What’s a “Responsible Sharing Economy Startup”?

Summary

Shareable readers are well aware of the significant concerns about companies that claim to be part of the sharing economy but which do not reflect sharing values. Shareable’s founder has referred to some of these sharewashing firms as “Death Stars platforms” while he and others have advocated for a platform co-op movement.

Meanwhile, the media, local governments and regulators, investors, and entrepreneurs are also a bit unclear regarding what actually constitutes desirable sharing activity. Airbnb and Uber garner many of the headlines — for and against sharing — but many sharing businesses, including those found in Jeremiah Owyang’s Collaborative Economy Honeycomb chart, are somewhere on the spectrum between Death Star platforms and platform co-ops, which are not necessarily interested in creating the next world-dominating billion dollar unicorn, but just to tackle (through sharing business activities) development issues at the local or regional level.