and enough money to last her two years if she somehow lost her job.

Rachael hates owning things. She thinks possessions tie you down. The next time Rachael moves to a new house she will be able to move in one day with just one friend’s help. She likes to travel, and only takes one small bag with three days of clothes even if she is travelling for a month. She takes vacations at a lake house that she rents from time to time, has traveled across the US twice in an RV she rented, and has become an expert water skier behind a rented boat. In fact, Rachael has done everything that Charlie has done, it just cost her less money to do it.

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So Who Are You?

So who do you want to be? Would you like to be Charlie who constantly has all the new gear but enough debt to scare a politician? Or would you like to be Rachael, the free soul who never ties herself down with possessions and has plenty of extra money?

Our opinion? Who cares!? Be either one of these people. They are both great. The truth is that both of them are our customers!

Of course Rachael is great. Whenever she needs something she comes to our site first. That way she can compare the different lenders in the area, see who has the best price and reputation, and get the best deal. She is always renting stuff from us, and for that we are truly grateful.

I bet you expected us to say you should never be like Charlie. We would never say that, Charlie is a great guy! He likes to have fun, tells lots of jokes, and springs for dinner when we go out. And who do you think Rachael rents all her stuff from?

Charlie is able to support his lust for possessions by renting out the things he is not using to Rachael. He only uses his RV once or twice a year, and has been able to cover some of the loan payments by lending it out. He likes renting to Rachael because she pays on time. Rachael always leaves his cabin clean after she uses is, and leaves the tank of gas full on his boat after a day on the lake.

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Everyone’s Happy

There was one other side effect of our website for Rachael and Charlie. They were neighbors for three years but never met before they started using our site. Now that they have met they are great friends. Rachael likes to come over and watch movies on Charlie’s home theater, and Charlie likes to day-dream about all the cool stuff he would buy for Rachael’s sparsely decorated home. In fact, they like each other so much they are thinking about moving in together. Wow!

Our service works for everyone. Are you an extreme shopper? Be like Charlie and make some extra money by lending out your goods. Are you extremely frugal? Save some money by borrowing those things you only need every once in a while. Either way, iRent2u is the place to do it.

Are you looking for love? Well we can’t promise you that you will be as lucky as Rachael and Charlie, but what better way for the girl-next-door and the good-old-boy to meet?

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iRent2u.com

iRent2u.com – the Online Rental Marketplace. Come here to find anything you are looking for; go away with extra money, cool things to rent, and maybe even love… =^)

Oh, and for the record, we don’t really think it is going to work out between Charlie and Rachael. Can you imagine their first fight about money? Yikes!

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Popularity: 18% [?]

Welcome TreeHugger Readers!

Today I received a very nice surprise. The exact kind of surprise a new business owner and fervent blog writer loves to receive. Our company made it onto TreeHugger!

For anyone who has not seen the article, you can read it here.

I have been a long time reader of TreeHugger, and saw the post that Tamara had done on a similar site in Europe, Erento.com - but I was sure happy to see that we hadn’t fallen through the cracks in our efforts to bring this excellent opportunity to the United States.

For anyone who is curious to learn more about our service, click here to take our short survey. Make sure to leave your email address at the end and we will send you updates for when our site launches.

In the article, Tamara makes a very important point. I have quoted her here:

“Rental” has typically been synonymous with the less affluent that can’t afford to buy something outright, so instead pays an ongoing fee for the receipt of using it. But in a world of finite natural resources, waste and the legacy of post consumer goods becoming everyone’s issue, renting and not having the burden of owning and then dealing with the disposal or storage of goods is a compelling proposition.

We all feel that this is a very exciting time in the world. While we are confronted with so many important issues, we are also faced with incredible opportunities. We fully believe that together we can find solutions that will make sense for everyone, and make the world a better place to live.

It is really an honor to make it onto a blog that we respect so much. Again we would like to welcome all the new visitors we have from TreeHugger, and extend a special “Thank You” to Tamara for writing such a nice article about us.

Popularity: 13% [?]

iRent2u.com & Saving the World, or Bart Simpson?

On August 13th I posted some information about the new podcast I am doing, GreenTech.fM. It is a bi-weekly interview between myself and a Topanga green architect who not only shares a love for new technologies but also has some incredible innovations of his own. We have received a great response to the show since its launch. We hoped people would like the show, but little did we know that we were going to get hugged by people we had never met!

If you haven’t taken our survey yet, please go here now. Click Here to take it now!

Huggs for iRent2u

One of the ways in which we have gotten a great response is from a relatively new site called Hugg.com. Hugg is a website for people who are interested in green news. Green being a catchall phrase for things environmental in nature, likes issues related to global warming or pollution.

The way the Hugg site works is that people read the short articles, and then vote for the ones they support or agree with. When I posted a snippit of our press release onto the site to see if anyone cared, the response was incredible!

Of all the posts on the website, ours has the 7th highest votes. There have been a total of 29 different people who have “Hugged” our article, plus people have left great comments. Here is a picture of the site and our Huggs.

