I have a startup abroad, and have appeared in media all over the country. We've raised several rounds, and may be building an investment fund. What else can I do to increase my chances of getting an O-1 having a business background.
I also think what is key is to find how much $ a person is willing to move for. In our experiments in Spain we believe its 30Euros, so we do not target products such as drills, but focus on higher ticket items.
I think the real problem with a p2p rental platform lies on two factors. One of them being access: I need a drill, pair of skis, camera... I can pick this up from a neighbor (which enhances the second factor: community) or I can have it delivered to my house through a 3rd party service (e.g. uber, postmates...) which solves access/ease. So this can be solved by focusing on balance, starting in dense cities and experimenting through geolocation, or working with close knit communities (e.g. airbnb for IBMers, stanford alumni..). Relayrides had a # of devices which they placed on each of their cars to make them accessible to customers but what they realized according to Shelby Clark (Founder) was that the damage to these cars increased. Once they removed this device (main reason was to lower cost) they reduced damage done by 50% as people associated these cars(product) with someone else = community. They key is balance and it seems like very few companies in the p2p product rental industry have found such.
We are trying to create a online platform to allow users in Europe to rent their personal items on demand. We are currently seeking as much feedback as we can get :) Please feel free to comment