Startup hacks capitalism with a sharing platform for everyone

Exchanging goods was one of the first things we as human beings learned to do historically. A Dutch startup is developing a platform that will bring exchanging goods to a new level — a digital one! You search for an item, select whether to buy or rent it and wait for your ladder or Playstation to arrive. Simple, safe, crowdsourced — this is what Hypra aims to achieve, according to its inventors.
“We called it Hypra because you hyper-use assets so that new ones are not manufactured. It also incentivizes manufacturers to produce higher-quality products,” says Zahar Koretsky, 30, a PhD candidate at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and his business partner and wife, Olga, 25, a Master student at the same university.
Hypra is a late-comer to the sharing economy party. There’s already Facebook who allows to find local sharing groups practically anywhere. There’s Peerby, a fellow Dutch sharing startup, that was successfully crowdfunded in 2015. But as outsiders who observed and learned, the Hypra team attempts to bring some juicy bargaining points to the table.
What comes out of our online discussion is a vision of a web platform which combines the usual e-commerce part that we’ve already seen on eBay, with renting out that we’ve also already seen in AirBnB. The result is a novel combination of a virtual sharing space that rids you of the hassles with registering in Facebook groups and agreeing when and how to pick up that lamp you liked, or how to pay for it.
“Hypra takes a big challenge — responsible consumption — and makes it easy, fun and rewarding. The books you own, your yard gear, your bicycle — share it with others, get some money out of it and show off on social media how much CO2 you saved this week”, says Olga.
“It’s an Ayn Rand fantasy,” adds Zahar, referring to the classic “Atlas Shrugged”. In the book the ideal capitalist society made paying for any favor a desirable norm and morally good.
According to the sharing duo, what would also be morally good is better care for the environment. Apparently, the platform also addresses that by helping manufacturers get their millions of dryers and coffee machines back for refurbishment or recycling.
“Normally there’s just no practical way to do it,” says Zahar. “Manufacturers could buy back all their hair dryers or coffee machines using Hypra.”
Hypra is currently in pre-development and open for crowdfunding until August.