So we are very excited about all the attention we have gotten for that. What seems a bit strange to me is that the whole time we have been fighting neck and neck with Bart Simpson. What do I mean?

Bart Simpson and His Prius?

If you take another look at the Hugg page, you will find that right above us is another post about Matt Groening driving a Prius. The article is very creatively title “Bart Simpson Drives a Prius”, and if you read the source you will see it details Matt Groening’s entire life, from the perspective of which car he owned. (yawn)

Here is a screen shot of that darned Bart Simpson article:

I know I am biased, but to me a new podcast that is focused on praising and publishing all the incredible new technologies that scientists and entrepreneurs are creating is more interesting than the fact that a famous cartoonist now drives a Prius. But I guess I can only leave that up to the readers at Hugg to decide.

Either way we are happy with our Huggs. This makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and so we wanted to say thank you.

Oh yeah, and if you wanted to help us beat out Bart Simpson, we wouldn’t mind.

Please go to this link here. http://www.hugg.com/node/529 Create an account, and click the little plus symbol underneath the Counter that shows how many Huggs we have recieved.

Thanks for your support!

Popularity: 9% [?]

More Strange Rentals…

This week we have gotten a lot of reports of strange rentals happening in Germany.

Apparently the Germans are leaders in this global revolution for rentals, but it is taking some strange twists and turns that you may not have expected. Of course we are here to tell you all about it. =^)

Want to tell us what you like to rent? Take our survey here…

The most recent story came from BusinessPundit.com, where they discovered the practice of renting farm animals for yard work is on the rise. Huh?

Yes, I am a bit confused myself. Feel free to read the article here. http://www.businesspundit.com/50226711/weird_business_ideas_rent_a_duck.php

Apparently people are renting animals like ducks and sheep to do such things as “mow” the lawn (eat the grass, for anyone who didn’t catch it). They even comment that they are happy with the fertilizer!? This seems strange to me as one of my most hated jobs when I was young was cleaning up the “fertilizer” that my dog left in the backyard. Not fun.

We have actually been hearing about strange rentals from Germany for a while now. They got a lot of press earlier this year for a website where people can rent protesters. http://www.psfk.com/2007/01/rentaprotester.html We think this could be a much more popular service in France, but perhaps they are so willing to protest there that they don’t need to offer to pay. =^) View the original story here. http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,460449,00.html

Of course every once in a while we all need a German to help us out. We all know they are hard workers, and know how to take a mean 6-week vacation. Well the next time you need a hand making Streusel or trying to sing Edelweiss, you can rent your own German here! http://www.rentagerman.de/

Der Spiegel, the big German publication, tells us about how German schools are renting visiting American students to help them understand us better. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,496731,00.html Apparently in some countries being American is not necessarily considered a good thing. I think it has something to do with some war, or pollution or something. Something about a big Bush? Yeah, I didn’t get it either, but I guess these German students were upset enough they needed some real Americans to come in and prove we aren’t all the great white devil they hear about.

Neighbors driving you crazy speeding around in the neighborhood? Well strap on your plastic citizen McGruff badge and give them a good scare with your rented radar gun! http://www.radargunrentals.com/ Unfortunately you can’t give out tickets yet, and could be arrested for impersonating an officer if you do it in your Halloween costume, but for only $150 a week it could all be worth it to see the look on your neighbors face as you pop out from behind his trash gun and show him he was going 40 in a 25.

Checking out ebay, we see that there is a real need for our rental service. Looks like all sorts of fun things are being offered. Unfortunately the bidding is closed on both of these auctions, but I bet if you ask real nice they will consider listing again.

You have your choice of two interesting eBay auctions. You can either rent-a-family, or you can rent-a-phone-friend.

Rent-a-family This lovely family from Atlanta is willing to offer the whole family, complete with cheafuer service, graphic design services, web design, posters, plus DJ services and even a minister for weddings. Thats quite a package!

Rent-a-phone-friend Maybe you need to talk to someone about the family you already have. Here is the answer to your needs. This young gentleman is offering his services as your new best friend, complete with four hours of phone conversation over the next month. Just what I wanted, a new best friend in Kalamazoo, Michigan! I may do it just so that I can say I have a friend there. People will think I am cool.

A couple not-so-strange rental ideas were presented in blogs this very morning! AutoBelles blog gave a great post about how to make money renting out sports cars. You can read it here.Let me just reiterate, that if anyone wants to rent me that Ferrari I have been talking about, feel free. I might even give you a ride around the block with me.

One last post was made this morning on http://nylusmilk.wordpress.com Regarding the opportunity to rent books instead of buying them. This makes great sense to us, unless you like to pile up all your books and use them to show off to your friends like I do.

Well thats it for our crazy rental roundup. Keep checking back for more crazy rental items, updates on our progress (things are really moving over here), and any other interesting thing that pops up.

iRent2u.com - the Online Rental Marketplace

Popularity: 16% [?]