November 2007 Archives

Divvy is a place to share stuff. Divvy builds community.

Your Divvy profile looks like this:


It has information about you, the stuff that you’re willing to share with your friends or other people in your community, and a list of stuff that you’d like to borrow from people nearby.

Your stuff gets its own profile, too; it looks like this:



Perhaps you want to borrow something because you can’t afford to buy it, or have the space to store it. Or maybe you just want to reduce your carbon footprint by consuming less. Or maybe you’re not sure what kind of bicycle you want to buy, so you’d like to try a few out before you take the plunge. If you were to search for a bicycle in Divvy, it would look like this:



You could then decide which bicycle you’d like to borrow based on how far you’d have to travel to borrow it, or based on what you think of the owner’s profile. Once you find the right bicycle, you can write to the owner and arrange to use it. And while you wait for a response, you dig around and see what you find:




Find stuff. Meet People. Save the Planet. Do you Divvy?

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Divvy is an online peer-to-peer network that enables people to share goods within their local communities.

Divvy is a new online tool, a new community marketplace, a new way of saving the planet, and a new way of connecting with people. Divvy helps people consume less and share more.



Chris owns a lime green bungalow on a conspicuous corner lot in the suburbs which he desperately needs to repaint. A power washer would get the job started, but he doesn't own one. A minimalist by nature with a wife who wouldn't approve of him buying one anyway (she's still upset about the belt sander that is cluttering up the garage), he logs into Divvy and searches for one in his neighborhood that he might borrow. He finds Rick, a paralegal with a penchant for classic rock, who lives on the next street over and who has posted his power washer to share. Chris contacts Rick and arranges to use it this weekend because the weather forecast looks promising. Picking it up, Chris strikes up a conversation with Rick and finds out they went to the same high school "back in the day" and even dated the same girl. They share some laughs and, later, drinks.

Meet Annette. She is a single mother living in a small one-bedroom apartment downtown. Since she works at a Starbucks only a few blocks away, she doesn't own a car and usually walks or rides the bus. On rare occasion, however, she borrows her friend's car to get out of the city. Since money and space are both scarce for her, she doesn't have a car seat for her toddler. Fortunately, she met Mike and Julie on Divvy about a year ago. Their profile mentioned they go to church and they looked friendly so Annette felt comfortable contacting them. They are consummate environmentalists, so they use Flexcar and share a lot of stuff, including their kids' car seats which they use infrequently. Annette has become good friends with Mike and Julie, and their two-year-olds have even learned to share toys.

Chris. Rick. Annette. Mike. Julie. They all Divvy. Do you?



The median annual household income in America is $46,000. After cost of living expenses are deducted, 49% of all American households are left with no discretionary income. Of the remaining 51%, the average discretionary allowance is only $11,000. Short on cash, Americans need to find innovative ways to save money.



Divvy allows people access to a broad spectrum of goods without actually having to bear the cost of ownership. Divvy users are able to participate in a community network of individuals who share goods in common. By providing a system that tracks transaction history, successfully completed exchanges, user feedback, comments, user rating, reputation and social accountability through an online community market infrastructure, Divvy is able to leverage the full spectrum of community networking tools to facilitate a sharing exchange. This allows the Divvy marketplace to go beyond traditional buy/sell exchanges into the exciting space of a dynamic sharing community.

Additionally, from an environmental perspective, dormant assets are wasted assets and a sustainable earth vision demands efficiency. Divvying resources reduces waste, which reduces production pressures, which saves the planet one transaction at a time. Divvy helps people save money and leverage their assets to the mutual benefit of their peers and communities, meaning that Divvy helps people create green (common) wealth.



Aaron Freed  President and Founder
     Masters in Operations Research and Masters in Organizational Management;
     United States Air Force, 16 years: Major, Pilot;
     Real Estate Investor
Janis Machala  Business Development & Marketing
     Former senior executive, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems;
     12 years as venture accelerator, Paladin Partners

An advisory board of experts in marketing, operations, technology and business development has also been assembled.



We founded Divvy in April of 2007 as WDG, Inc., a Washington corporation.



If you are interested in knowing more about Divvy, investing in Divvy, or joining the Divvy team, please contact one of our co-founders:

Aaron Freed

aaron {at} divvy.com

Divvy.com
300 Lenora Street, B159
Seattle, Washington 98121

help {at} divvy.com