Now, if you're feeling the love too, there are many ways you can help:
Thanks to all of you who have been supporting us
Zilok is the fruit of a very ambitious project. A desire to enable and promote a new way of consuming, that would give people more choices while saving natural resources. No more buying things new that we'll use once and then store forever in a closet.
In this new century natural resources are becoming scarce, and the economy is starting to notice, not just with higher prices but also with a growing concern for conservation. Because it makes sense economically too. And that's what peer-to-peer renting is offering: an economic structure for a more efficient use of the community's resources. It goes beyond hugging trees. It makes sense, economically too.
So one year after the first release of the site, we feel we're going in the right direction. Looking back, here's the achievements we're the most proud about:
Now, our objective and big challenge for the long run is to become a mainstream service. We want you and everyone you know to think Zilok tomorrow for renting as naturally as you think eBay today for selling. That's the horizon, and with the help of our community we're going for it.
We'll need all the help we can get to bring peer-to-peer renting to the UK homes, so if you want to get involved, contact us or start spreading the word!
This is what they had to say:
"Another coveted piece of hardware available on the website is the Nintendo Wii, a games console released last year that uses a “wand” rather than a traditional control pad for interactive gaming. The console is out of stock at many outlets but you can rent one from £15 a day through Zilok from members in London and Sheffield. The new sell-out Wii Fit software can also be rented from GoodiesRental through Ziloks website for £8 a day.
Zilok lists thousands of items from all over the UK, such as badminton rackets at £5 a day, bar tables at £80, cordless hammer drills at £10 and even a Chinese cook at £60."
It could be a great occasion to share and live this event live with your friends and family. Why not rent a 46' inch LCD screen, a home cinema or even a video projector, so you don't miss a bit of it!
Perhaps, the Olympics inspire you otherwise. Feel like being more active in this great summer weather and getting fit. With your mates, you could rent a football and goals to go play in the local park, or maybe a bike to discover those places around you you've never had time to see. Feel like driving a convertible sports car, whizzing through the hot air ? We sure do! Or perhaps now that you have a bit of time of your hands you would like to try yourself at golf. What about renting some clubs and heading to the closest practice range ?
Possibilites are endless, all you need to do is use your imagination and Zilok whatever you need!
A great August to all of you!
You perhaps already noticed, we have created a holidaysection.
Zilok however enables you to rent much more than that!
Had you thought about the barbecue for the garden, a tent for an excursion, a back pack to go on holiday on the other side of the globe, a Jet Ski for some fun in the sea, and, if the weather depreciates, why not a video game console for your children or a heating parasol to still make the most out of your terrace ?! Zilok is there to make your life easier so you can really enjoy yourself!
We're very honored to have been chosen by people and the jury as the best web 2.0 startup in Europe.
Zilok is already the largest online rental marketplace in the world, with people from five countries already renting their stuff from one another: UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA.
The final of the Startup 2.0 contest was held in Barcelona, Spain, which is a perfect place to celebrate!
The jury included outstanding personalities from the entrepreneur, VC and media world, including Loic Le Meur, founder of Seesmic, Martín Varsavsky, founder of Fon, Mike Butcher and Ouriel Ohayon, editors of TechCrunch in Europe, and many others.
Thanks to all the jury members for believing in us, thanks to all our users to have made it possible, we'll make sure we're up to your expectations!
Over 300 Internet startups have been submitted from all over Europe and Zilok is one of the 10 remaining ones, ready to pitch next week for the title.
Startup 2.0 is a European web startup competition, with an outstanding jury including Loic Le Meur (Seesmic's founder), Martín Varsavsky (Fon's founder), Ouriel Ohayon and Mike Butcher (TechCrunch editors)
You can learn more about the competition on the Startup 2.0 site
For more than eight years, ClickandBuy has been providing a secure payment solution. You only need to subscribe and type in your payment information once, and then can make simple payments in more than 7,000 online merchants. Now including Zilok!
Click here for more information about ClickandBuy.
A couple months ago we introduced the feature that allows you to directly contact owners on their rental listings. We decided to go one step further and now we're bringing forum boards to you so you can ask other people about their renting experiences, what items worked best for you, what to look for when you're renting something, in fact just about anything!
This is a place for you to hang out with the community, share ideas, and help each other. You can access it all here.
With your member account you can post messages, respond to other members and create your own topic for discussion, you're in control.
To get started, we created three forum boards:
Forums are a friendly place, we set up a few simple guidelines to make sure it stays this way. Enjoy and engage in the conversation!
What items people put for rent on Zilok? How do you make sure it comes back? What is the response in the countries Zilok is offering its services? Gary answers all that in this video interview:
The video is available in full HD on the Intruders.tv website.
Since we launched, people have given us lots of tips and suggestions about how they would like the website to evolve. We listen, we respond, we adapt, and we appreciate all this valuable feedback and conversation.
So today, we are very proud and happy to present you the new face of Zilok. This new face resembles our community and features the heart of our project: making everything accessible to people at a bargain.
You'll see some of the faces and stories behind the first items that were available on our site, you'll see more examples of cool things to rent for a project, for a weekend, for a visit, you'll see more in-depth stories about Zilok and our community.
This wasn't easy, but we're happy about the result. We hope you are too, and keep on the good work by telling us what you'd like to see changed, updated, or just what you like!
If you'd like to submit your own story about Zilok, contact us! We love to hear from you.
We really appreciate this award, it is definitely the most meaningful to us. We say this often, but our members are what make Zilok a great place for finding great, fun and useful stuff. Our members help shape and reshape the website, suggesting features and categories.
So when we feel the interest of people face to face, it is most rewarding!
Here is what the Plugg Press Release tell us about the event: "Plugg’s Start-Ups Rally, a competition for European companies to showcase the most promising young technology ventures, drew 65 exceptional start-ups from 18 countries. The jury, made up of members of Europe’s leading venture capital firms, incubators and renowned internet experts, selected ultimately 20 semi-finalists who pitched the 300-headed audience on stage at the event. After a highly competitive morning session during which the 20 companies each pitched for 2 minutes, the jury and audience jointly voted 3 finalists (Bragster, Viewdle and Zilok) to the afternoon session, where they got 10 minutes to explain what their business is. The jury finally awarded Viewdle (US / Ukraine / Luxembourg) with the first prize, while Zilok (Belgium) walked away with the People’s Choice Award for getting the best ratings from the audience."
Congratulation to Viewdle.com for the Jury's award.
You can read about it on TechCrunch with this post from Mike Butcher.
