Ruckify: Helping Communities In The Pandemic
Andrew O'Brien, a representative of Ruckify, joins me to discuss how his company has handled the current epidemic.
Have you ever wished you could rent out some exercise equipment? How about a turntable? Or a giant inflatable pub?
Ruckify is a platform that lets you rent out almost anything in a peer to peer fashion.
This means that not only can you rent almost anything on their website, you can make money renting your own stuff on there too.
The virus has caused problems for all businesses, and for Ruckify, it means that they’re no longer making any profit at all.
This isn’t easy for any company but in Andrew's words ‘In times like these, the community is what’s most important.’
”Eighty percent of the things we own we only use twenty percent of the time. The average household has over 200,000 items in it.” - Andrew O'Brien
Time Stamps:
01:17 - Who Andrew is and what he does.
03:09 - Being isolated with children.
04:29 - What it’s like being an entrepreneur in these times.
05:05 - What Ruckify is and how it works.
06:47 - The weirdest things people have tried to rent.
08:33 - How Ruckify has pivoted in reaction to what’s happening with the virus.
13:12 - The issues with UberEats and other delivery companies.
15:46 - The increasing rates of unemployment across the globe.
18:25 - If the lifting of restrictions in Texas was a good idea or not.
23:05 - The different companies Ruckify has been partnering with.
27:40 - Things people aren’t allowed to rent on the platform.
31:50 - How the review and category systems work on the platform.
34:04 - The amount of time you can rent things out for on Ruckify.
38:10 - What the concierge team does.
39:11 - Where the company name came from.
40:42 - What Ruckify’s goal is as this year continues.
41:44 - Why they chose Austin as the place to go public in the stock market.
45:09 - The security measures they have put in place to keep people safe.
48:08 - How long they are keeping their site completely free for.
51:00 - The educational webinar Andrew puts on every week.
Resources:
Ruckify
Austin Free-Net
Texas Real Food