One of the more interesting trends in the sharing economy has been the rise of facilities such as TechShop and Genspace. These are fully equipped and functioning facilities for engineering and biotech research respectively, where people can pay a monthly membership and gain access to cutting edge equipment.
It’s similar to a gym membership in many ways. Suffice to say, of course, those facilities are all such that the equipment is fixed and stationary. What about expensive gear that is more mobile, such as drone technology or the kind of tools used on film sets?
Step forward the community marketplace at KitSplit, which aims to allow creative folks who want to rent pretty expensive gear to find a willing lender, and of course to lend out any of their own equipment on a similar basis.
The platform claims to currently stock around $1 million worth of equipment, including an array of audio/visual equipment and the latest high-technology gadgets such as Oculus Rift and Stereo VR Rigs.
As with most sharing economy platforms, users have a free profile, with each member vetted via their LinkedIn or Facebook accounts to ensure they’re real people.
If you wish to rent out your own equipment, then a payment section of the profile allows you to easily get setup before you can list the various bits and bobs you wish to rent out.
Devices are then searched for, or alternatively you can browse the directory via device type to find exactly what you need. Once you’ve found the device you’re after, you contact the owner of the device and arrange the transaction directly.
Rental forms are provided by the platform, with payment processed by Braintree. KitSplit take 15% of the fee for their part in the arrangement.
It’s currently in beta mode and is only available in New York, but the hope is that it will expand into other areas shortly. The owners are also planning to add things such as courier delivery and even insurance over time.
It’s certainly an interesting service and should be of interest to anyone working in the creative industries.
