Dot.Communism?

Venturecannibalism is feeling good about the world. Is it the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius or is the coincidence of two new ‘sharing economy’ start-ups at the Bath Innovation Centre just, well, a coincidence? The brilliant new www.storenextstore.com launched on Friday – as they say, why rent a corporate unit when you could be renting your neighbour’s loft or garage? I think the government must have seen their intro video and wisely dropped the badger cull immediately. Meanwhile we had 15 Italian entrepreneurs over courtesy of the Turin-based Fondazione CRT & SETsquared to participate in the Bath Entrepreneurship Programme – five days of blood, sweat and executive summaries culminated in live-fire pitches to investors. The winning pitch, which attracted the attention of Jenson Solutions’ Seed EIS Fund manager among others was Park& Pay – an ‘AirBnB’ for car parking. Parallels with Parking Panda, but with some nice, pro-user features and a European foothold in Italy. Can’t wait to see it launched in the UK.

So here’s Venturecannibalism’s ‘Harmony & Understanding’ top sharing economy start-ups that we want to see:

1. Pets – shared–care for dogs, split the walking, stroking and poop-scooping with a friend
2. Co-purchasing – the benefit of buying in bulk together. 150kg bags of cereal for the neighbourhood, and no fighting over the free toy inside
3.  Neighbourhood favour bank – what would you trade for watering my garden while I’m on holiday?
4.  Night space – open offices and public buildings that are empty at night for reasonable hire by community groups
5.  Own it together: Club together to buy houses, luxury yachts or racehorses you can’t afford on your own. Put me down for a couple of chops in a neighbourhood pig!