Challenge Hack 1: The Share Economy and Emerging Markets

GES 2015 in Nairobi
Challenge Hack 1:  The Shared Economy and Emerging Markets
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Moderator:  Edwin Macharia, Dalberg

Panelists:  
-    Nicola D’Elia, Airbnb
-    Jambu Palaniappan, Uber
-    Chris Garcia, TapEx

Estimated number of people:  35

•    Thoughts on the shared economy
o    More than creating opportunities, it is about creating conditions for entrepreneurship to survive (Nicola)
o    Understanding your non-negotiables and your flexibilities (Jambu)
o    Shared economy is the future (Chris)
o    About the optimization of resources, i.e., assets like land and building are underutilized, and operating on a global scale (Nicola)
o    Opportunity to address inefficiencies in existing service delivery systems (Nicola)
o    Understanding the relevance of your business model outside your local region (Jambu)

•    The need to have a foundation of trust:
o    Focus on peer-to-peer solutions and network for vetting (Jambu)
o    Trust shifts:  first based on people, then based on brand (Edwin)

•    Taking advantage of the trust created:
o    Customers might be willing to pay more
o    Turning a social asset into something tangible, ex., can an Airbnb or Uber rating translate into financial credit (Jambu)

•    The concern over starting something easily replicable by competitors:
o    Comes down to execution and customer service (Chris)
o    A function of the quality of service and experience (Nicola)
o    Better to have a product which 100 people love rather than 100,000 sort of like (Nicola)

•    Challenge of  legal and policy framework:
o    Most legal systems not capable of supporting the shared economy (Nicola)
o    Need to collaborate with all stakeholders to identify advantage to them (Nicola)
o    VOTE, to compel legislators to address laws related to the social economy (Chris)
o    Getting to a place where line between yours/mine will be crossed (Jambu)
o    Deregulation is the way forward (Chris)

•    Conclusions:
o    Start now and start small, focus, build a brand, fundraise and up scale (all)
o    Shared economy is bringing back our lost social interaction (Nicola)
o    The social contract has to evolve (Jambu)
o    Important to advocate for companies which operating in the shared economy (Chris)
o    The largest beneficiaries of the shared economy are those at the lower socio-economic levels (Edwin)