1. Collaborating in London (your
help requested)
Raj Singh, CEO, Sooqini
@trajsingh, raj@sooqini.com
1

2. sooqini.com
• Part of the Gig
economy: The place
to get stuff done
– Share your skills with
your local community,
and make money
– 10K+ people in
London, requesting
stuff, and doing stuff
2

3. Some friends of Sooqi
3

4. Definition
• Collaborative consumption: sharing access/use of
things rather than outright ownership, getting
stuff done together
• Not exactly a new idea, but technology is bringing
it back to prominence, driven by the economy
• Mostly works well where some level of trust /
social capital can be established between the
participants
4

5. UnDefinitions
• Some level of non-monetary motivation
– Use local providers
– Be environmentally friendly
– Drive social change
• Light greens v. dark greens
– Focus on changing the world, not profit
• We are (doomed) to repeat ourselves
5

6. Leap of faith or BAU?
6
Self
Group
Known Unknown
CollconsTeam
Individual Co-working

7. Global perspective
• London/UK participate in the global phenomenon
• And have our own players too
– GoCarShare, Hailo
– OneFineStay, Room Central
– Streetbank, Streetlife
– ShareMyStorage, RentMyItems
– Ratedpeople, peopleperhour
• Not forgetting the role of government (E.g. Boris
bikes), UKTI TechCity, SEIS/EIS
7

8. London
• Unique as a hub across many sectors –
finance, tech, media, government, culture:
ideal for cross-pollination and collaboration
• Meets the requirements for collcons: scale,
capacity, abundance, trust between strangers
• 8.5MM inhabitants, ~<250K collcons active
8

9. Uniquely London?
• No evidence so far, other than being the
largest western European metro area
• Uniquely UK?
– Laws and regulations, often quite ancient
– Well-established competition in most industries
– Stiff upper lip/don’t talk on the tube/NIMBY
– (landshare.net: share your allotment)
9

10. Let’s make it happen
We at Sooqini would like to work with other
London-based collcons companies in any field to
advance the ideas of collaborative consumption.
Whatever the competitive dynamics, together
we can bring benefit to all
10

11. Final thought
“We always overestimate the change that will
occur in the next two years, and underestimate
the change that will occur in ten years. Don’t let
yourselves be lulled into inaction.”
William H. Gates III
11

12. Collaborating in London (your
help requested)
Raj Singh, CEO, Sooqini
@trajsingh, raj@sooqini.com
12