Notes from Chris

Episode 321

Checking his friend’s Snapchat stories one day, Dane Baker was overcome with jealousy. Some of his friends were out on a boat, catching the sun, diving in the water and sharing a few cold beers on what seemed like an incredible adventure. Naturally, Dane couldn’t help but feel he wanted a little of that for himself. But there was a problem: he didn’t have access to a boat, nor the funds to rent one in his hometown in San Diego.

Trying to shake the feeling, Dane headed outside for a walk, where he noticed his neighbour’s boat sat on the driveway. It hadn’t been used in months, and the owner rarely had time to go out on the water. Most of its life was spent just taking up space.

Dane thought to himself “What if there was a platform that connected people who had these cool rides to people who would want to rent them?” He headed home to do a little research to see if one existed and, much to his entrepreneurial delight, he found that one didn’t. So, he decided to create it himself.

He began to work from a model of AirBnB for adventure which he called Toyroom. He figured that most extreme and action sports equipment—snowboards, kayaks, and surfboards—all met the same fate as the boat he’d seen in the driveway, and decided to focus more of his idea on these smaller pieces of equipment, categorizing them into Water, Air, Snow, Road, and Sand.

Right now Toyroom generates between $700 and $1100 per month. The majority of his customers come from in and around Southern California, where he is able to make offline connections with people. But, Toyroom is also seeing customers and renters pop up in further away locations like Lebanon. Not a bad return for a 30 hour per month time investment!

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Toyroom: See what kind of adventures are available in your city on Dane's website!
• Stripe & PayPal: The two payment processing platforms that Dane used to process rental fees

SEE ALSO:

• The Sharing Economy—What It Is, Examples, And How Big Data, Platforms And Algorithms Fuel It: Learn more about the sharing economy and the opportunities that are available
• “Uber for Lawn Care” Mows Down the Competition: Four friends take a whack at the lawn care industry’s weeds and find ways to better connect vendors and customers
• "Airbnb for Beer": Digital Nomad Brews Up Frosty Profits: A brewing innovator bridges the gap between local breweries eager to make money off of their idle equipment and event planners who want to create their own customized beer

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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