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When Spinlister launched in 2011, it did so with popular enthusiasm. After only 15 months it was pitching at SF Disrupt Battlefield and was hailed as a great new addition to the sharing economy. The company envisioned itself as a cheap peer-to-peer bike rental service for vacationers, and occasional riders. Spinlister’s app was a place to rent any type of bike from high wheelers to fixies to road bikes.
And the company seemed to have an impressive inventory just waiting to be seized as 70 percent of US households have bicycles, but only .6 percent of bikes are used daily. By providing an elegant app to facilitate peer-to-peer renting and up to $5,000 in insurance to cover the risk of damage, Spinlister seemed ready to soar.
Unfortunately, despite raising an initial $225,000 in seed capital, expanding nation-wide and growing at a steady rate over the course of 18 months the company’s co-founders Will Denis and Jeff Noh declared they had lost passion and left in pursuit of another startup. Investors were left holding the idea, and a choice: close shop or push forward.
Lead investor Marcelo Loureiro hadn’t given up on the idea though. He said he thought there was yet-to-be-discovered value in peer-to-peer sharing and he had the passion to find it. The company doubled down, Loureiro took over as CEO and a new team was brought on.
Today, Spinlister continues to be a peer-to-peer bike rental app, but as part of this turnaround it got a new core emphasis: the business is going to be built around existing sports communities and the equipment they love.
“We are going after niche verticals,” chief marketing officer Andrew Batey said.
“We don’t want to be the share economy for everything, but we do want to be the share economy for action sports,” Batey said. “Our ultimate goal is land, snow, water.”
By increasing the company’s focus on these niches Spinlister believes it can become “more of an experience than a transaction,” Batey said. And by associating with action sports that already have established passionate communities Spinlister believes it can tap previously unrealized markets.
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To capitalize on these opportunities the company is establishing new partnerships: “We partnered with LA Triathlon Club to get high-end tri-bikes, so as to build inventory” for triathlon enthusiasts, Batey said. A partnership the company wants to emulate elsewhere because transporting high-end race bikes to far-away events can be as expensive as $300 to $500. Spinlister is working on “partnering with other tri-groups in Hawaii and Brazil,” as well as “reaching out to USA Triathlon,” the sport’s governing organization.
Spinlister wants to save triathletes money and time, by arranging peer-to-peer rentals near events. They also hope rentals will further connect people passionate about triathlons, betting the glue that holds everything together is an existing sense of community.
The company also recently expanded to snowboards and ski rentals, becoming a part of these communities through a partnership with Signal Snowboards founder Dave Lee. In addition to his snowboard manufacturing company, Lee is a former professional snowboarder and host of a popular snowboard Youtube show called ‘Every Third Thursday.’ Lee will be promoting the app as the company’s official ambassador.
Ultimately, Batey said he envisions the app facilitating the informal agreements that bind communities such as, “Hey, I work at this mountain, here’s 20 percent off your lift ticket if you rent from me,” or “Hey, rent my bike and I’ll give you a tour of the city.”
“This is something that has to grow through the community because it is community-based,” said Batey.
The company is looking at expanding to water sports in summer 2014 by adding kayaks, canoes and other water equipment to the inventory. Given the existing, passionate communities surrounding these items, it only seemed like a natural progression. And communities are key: they are Spinlister’s future.
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