"Give sharing an earnest try. Experiment. Then form an opinion."-Neal Gorenflo

There are people who have ideas and there are people who run with their ideas. Neal Gorenflo is one of them. Founder of Shareable, a pioneering nonprofit in the sharing economy, Neal lives in Mountain View with his wife Andrea and four-year old son Jake. Ten years ago, he would’ve never imagined himself where he is now. Through Shareable, he is empowering sharers all over the world with the Sharing Cities Network.

“We want to connect and empower local sharing entrepreneurs to help each other, serve their communities better, and transform their neighborhoods, towns, and cities into sharing communities,” said Neal Gorenflo.

Grassroot energy

In our interview with Neal, he mentioned the energy in the grassroots level of sharing--as a lifestyle and movement.

In the last few months, over  50 Sharing Cities groups from around the world have held events to bring together sharing leaders in their cities or to showcase sharing solutions. From half-day swaps to month-long festivals, Shareable has reached an estimated 10,000 people face-to-face recently, not to mention the 100,000 unique visitors per month to Shareable.net, 19,000 newsletter subscribers and a large social presence. Sharing Cities events will continue all over the world throughout the Fall.

“We're privileged to help catalyze this community along with our partners like Near Me, OuiShare, Share Portland, People Who Share, Post Growth Institute, Seats2Meet, Freelancers Union, Mesh Labs, MyTurn, our many individual donors, and more,” said Neal.

The team

The Shareable team are dedicated sharers themselves. They’re excited to share their passion and see great potential for cities to get involved. Shareable is currently working hard to define, support and grow the Sharing Cities Network with all its contributors. As a nonprofit, they are dependent on the support of the public.

Neal is the perfect person to be leading such an organization. When asked about what he does in his free time, his response was 100 percent appropriate.

“All my time is free. I use it to support my purpose (Shareable), create with the people I love (family, friends, and kind people everywhere), and do the things l love to do (reading, writing, surfing, gardening, cooking, and biking),” he said.

Photo: Neal at Ouishare in Europe. 

One piece of life advice that Neal gave during our interview is to not plan in the conventional sense. He says ask questions, run life experiments, see what works for you. It’s clear peer-to-peer works for a lot of people based on the success of various startups leading the way. This is great advice for life, relationships and in business. This can relate to anyone looking to step out of the traditional eCommerce industry and into the sharing or peer-to-peer economy.

Near Me is aligned with Shareable’s mission to empower everyone to share, bringing more sharing economy marketplaces to life. If you’re not already subscribed to the Shareable Newsletter, sign up here. We’re a proud supporter of Shareable and its mission to encourage sharing all over the world. For more info, visit Shareable.net or follow them on twitter.com/shareable .