Peer-to-peer lending app Why Own It shuts down

In February 2012, Philipp Glöckler first had the idea for the lending and borrowing app Why Own It, and he launched it that August. However, the big breakthrough did not happen — the app will be taken off iTunes on March 12. In a blog post (in German), Glöckler shared what he learned about KPIs, high expectations, and issues.

Based in Hamburg, Why Own It GmbH was founded in April 2012, two months after Glöckler pitched the idea of the app to his friends. The first version of the app for iPhone became available in the App Store four months after that.

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Assuming friends would only like to lend their items to friends, Why Own it focused the first version of its app on that. An update a year later enabled users to borrow items from strangers, by showing offers in the neighborhood. But even after building a new front end and back end in 2013, the app did not succeed.

And not even press coverage and the “sharing is caring” movement could help.

What went wrong

Looking back, Glöckler explained in his blog post, he clearly underestimated what it takes to make a mobile app, compared to a website. Also, the team thought word of mouth would make the app a success. Unfortunately, not everyone who likes an app recommends it to friends and family.

And besides that, they got stuck with the chicken-and-the-egg problem: Many people wanted to borrow items, but not so many wanted to lend things to others.

On top of that, the app never had a proper business model. “In the beginning, everything went super fast. Idea. Concept. Investment. Launch. We were always thinking about renting out products at some point,” Glöckler said to VentureVillage.

Asked about his three key lessons, he said:

“First: Have a business model and try to make money from day one. Second: Fail faster. Third: Have more conversations with users.”

What the future holds

The app will be taken off the iTunes store on March 12. Why Own It GmbH will continue to exist as an agency to develop clients’ products — and their own.

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Glöckler has started working on justSPENT, an app that gives people an overview of their spending.

This story originally appeared on VentureVillage. Copyright 2015