1 00:00:01,657 --> 00:00:05,419 Twelve years ago, I founded Zipcar. 2 00:00:05,419 --> 00:00:08,265 Zipcar buys cars and parks them 3 00:00:08,265 --> 00:00:10,841 throughout dense metropolitan areas 4 00:00:10,841 --> 00:00:13,969 for people to use, by the hour and by the day, 5 00:00:13,969 --> 00:00:16,258 instead of owning their own cars. 6 00:00:16,258 --> 00:00:20,142 Each Zipcar replaces 15 personal cars, 7 00:00:20,142 --> 00:00:23,246 and each driver drives about 80 percent less 8 00:00:23,246 --> 00:00:25,606 because they're now paying the full cost, 9 00:00:25,606 --> 00:00:28,182 all at once, in real time. 10 00:00:28,182 --> 00:00:32,427 But what Zipcar really did was make sharing the norm. 11 00:00:32,427 --> 00:00:36,678 Now, a decade later, it's really time to push the envelope a little bit, 12 00:00:36,678 --> 00:00:38,663 and so a couple years ago I moved to Paris 13 00:00:38,663 --> 00:00:41,342 with my husband and youngest child, 14 00:00:41,342 --> 00:00:44,562 and we launched Buzzcar a year ago. 15 00:00:44,562 --> 00:00:47,819 Buzzcar lets people rent out their own cars 16 00:00:47,819 --> 00:00:49,486 to their friends and neighbors. 17 00:00:49,486 --> 00:00:54,742 Instead of investing in a car, we invest in a community. 18 00:00:54,742 --> 00:00:57,069 We bring the power of a corporation 19 00:00:57,069 --> 00:01:00,182 to individuals who add their cars to the network. 20 00:01:00,182 --> 00:01:03,870 Some people call this peer-to-peer. 21 00:01:03,870 --> 00:01:07,158 This does express the humanity of what's going on, 22 00:01:07,158 --> 00:01:09,595 and the personal relationships, 23 00:01:09,595 --> 00:01:12,291 but that is also like saying that it's the same thing 24 00:01:12,291 --> 00:01:15,144 as a yard sale or a bake sale or babysitting. 25 00:01:15,144 --> 00:01:16,369 That's peer-to-peer. 26 00:01:16,369 --> 00:01:21,256 It's like saying yard sales are the same thing as eBay, 27 00:01:21,256 --> 00:01:28,828 or craft fairs are the same thing as Etsy. 28 00:01:28,828 --> 00:01:31,190 But what's really happening is that we've got the power 29 00:01:31,190 --> 00:01:33,395 of a free and open Internet, 30 00:01:33,395 --> 00:01:36,600 and on top of that we're putting a platform for participation, 31 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:40,287 and the peers are now in partnership with the company, 32 00:01:40,287 --> 00:01:43,504 creating shared value on shared values, 33 00:01:43,504 --> 00:01:48,473 and each strengthening the other, and doing what the other can't do. 34 00:01:48,473 --> 00:01:51,515 I call this Peers, Inc. 35 00:01:51,515 --> 00:01:54,076 The incorporated side, the company, 36 00:01:54,076 --> 00:01:56,893 is doing things that it does really well. 37 00:01:56,893 --> 00:02:00,662 What does it do really well? It creates economies of scale, 38 00:02:00,662 --> 00:02:04,405 significant and long-term resource investment, 39 00:02:04,405 --> 00:02:07,210 the expertise of many different kinds of people 40 00:02:07,210 --> 00:02:10,198 and different kinds of minds, and for individuals, 41 00:02:10,198 --> 00:02:13,462 consumers, it's bringing the standards, rules and recourse 42 00:02:13,462 --> 00:02:15,782 that we really want as consumers, 43 00:02:15,782 --> 00:02:18,725 and this is kind of bound up in a brand promise, 44 00:02:18,725 --> 00:02:23,765 and the companies are providing this on a platform for participation. 45 00:02:23,765 --> 00:02:26,102 Peers are giving and doing things 46 00:02:26,102 --> 00:02:29,109 that are incredibly expensive for companies to do. 47 00:02:29,109 --> 00:02:32,933 What do they bring? They bring this fabulous diversity, 48 00:02:32,933 --> 00:02:35,590 expensive for companies. And what does that deliver? 