Exclusive Interview: Yard Club Uses the Sharing Economy to Move B2B Forward
The Sharing Economy is something that I’ve pondered over and over again, intrigued by the very idea that we may be able to recreate a society that is dependent on resources we can find from each other instead of some corporate company controlling it all.
“We really just provide a service so the two can meet.” That’s how Colin Evran explained the platform and it’s a modest way to put it. Yard Club allows peer to peer interaction so those with construction equipment can meet those looking to get a job done. What was especially appealing about Evran’s pitch is that Yard Club takes an industry so old and necessary, we sometimes forget how essential it is, and he provided a forward thinking process to get these contractors out and doing their jobs more frequently and more effectively.
Do you think the sharing economy is going to be around for awhile or would you say it’s more of a fad that’s popular right now? “Well the sharing economy is something that has been around for a long time. It’s as basic as someone borrowing tools from their neighbor. So we didn’t create the sharing economy. We’re just able to make it a more formal process. We have tools now that connect people and make it all easier.”
Evran embodied the very context of the sharing economy in my visit. He was friendly, inviting and willing to express his excitement for Yard Club and the benefits of the sharing economy for an industry that he closely knew.
“My father did construction, so I knew the industry. I had experience programming and experience in construction and so it just made sense to take the two things I know and let them meet.”
Yard Club, the App for B2B
Yard Club is especially luring because it utilizing the start up culture to help strengthen one of the largest industries and we aren’t the only ones attracted to the business model. Caterpillar, the construction giant, has bought into the company, partnering and making a considerably large donation.
“We just entered a partnership with Caterpillar which is really exciting for us because it opens up a lot of opportunity but it also shows us that we’ve got support. We like that they believe in what we’re doing.”
The app requires an initial registration that allows contractors to place their equipment up for others to rent. Yard Club even makes the process easier by helping with transport and providing a Master Rental Agreement to all equipment owners. They screen their members and are adamant about providing a good experience for their users. All equipment is required to have insurance, and all renters are required to enter a mobile agreement. What Evran is doing is allowing contractors to do their job, but essentially organizing the mess of that initial business arrangement.
What’s in the future for Evran?
Evran plans on expanding significantly. The company is organizing expansion in more of California and in other states on the west coast. B2b is a really smart place to start for Evran and Yard Club is blooming in it’s niche quite nicely. Bussinesses can even use platforms like TrustRadius to find tools to reach out to relevant businesses easier!
Could you see yourself running the same sort of business model for other equipment, like say photography or video? “We definitely like the idea of moving toward other areas that people can benefit from something like this, and I’ve gotten shout outs on twitter and other sites about how their industry could really use something like this, but right now we’re really focused on this. We want to make sure that before we consider anything else, Yard Club is doing what we’ve set out to do with it.”
Evran provided me with a great rounded idea of what Yard Club was and it wasn’t hard to get attracted to the company. What separates Yard Club from the rest of the start ups currently using the sharing economy is that Yard Club is using it so intelligently that I can see the company lasting a very long, very successful lifetime.
