Getable

Getable emerged from two different founding stories that eventually converged on the construction equipment rental market. One story began in 2008 when brothers Jon, Cory, and Zach Taylor, leveraging their experience from the Yellow Pages industry, created a platform to connect service providers with customers, eventually specializing in lead generation for construction equipment rentals. The other narrative starts in 2010 with Tim Hyer and Kevin Halter, who founded the company in San Francisco, initially as Rentcycle. Hyer, a graduate of the Founder Institute, was inspired by the idea that access is better than ownership, a concept that came to him from the high cost of shipping his bike for triathlon races. This led to Rentcycle, which aimed to be a broad rental marketplace for items like tools and party supplies before rebranding to Getable in 2012 to focus more on the experience of access rather than just the act of renting.

The company provides a platform for construction professionals to rent heavy equipment. It operates as a mobile-first marketplace, connecting contractors with a network of local and third-party equipment suppliers. The business model is designed to bring transparency and efficiency to a traditionally fragmented market. For contractors, Getable offers a free-to-download app that serves as a centralized interface to order, manage, and track rental equipment from various suppliers, as well as their own company-owned assets. The platform allows users to compare suppliers based on negotiated pricing or existing relationships. Revenue was historically generated by charging a commission, such as a 10% fee, on equipment ordered through the app. In a move to deepen its integration with suppliers, the company also experimented with a model similar to OpenTable, providing an in-store hardware and software solution for a flat fee and a monthly subscription to help businesses manage their rental inventory.

Pivoting from a general rental marketplace, Getable focused its efforts on the $32 billion construction rental market. The mobile application allows construction crews to manage the entire equipment lifecycle on a jobsite, from making new reservations and requesting maintenance to scheduling pick-ups. A key feature includes sending notifications to contractors when a rental period is ending to avoid unnecessary costs. Over its active years, the company successfully raised a total of $10.8 million in funding over three rounds from more than 30 investors, including Social Capital, a16z, Founder Collective, and several strategic investors from the construction industry. The company was noted as being out of business as of November 2019.

Keywords: construction equipment rental, equipment management app, on-demand equipment, contractor tools, rental marketplace, heavy equipment ordering, construction technology, jobsite management, asset tracking software, mobile equipment rental, lead generation construction, rental inventory management, equipment sharing economy, Tim Hyer, Kevin Halter, Taylor brothers, Rentcycle, construction supplier network, equipment booking platform, digital rental solutions