Chuck Templeton is building a new kind of sustainable online start-up that encourages people to share what they already have and stop buying stuff they may not need.
He launched OhSoWe with partner Arun Sivashankaran a little over a year ago as a digital meetup that connects neighbors by encouraging them to borrow household goods from each other so they don’t have to buy things they won’t use often. Mr. Templeton, 43, started OpenTable.com, a national restaurant reservation site, and sold it before moving to Chicago, where he created OhSoWe.
OhSoWe already has more than 15,000 registered users, with about 60 percent of them located in Chicago, mostly on the North Side. There are some smaller pockets of people in Utah, California and New York who also have joined in the last year. Members can post a request to borrow something they need — a ladder, a blender, or extra chairs — and chances are good there’s someone living close by who’s a member on the site and will be happy to loan it out for a short while.
So far, the site isn’t generating revenue, but the co-owners are working on ideas about how to create income down the road. For now, Mr. Templeton is keen on promoting the idea that we have more than we need. He’s encouraging individuals and businesses to re-think consumption, focus on a local economy, and foster a stronger sense of community.
Mr. Templeton, a San Francisco native, is passionate about sustainability beyond his new business venture. He and his wife are converting their Lakeview house to a net-zero energy home, they’re raising chickens in their backyard, and they’re down to one car that they’ve owned for about a decade.
Crain’s met with Mr. Templeton recently to learn more about the ideas behind this innovative, green venture.
Crain’s: How did you shift from starting a service company like OpenTable.com to this very different website, OhSoWe?
Mr. Templeton: I always had a green sense of myself. My dad recycled, we lived efficiently, my grandma was a Depression-era person and was very frugal. With the birth of my first daughter almost eight years ago, I started to look at the world in a new way and wondered what it was going to be like when she grows up.
Templeton
Here’s my new worldview: Tthe primary currency isn’t money but social capital and how we value each other beyond what’s in our bank accounts. And I thought, let’s build a business that doesn’t sell anything but one that builds our local community and reduces the impact of our dependence on natural resources that are going to run out one day.
Crain’s: You said you did a lot of reading in the time between selling OpenTable.com and creating OhSoWe. Was there anything in particular that had a great impact on changing your perspective?
Mr. Templeton: One of the biggest influences was Bill McKibbon’s book, “Eaarth.” There’s lots of emphasis on resilience and rebuilding community. I decided I wanted to encourage more of that.
Crain’s: Can you describe the purpose of this website and how people can benefit from joining?
Mr. Templeton: About 80 percent of the items we have in our house aren’t used even once a month. There are 60 million drills out there, and we don’t need more drills — we need more efficient ways to share those drills. If you think of the natural capital and human capital and energy it takes to make those things, it’s a shame for them to sit around unused.
Recently I needed a 12-foot extension ladder, so I posted it on OhSoWe and seven neighbors on my block all responded by the next day. That means there’s at least six extra ladders on our street alone. We see people on the site giving help on gardening, moving furniture, sharing bread makers, air compressors and giving computer assistance. Instead of having someone pop in a car and drive in from Evanston, let’s have neighbors help each other out.
Crain’s: So what does OhSoWe really mean?
Mr. Templeton: It’s the rediscovery of what should be obvious to us: Oh, so we don’t have to buy that — we can borrow it. Oh, so we can get to know our neighbors. It’s a reminder of what we as humans know should be obvious being part of a community. It’s also a way for us to be more resilient at the local level.
And it was also a short URL, which is tough to get these days.
Crain’s: The business model you’ve set up seems counterproductive to consumerism since the website encourages people NOT to buy stuff. Is there a way for local businesses to benefit from the community you’re nurturing?
Mr. Templeton: We haven’t gone after businesses yet, but they will have to think about how they do business differently in the future. This model of getting a shovel for 99 cents from China and reselling it for much more can’t last forever. Eventually we’ll run out of resources. Instead of selling a drill or some other tool, maybe a business will rent you the drill, or sell you a shoveling service.
Also, businesses have a lot of space they could be better at renting out. If you have a conference room you only use 10 percent of the time, a neighbor nearby might want to rent that for a few hours. One small business could be really good at marketing, and another could be good at accounting. How do we connect them so they can help businesses solve problems with each other that are nearby?
Crain’s: How do you intend to make money with this website, or is that not part of the game plan?
Mr. Templeton: The idea isn’t to become the next Bill Gates, but we want to make it sustainable long term. We’re exploring some ideas: You wouldn’t charge a neighbor to use your shovel, but maybe you would for a power washer. We would enable it to happen through the website and get a piece of the transaction. We’re testing a few different things. We want to create a local economy so the currency can stay local.
Crain’s: Are you engaged in other business ventures?
Mr. Templeton: I’m fortunate. I had some success with OpenTable, but I’m also now a director on the boards of a few different companies. I sit on the board of GrubHub and Getable, and I’m an adviser to Braintree. I’ve also dramatically reduced what I spend on stuff. When you do that, your dollar lasts that much longer.
Read more about OhSoWe in Crain’s: “Neighborliness is latest venture for OpenTable founder Templeton”
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