Shared Squared

= pro-sharing advocacy and enabling community in NYC

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By Cat Johnson:

"Based in New York, Shared Squared is helping people to share by holding events, providing resources to empower sharing economy innovators, and making it easier for people to get involved in the movement.

“Our approach is simply to give people the opportunity to learn about, know about, meet and support other people in the same industry,” says Shared Squared founder, Adam Berk. “If there is one industry that should collaborate, it's ours. So I want to make sure we all work together and support each other when possible and where it makes sense...I think we are unique in the fact that we are transparent, do not care about politics and have a no nonsense policy when it comes to competition: everyone in the space is welcome, no matter how big you are.”

Berk would like to see the sharing economy move away from telling people why they should share, and focus on making sharing cheaper, better, more convenient and more fun. He believes that in the future, third parties will play a bigger role in managing risk, inventory and maintenance for P2P companies.

“I do not think you need to be a Treehugger to share,” he says. “Rich people share yachts and planes. When you are not using your money, you put it in the bank. The sharing economy in general has done a bad job at marketing to the mainstream. Hotels are not the antithesis of Airbnb. Hotels are actually shared rooms too, just with a different model. The third party plays a bigger role in a transaction that is still P2P in reality.” (http://www.shareable.net/blog/the-rise-of-the-sharing-communities)