49 00:02:35,590 --> 00:02:38,351 It delivers localization and customization, 50 00:02:38,351 --> 00:02:41,758 specialization, and all of this aspect about social networks 51 00:02:41,758 --> 00:02:44,606 and how companies are yearning and eager to get inside there? 52 00:02:44,606 --> 00:02:48,702 It's natural for me. Me and my friends, I can connect to them easily. 53 00:02:48,702 --> 00:02:52,265 And it also delivers really fabulous innovation, 54 00:02:52,265 --> 00:02:53,681 and I'll talk about that later. 55 00:02:53,681 --> 00:02:57,097 So we have the peers that are providing the services and the product, 56 00:02:57,097 --> 00:03:01,677 and the company that's doing the stuff that companies do. 57 00:03:01,677 --> 00:03:06,041 The two of these are delivering the best of both worlds. 58 00:03:06,041 --> 00:03:08,029 Some of my favorite examples: 59 00:03:08,029 --> 00:03:11,982 in transportation, Carpooling.com. Ten years old, 60 00:03:11,982 --> 00:03:13,385 three and a half million people have joined up, 61 00:03:13,385 --> 00:03:15,943 and a million rides are shared every day. 62 00:03:15,943 --> 00:03:19,175 It's a phenomenal thing. It's the equivalent 63 00:03:19,175 --> 00:03:22,262 of 2,500 TGV trains, 64 00:03:22,262 --> 00:03:26,238 and just think, they didn't have to lay a track or buy a car. 65 00:03:26,238 --> 00:03:28,982 This is all happening with excess capacity. 66 00:03:28,982 --> 00:03:32,469 And it's not just with transportation, my love, 67 00:03:32,469 --> 00:03:35,622 but of course in other realms. Here's Fiverr.com. 68 00:03:35,622 --> 00:03:38,433 I met these founders just weeks after they had launched, 69 00:03:38,433 --> 00:03:42,889 and now, in two years, what would you do for five dollars? 70 00:03:42,889 --> 00:03:47,157 Seven hundred and fifty thousand gigs are now posted after two years, 71 00:03:47,157 --> 00:03:49,982 what people would do for five dollars. 72 00:03:49,982 --> 00:03:53,668 And not just easy things that anyone can do. 73 00:03:53,668 --> 00:03:58,444 This Peers, Inc. concept is in a very difficult and complex realm. 74 00:03:58,444 --> 00:04:02,640 TopCoder has 400,000 engineers who are delivering 75 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:06,440 complex design and engineering services. 76 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:08,993 When I talked to their CEO, he had this great line. 77 00:04:08,993 --> 00:04:13,783 He said, "We have a community that owns its own company." 78 00:04:13,783 --> 00:04:16,055 And then my all-time favorite, Etsy. 79 00:04:16,055 --> 00:04:19,326 Etsy is providing goods that people make themselves 80 00:04:19,326 --> 00:04:20,992 and they're selling it in a marketplace. 81 00:04:20,992 --> 00:04:24,407 It just celebrated its seventh anniversary, 82 00:04:24,407 --> 00:04:26,975 and after seven years, last year it delivered 83 00:04:26,975 --> 00:04:32,467 530 million dollars' worth of sales to all those individuals 84 00:04:32,467 --> 00:04:35,623 who have been making those objects. 85 00:04:35,623 --> 00:04:38,382 I know you guys out there who are businesspeople, 86 00:04:38,382 --> 00:04:40,798 are thinking, "Oh my God, I want to build one of those. 87 00:04:40,798 --> 00:04:42,475 I see this incredible speed and scale. 88 00:04:42,475 --> 00:04:44,984 You mean all I have to do is build a platform and all these people are going 89 00:04:44,984 --> 00:04:47,752 to put their stuff on top and I sit back and roll it in?" 90 00:04:47,752 --> 00:04:52,803 Building these platforms for participation are so nontrivial to do. 91 00:04:52,803 --> 00:04:56,816 I think of the difference of Google Video versus YouTube. 