Imagine that you are an independent musician that plays the drums. You are on tour with a band, but it is your responsibility to get from place to place with your gear.

For short trips, you need a vehicle large enough for your drums and luggage. For longer trips, you must pay extra to transport your drums if you take a train or fly.

Mircea Gabriel Efemine, a musician with 10 years of touring experience, had seen this problem many times.

The problem was quite vexing and challenging for new or less experienced musicians, who were not earning much money. To solve the problem regarding musical instruments, Efemine launched Sharingear, a peer-to-peer musical instrument sharing platform for independent musicians and touring bands. Here is how it worked. Users could create a profile and list the musical instruments and related gear they were willing to rent or sell. On the other side, musicians or bands could rent instruments and other gear, in a city or location, thus avoiding the hassle and expense of transporting items from place to place.

Regrettably, Sharingear failed. As explained in several online posts, the reasons that Sharingear failed are, first, the market was too small and, because Sharingear assessed a small fee per transaction, the company failed to generate a sufficient amount of revenue to cover its costs. Second, the product–market fit was not good.

Product–market fit is the degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand. With a solid fit, a firm’s customers are willing to buy its product or service and tell others about the firm in large enough numbers to support its growth and profitability. While cash-strapped musicians, Sharingear’s primary target market, may have told Sharingear it had a good business idea, at the end of the day, the musicians found other ways to transport their instruments from Point A to Point B. Third, musical instruments are delicate. While Sharingear provided insurance for the instruments people chose to rent through its site, this was a problem. It caused people that have instruments to be reluctant to rent them and caused those needing instruments to hesitate because they did not want to be blamed for damaging someone else’s property. Finally, musicians usually develop a preference for their own playing gear and develop loyalty to a brand because of that preference. As a result, someone who plays a Fender guitar not only typically prefers their own guitar but is loyal to Fender and would not want to play a Gibson or Taylor guitar if those were the only ones available on the Sharingear site in a particular location.

Regrettably, Sharingear did not have the budget to pivot and adjust its business model. Because of this, the firm failed in 2015.....

Discussion Questions:

1. In the context of this chapter, list three “takeaways”
from this feature from which you can learn and that you would try to avoid if you chose to launch a business to solve a problem.
2. To what degree is there a difference between pursuing an opportunity to solve a problem and building a business?
In what ways did Sharingear fail to do both?
3. As you consider Sharingear’s experiences, do you think the firm’s founder spotted a true opportunity or not? Explain your answer.
4. Venture capitalists are thought of as investors who want to support “home run” businesses—those with a bright and substantial future. Given this, do you think venture capitalists would have a strong interest to fund Sharing ear? Why or why not?