Pioneers & Protagonists

  10 questions for Theo Kitchener, founder of The ShareHood

The Sharehood aims to…
build joyful, sustainable and resilient communities by encouraging people to get to know their neighbours and share time, skills, and resources with them.

The easiest way to explain it…
is social networking for your neighbourhood. Meet your neighbours online, find out what they’re interested in sharing, contact them, meet up in real life to borrow/lend/help out, or just find out about and attend community events.

The idea came from…
when I was living in a house without a washing machine. I knew all my neighbours would have one, but I’m a shy person, so I thought up The Sharehood to help take the awkwardness out of sharing with your neighbours.

I believe it’s the right moment for The Sharehood to take off because…
we’re going through a conciousness shift towards more humanity, community, wastelessness and reciprocity. The world is about to get a whole lot smaller, with high oil prices, the never-ending debt crisis, and climate change disasters. We’re kidding ourselves to think we don’t need our neighbors.

The biggest misperception about The Sharehood is…
that being involved will be time consuming, risky or mean a loss of privacy. While I chat with neighbours on my way home now, they never show up at my door just wanting to socialise. We haven’t had any problems with borrowed goods, and no one’s felt overwhelmed by requests to share.

The best moment so far was …
a cake that was baked for a picnic that got rained out, and instead was passed around five houses, neighbour to neighbour, before being fully devoured.

The biggest challenge to overcome is…
people isolate themselves from each other in so many ways. It’s as if we think the benefits of community and sharing are not worth the loss to our autonomy. As with all things, a balance is best, and we find that we’re more fulfilled knowing more of our neighbors.

Another example of Collaborative Consumption I admire …
Social lending networks like Zopa. People lending to other people, everyone wins except the banks.

In the future for The Sharehood…
you move to a new neighbourhood, check out The Sharehood website and immediately have access to a massive inventory of goods and services on offer from your neighbours. You introduce yourself to the community online and people start showing up at your door with baked goods. The future is lovely…

Recent Pioneers & Protagonists Interviews

  10 questions for Kelly Scales, founder of Bid & Borrow

  10 questions for Campbell McKellar, Founder of Loosecubes

  10 questions for Marcio Nigro, founder of Caronetas

  10 questions for Jess Ratcliffe, founder of GaBoom

  10 questions for Philipp Rogge, founder of frents

  10 questions for Tim Hyer, founder of Rentcycle

  10 questions for Barbara Pantuso, founder of Hey, Neighbor!

  Ella T. Gorgla, Founder of I-ELLA

  Cathy Tao, co-founder of Tourboarding

  Mike Karnjanaprakorn, cofounder of Skillshare

For a complete archive of Pioneers & Protagonists Interviews click HERE.