92 00:04:56,816 --> 00:05:00,005 Who would have thought that two young guys and a start-up 93 00:05:00,005 --> 00:05:02,188 would beat out Google Video? Why? 94 00:05:02,188 --> 00:05:04,280 I actually have no idea why. I didn't talk to them. 95 00:05:04,280 --> 00:05:06,912 But I'm thinking, you know, they probably had 96 00:05:06,912 --> 00:05:08,891 the "share" button a little bit brighter and to the right, 97 00:05:08,891 --> 00:05:11,885 and so it was easier and more convenient for the two sides 98 00:05:11,885 --> 00:05:14,965 that are always participating on these networks. 99 00:05:14,965 --> 00:05:19,164 So I actually know a lot about building a peer platform now, 100 00:05:19,164 --> 00:05:21,025 and a Peers, Inc. company, because I've spent 101 00:05:21,025 --> 00:05:24,424 the last two years doing that in Paris. 102 00:05:24,424 --> 00:05:27,845 So let me take you back how it's so incredibly different 103 00:05:27,845 --> 00:05:30,720 building Buzzcar than it was building Zipcar, 104 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:33,000 because now every single thing we do has these two 105 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:35,427 different bodies that I have to be thinking about: 106 00:05:35,427 --> 00:05:38,291 the owners who are going to provide the cars 107 00:05:38,291 --> 00:05:40,738 and the drivers who are going to rent them. 108 00:05:40,738 --> 00:05:44,210 Every single decision, I have to think about what is right for both sides. 109 00:05:44,210 --> 00:05:46,674 There are many, many examples and I'll give you one 110 00:05:46,674 --> 00:05:49,996 that is not my favorite example: insurance. 111 00:05:49,996 --> 00:05:54,525 It took me a year and a half to get the insurance just right. 112 00:05:54,525 --> 00:05:57,514 Hours and hours of sitting with insurers and many companies 113 00:05:57,514 --> 00:06:01,260 and their thoughts about risk and how this is totally innovative, 114 00:06:01,260 --> 00:06:03,091 they'd never thought of it before. 115 00:06:03,091 --> 00:06:06,458 Way too much money, I just can't even go there, with lawyers, 116 00:06:06,458 --> 00:06:09,242 trying to figure out how this is different, who's responsible to whom, 117 00:06:09,242 --> 00:06:12,830 and the result was that we were able to provide owners 118 00:06:12,830 --> 00:06:17,122 protection for their own driving records and their own history. 119 00:06:17,122 --> 00:06:18,938 The cars are completely insured during the rental, 120 00:06:18,938 --> 00:06:22,602 and it gives drivers what they need, and what do they need? 121 00:06:22,602 --> 00:06:25,107 They need a low deductible, 122 00:06:25,107 --> 00:06:27,355 and 24-hour roadside assistance. 123 00:06:27,355 --> 00:06:30,239 So this was a trick to get these two sides. 124 00:06:30,239 --> 00:06:34,487 So now I want to take you to the moment of -- 125 00:06:34,487 --> 00:06:38,455 When you're an entrepreneur, and you've started a new company, 126 00:06:38,455 --> 00:06:40,849 there's the, here's all the stuff we do beforehand, 127 00:06:40,849 --> 00:06:44,775 and then the service launches. What happens? 128 00:06:44,775 --> 00:06:49,175 So all those months of work, they come into play. 129 00:06:49,175 --> 00:06:53,373 Last June 1, we launched. It was an exciting moment. 130 00:06:53,373 --> 00:06:56,983 And all the owners are adding their cars. It's really exciting. 131 00:06:56,983 --> 00:06:59,409 All the drivers are becoming members. It's excellent. 132 00:06:59,409 --> 00:07:03,855 The reservations start coming in, and here, 133 00:07:03,855 --> 00:07:06,922 owners who were getting text messages and emails 134 00:07:06,922 --> 00:07:10,015 that said, "Hey, Joe wants to rent your car for the weekend. 