Prince Albert woman creates app to rent household items to others
A Prince Albert woman has come up with a creative solution to tackle consumerism in Canada.
Alex Jordan has created an app to rent out household items such as tools, even wedding decor, to people in the community. Lend !t (that's Lend It with an exclamation point),
Her work on the app began in January when she thought of the items not being used in her own home.
"Looking around my own garage, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I have all this stuff just laying here that gets once, twice, three times use,'" Jordan, the creator and CEO of the Lend !t app, said during an interview on Thursday with the Morning Edition.
"I thought, I wish there was a platform where we could put these sort of items on and help people that are struggling with the prices of inflation."
Jordan says she was heavily inspired by the concept of AirB&B, the app that lets people rent out their homes.
With Lend !t people can rent out the items in their homes to others.
Once users download the app, they log in and choose their city. From there they can search for a specific item or browse by categories.
People the items they want to lend out and create a daily rental rate. Then users can decide on their own pick-up or drop-off arrangements.
"I have people using it already," Jordan said. "A lot of the wedding decor was used this last wedding season here, so that was really exciting to see."
Renters drawn to canoes, kayaks
Water sport items were a huge hit this summer, she says. Lots of people rented canoes, kayaks and paddle boards to enjoy on Saskatchewan's lakes.
The app is available to people throughout Canada and the U.S., but the biggest user base is in Prince Albert, the community where the idea originated.
Lend !t is a commission based app, so Jordan earns $5 from every transaction.
Jordan said the impacts of inflation she was seeing were the main motivator in creating the app.
"It's not me just struggling with inflation, it's everybody right now," said Jordan.
"I really just thought if I could put something out there that gave people the freedom to make their own rental and their own money in a safe spot, as well as save money by just borrowing, how could it go wrong?"
Logo for Prince Albert based app Lend !t (Submitted)
Jordan paired with an American coding company in January to design the app, which took around six months to complete.
App users need an active credit card to use the service. Lend !t uses a third party service called Stripe, a service that protects users against fraud and can issue refunds to those who needing them. That way no credit card information is stored on the app itself.
Lend !t includes a rental agreement for those renting items to others. People can place deposits on the items they wish to rent and disclosures can be made if items are damaged, to avoid conflict between users.
Jordan says safety is a main priority of Lend !t and she is looking to explore ways to increase safety as the app continues to expand. By 2025 the app will automatically have a deposit in escrow.
Jordan says she hopes to not only spread awareness of her app throughout Canada, but to create a larger conversation on consumerism in the country.
"If I could help our community in any way, that's really my vision," she said. "I really hope to change the narrative for future generations of how we can save money and we can borrow and lend instead of having to purchase everything."
Jordan's next goal is to use Lend !t to partner with various businesses in Prince Albert.
She is looking forward to partnering with Rock Trout Events, a venue in Prince Albert that rents out their location to musicians in the area. Using Lend !t would allow people to book the venue through the app.
"Instead of people just messaging us all the time through Instagram or email, we can have everything in one place and communicate with people in that way," said Nicole Pawlyshyn, who operates Rock Trout Events with her parents."Hopefully it brings more rentals in."
Lend !t has 1,000 downloads to date, and about 700 users have signed up since the app launched in June.