It has some limited traction in London but a very limited number of transactions. One a month, perhaps. The problem with creating this kind of site is that seeding two-sided marketplaces is hard. And also, I relied on an ideal-world culture that sadly doesn't seem to exist in practise. People love the idea, but when it comes to it they rarely use the product. It's just too cheap and easy to buy stuff these days.
I spent a lot of time marketing StreetLend locally - flyer and poster campaigns, local blogs, forums etc. Organic growth won't work. To really get off the ground you'll need a serious advertising budget.
I wish you the best of luck. It's a product I want to see and use myself.
I checked your site. It's very interesting. I agree, people love the idea, but it's not about what people say, it's about what they actually end up doing. It seems there needs to be a very special approach to crack this nut.
I'd like to chat about this more if you don't mind. My gmail chat: usenkanov@gmail.com.
http://www.streetlend.com/
It has some limited traction in London but a very limited number of transactions. One a month, perhaps. The problem with creating this kind of site is that seeding two-sided marketplaces is hard. And also, I relied on an ideal-world culture that sadly doesn't seem to exist in practise. People love the idea, but when it comes to it they rarely use the product. It's just too cheap and easy to buy stuff these days.
I spent a lot of time marketing StreetLend locally - flyer and poster campaigns, local blogs, forums etc. Organic growth won't work. To really get off the ground you'll need a serious advertising budget.
I wish you the best of luck. It's a product I want to see and use myself.