135 00:07:10,015 --> 00:07:14,419 You can earn 60 euros. Isn't that great? Yes or no?" 136 00:07:14,419 --> 00:07:17,916 No reply. Like, a huge proportion of them 137 00:07:17,916 --> 00:07:21,926 couldn't be bothered after they had just started, they just signed up, to reply. 138 00:07:21,926 --> 00:07:25,554 So I thought, "Duh, Robin, this is the difference between 139 00:07:25,554 --> 00:07:28,697 industrial production and peer production." 140 00:07:28,697 --> 00:07:31,809 Industrial production, the whole point of industrial production 141 00:07:31,809 --> 00:07:35,283 is to provide a standardized, exact service model 142 00:07:35,283 --> 00:07:37,495 that is consistent every single time, 143 00:07:37,495 --> 00:07:40,496 and I'm really thankful that my smartphone is made 144 00:07:40,496 --> 00:07:41,869 using industrial production. 145 00:07:41,869 --> 00:07:44,607 And Zipcar provides a very nice, consistent service 146 00:07:44,607 --> 00:07:46,191 that works fabulously. 147 00:07:46,191 --> 00:07:49,333 But what does peer production do? Peer production 148 00:07:49,333 --> 00:07:52,626 is this completely different way of doing things, 149 00:07:52,626 --> 00:07:57,698 and you have a big quality range, and so eBay, cleverly, 150 00:07:57,698 --> 00:08:01,019 the first peer production, Peer, Inc. company, I'd say, 151 00:08:01,019 --> 00:08:05,617 they figured out early on, we need to have ratings 152 00:08:05,617 --> 00:08:09,001 and commentaries and all that yucky side stuff. 153 00:08:09,001 --> 00:08:12,249 We can flag that and we can put it to the side, and people 154 00:08:12,249 --> 00:08:16,564 who are buyers and consumers don't have to deal with it. 155 00:08:16,564 --> 00:08:21,622 So going back, this is my look of excitement and joy, 156 00:08:21,622 --> 00:08:24,056 because all this stuff that I'd also been hoping for 157 00:08:24,056 --> 00:08:26,083 actually really did happen, and what's that? 158 00:08:26,083 --> 00:08:28,896 That is the diversity of what's going on. 159 00:08:28,896 --> 00:08:31,528 You have these different fabulous owners 160 00:08:31,528 --> 00:08:34,958 and their different cars, different prices, 161 00:08:34,958 --> 00:08:37,096 different locations. (Laughter) 162 00:08:37,096 --> 00:08:42,243 They dress differently, and they look different, 163 00:08:42,243 --> 00:08:47,963 and, really, I love these photos every time I look at them. 164 00:08:47,963 --> 00:08:51,073 Cool guys, excited guys, 165 00:08:51,073 --> 00:08:55,852 and here is Selma, who -- I love this driver. 166 00:08:55,852 --> 00:08:58,472 And after a year, we have 1,000 cars 167 00:08:58,472 --> 00:09:01,872 that are parked across France and 6,000 people 168 00:09:01,872 --> 00:09:04,240 who are members and eager to drive them. 169 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:08,409 This would not be possible to do that in economic fashion 170 00:09:08,409 --> 00:09:10,770 for a traditional company. 171 00:09:10,770 --> 00:09:12,912 Back to this spectrum. 172 00:09:12,912 --> 00:09:15,628 So what's happening is, we had the yuck side, 173 00:09:15,628 --> 00:09:17,852 but we actually had this real wow side. 174 00:09:17,852 --> 00:09:20,592 And I can tell you two great stories. 