Rentcycle

Rentcycle is a provider of real-time online rental reservations for consumers and cloud-based business management solutions for rental stores. The company website, rentcycle.com is an online marketplace featuring over 1,600 product categories. Users can search over 30,000 shops across the United States.
Rentcycle was founded in 2009 and is based in San Francisco, CA.
History
Rentcycle was founded in 2009 by CEO Tim Hyer. Hyer was inspired to start the company while training for a triathlon. Rather than pay $600 to ship his bike cross-country, he attempted to rent a race bike at the race destination. Frustrated by the two days it took to find the right bike, Hyer wrote the business plan for Rentcycle with the intent to make renting online as easy as shopping online.
Co-founders Ludo Goarin (CTO) and Kevin Halter (VP of Sales) joined the company in 2010.
The Rentcycle Marketplace launched in 2011.
Collaborative Consumption
Rentcycle is built on the principles of Collaborative Consumption and the motto “Usership is the new ownership.” The company promotes sustainable commerce and reuse with each product that is rented through the site.
In keeping with its environmental principles, Rentcycle plants a tree with every item rented through the website.
Investors and Board of Directors
Rentcycle is backed by Collaborative Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, Founder Collective, Amicus Capital, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and Shopzilla founder Farhad Mohit.
The Rentcycle Board of Directors includes Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph, OpenTable founder Chuck Templeton, and Craig Shapiro CEO and Founder of The Collaborative Fund.
Services to Users
Rentcycle allows users to search, compare, and rent anything online. The marketplace features over 20,000 products in 1,600 wide ranging categories.
Users can search for items and rental companies based on parameters including price, distance, and delivery type. Customers can arrange for home delivery, get quote requests, and secure online payments through rentcycle.com
Services to Businesses
Rentcycle provides vendors with a comprehensive cloud-based business management and point-of-sale system called RentCloud. RentCloud is one of the first cloud-based management systems designed to fit the unique needs of the rental industry.
Features include:
* Real-time inventory management: Stores can access, edit, and update their inventory from any device with an Internet connection
* In-store Point-of-Sale
* Ability to take online payments and reservations
* Ability to take advantage of other web applications
Awards
* In 2010, Rentcycle won the .CO Create Your Opportunity Contest and the Vator Splash Competition
* MassChallenge finalist in 2010. MassChallenge is a global competition for early-stage entrepreneurs
* That same year, Rentcycle was named to Entrepreneur Magazine's list of
* In 2010, the Rentcycle Marketplace was named to the Rental Management Magazine Hot List while RentStore was named to the list in 2011. The Rental Management Hot List consists of the American Rental Association’s picks for the rental industry’s best new products and services.
* In 2011 Rentcycle was named the Audience Choice Winner and Judge’s First Runner Up of the DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event.
* The company was also the 2011 Third Place winner of the Tufts University [http://gordon.tufts.edu/entLeader/competition/2011winners.asp $100K Entrepreneurial Leadership Business Plan Competition]
* In 2011 Rentcycle was name Microsoft Bizspark: [http://www.bizspark.com/Blogs/Microspark-BizSpark-Startup-of-the-Day/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List4f77559d-0614-489c-9e9e-fb18e981cb5a&ID321 "Startup of the Day"]
Technology
Rentcycle is built atop Windows Azure, Microsoft’s public cloud platform which delivers a scalable web server infrastructure. It uses the ASP.NET C#, MVC 3 framework.

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