Turn your tools & equipment into cash

ToolMates Hire is the first and biggest professional tool-focused online platform in Australia. It connects individuals, sole traders and businesses who have tools/ equipment with the people who need them.

Interview with entrepreneur and ToolMates Hire founder, Mirek Chwastek

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Mirek reveals how he gained inspiration, overcame setbacks specific to the creation of an online business, and lastly what he considers the two most important pieces of advice he can give to fellow entrepreneurs.

Back in late 2014, Mirek read about the history of Airbnb, and the success of the start-up unicorn, and began deeper research about the company and how they were able to grow so quickly in just 7 years. He was fascinated with Airbnb in particular since, in his opinion, it runs on a simple idea and also because there existed a similarly eager and untapped market for tool sharing.

Current Industry Landscape: large hire companies with commercial clients.

Opportunity: peer-to-peer renting to private or residential customers

His goal is to learn from what Airbnb did right and grow his concept past its Sydney-base to expand nationwide and eventually globally.

Mirek divulged his struggle with product development and IT side of starting this company. This proved to the be largest challenge he faced associated with shifting from being a physical business owner, to an being an online one.

Mirek reached-out to overseas developers to help him move his idea forward. The development process took about 2 years. In the second phase of development, which took close to 8 months, Mirek and partner Mateusz Jedruszek, focused on making the service as safe and secure as possible. This included adding key advancements to the online platform– including the incorporation PayPal, the addition of a bond/deposit option on for-hire items, security procedures like the Pin Pick-up Code, and lastly the guarantee program.

Mirek says that during the long process of development, there were various periods of stagnation and set-back. These taught him one important thing that he wishes to pass on to fellow entrepreneurs: in order for a start-up to be successful, every part of the team must believe and push the idea forward through slow periods and past all naysayers.

His advice continues: don’t leave efforts unexplored or leave anything on the table. He says that is the M.O. of the current ToolMates Hire team.

He closed the interview with these words: “The money I invested in this project won’t change my life, but the success of ToolMates Hire could change it and so I will continue to believe in this idea and do all that I can to make it succeed.”


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Toolmates hire

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ToolMates Hire is a new start-up tech company based in Sydney’s inner-west. This is a platform for people to share their tools from the comfort of their own homes. After months of development dating back to November 2015, the site was finally ready for release to the public.

ABOUT Toolmates hire