175 00:09:20,592 --> 00:09:23,559 A driver was telling me that they went to rent a car 176 00:09:23,559 --> 00:09:27,294 to go up the coast of France and the owner gave it to them, 177 00:09:27,294 --> 00:09:29,286 and said, "You know what, here's where the cliffs are, 178 00:09:29,286 --> 00:09:31,806 and here's all the beaches, and this is my best beach, 179 00:09:31,806 --> 00:09:34,606 and this is where the best fish restaurant is." 180 00:09:34,606 --> 00:09:37,442 And the peers also become, 181 00:09:37,442 --> 00:09:39,703 peers and owners create relationships, 182 00:09:39,703 --> 00:09:41,974 and so at the last minute people can -- 183 00:09:41,974 --> 00:09:44,631 a driver can say, "Hey, you know what, I really need the car, 184 00:09:44,631 --> 00:09:46,121 is it available?" And that person will say, 185 00:09:46,121 --> 00:09:49,232 "Sure, my wife's at home. Go pick up the keys. Go do it." 186 00:09:49,232 --> 00:09:52,631 So you can have these really nice things that can't happen, 187 00:09:52,631 --> 00:09:56,463 and it's a kind of "Wow!" and I want to say "Wow!" 188 00:09:56,463 --> 00:09:58,943 type of thing that's happening here, because individuals, 189 00:09:58,943 --> 00:10:01,814 if you're a company, what happens is you might have 190 00:10:01,814 --> 00:10:03,564 10 people who are in charge of innovation, 191 00:10:03,564 --> 00:10:05,522 or 100 people who are in charge of innovation. 192 00:10:05,522 --> 00:10:09,026 What happens in Peer, Inc. companies is that you have 193 00:10:09,026 --> 00:10:12,098 tens and hundreds and thousands and even millions 194 00:10:12,098 --> 00:10:15,201 of people who are creating experiments on this model, 195 00:10:15,201 --> 00:10:17,786 and so out of all that influence and that effort, 196 00:10:17,786 --> 00:10:22,177 you are having this exceptional amount of innovation 197 00:10:22,177 --> 00:10:24,596 that is coming out. 198 00:10:24,596 --> 00:10:27,964 So one of the reasons, if we come back to why did I 199 00:10:27,964 --> 00:10:30,805 call it Buzzcar? I wanted to remind all of us 200 00:10:30,805 --> 00:10:33,681 about the power of the hive, 201 00:10:33,681 --> 00:10:36,617 and its incredible facility to create this platform 202 00:10:36,617 --> 00:10:40,638 that individuals want to participate and innovate on. 203 00:10:40,638 --> 00:10:44,058 And for me, when I think about our future, 204 00:10:44,058 --> 00:10:47,386 and all of those problems that seem incredibly large, 205 00:10:47,386 --> 00:10:50,472 the scale is impossible, the urgency is there, 206 00:10:50,472 --> 00:10:53,506 Peers, Inc. provides the speed and scale 207 00:10:53,506 --> 00:10:58,092 and the innovation and the creativity that is going to answer these problems. 208 00:10:58,092 --> 00:11:03,409 All we have to do is create a fabulous platform for participation -- nontrivial. 209 00:11:03,409 --> 00:11:06,186 So I continue to think that 210 00:11:06,186 --> 00:11:09,441 transportation is the center of the hard universe. 211 00:11:09,441 --> 00:11:11,765 All problems come back to transportation for me. 212 00:11:11,765 --> 00:11:15,612 But there are all these other areas that are these profound, 213 00:11:15,612 --> 00:11:18,977 big problems that I know that we can work on, 214 00:11:18,977 --> 00:11:21,753 and people are working on them in many different sectors, 215 00:11:21,753 --> 00:11:24,298 but there's this really fabulous group of things 216 00:11:24,298 --> 00:11:28,784 with the power of this Peers, Inc. model. 217 00:11:28,784 --> 00:11:35,269 So over the last decade, we've been reveling in 218 00:11:35,269 --> 00:11:38,772 the power of the Internet and how it's empowered individuals, 219 00:11:38,772 --> 00:11:41,368 and for me, what Peers, Inc. does 220 00:11:41,368 --> 00:11:45,204 is it takes it up a notch. We're now bringing the power 221 00:11:45,204 --> 00:11:48,200 of the company and the corporation 222 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:51,065 and supercharging individuals. 223 00:11:51,065 --> 00:11:54,610 So for me, it's a collaboration. 224 00:11:54,610 --> 00:11:58,895 Together, we can. (Applause) 225 00:11:58,895 --> 00:12:01,480 Thank you. (Applause)