It started with a cooler
Marcus Jessop, one of our founders, was in a conversation with his sister-in-law about her recent travels. She expressed frustration on having to buy items that she would use one day and then either discard it later that day or the next. In her case, it was a cooler; a big bulky item that you cannot bring on the flight back home. She also was looking for other items like an umbrella and snorkeling equipment. Haven’t we all experienced buying items that we use once or twice only to be thrown in the closet or discarded; where moth and rust doth corrupt (Utah reference – lol)? Yes! This is how ShareMonkie was born!
ShareMonkie is a peer-to-peer rental (sharing) company that allows people to rent everyday items in their house to people in their neighborhood. In my sister-in-law’s case, it would have been really cool to pull up an app, find a peer in the neighborhood renting a cooler, umbrella, and snorkeling equipment, rented those items, and then returned it after a day on the beach. The renter is happy because they earned some money; sister-in-law is happy because she does not have to waste money buying items only to later discard or let collect dust in a closet.
Marcus’ problem is shared across many other scenarios. When we started this company, we noticed several people that wanted to use something (like a tent, bike, camera, climbing equipment, etc.) for a day or two, but did not want to buy it. We also found people that wanted to earn a little cash by sharing their items (oftentimes gaining dust in a garage or closet) with people in their surrounding area. Our goal is to connect these two groups (sharer and buyer) through an online peer-to-peer platform.
