Why Own It
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
WHY own it (whyown.it) was a Hamburg-based startup offering a peer-to-peer lending app for the sharing economy. Users could catalogue what they owned and were willing to lend, connect their Facebook friend lists, and find out what they could borrow from friends and neighbors. Founded around 2012 and led by CEO Philipp Glockler, it ran for about three years.
02 / Why Own It FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
WHY own it fell victim to the classic marketplace chicken-and-egg problem: it could not get enough users, who in turn did not refer friends. When the startup shut down, CEO Philipp Glockler summarized his three key learnings: have a business model and try to make money from day one, fail faster, and have more conversations with users.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
WHY own it is founded in Hamburg, Germany, building a peer-to-peer lending app for borrowing from friends and neighbors.
- Shutdown
After about three years, WHY own it shuts down; the app is removed from the iTunes store on March 12, 2015.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
WHY own it was founded in Hamburg, Germany around 2012, building a peer-to-peer lending app for borrowing from friends and neighbors.
- 02
In February 2015, after about three years, the company shut down; the app was removed from the iTunes store on March 12, 2015.