GetAround.com Wins TechCrunch Disrupt 2011!

Unless you’ve been living in a cave (without WiFi because I’m sure some caves have WiFi) then you know that TechCrunch’s Disrupt Conference has been going strong in NYC this week. Today after 3 days and 32 pitches, a winner has emerged. The winner is – GetAround.com – a really unique company built on a beautifully branded .COM domain.

So what does the company do? Good question! GetAround.com is a peer-to-peer car sharing service. That’s right, you actually rent a car from someone that lives near you, or rent your car out to someone in your area. At first the idea may sound a bit crazy but when you look at how much this has taken-off so far, it’s easy to see how disruptive this company has already been.

get_around

Here’s what makes this company so darn disruptive, they launched YESTERDAY and they already have 1600 cars available for sharing – that is 20% of ZipCar’s market acquired in a single day! Boom, and a star was born.

As the winners of Disrupt 2011 they get a big fat check for $50,000 and of course the glory of getting to drink champagne out of the bottle on stage in front of a live audience.

getaround_winners(Image Source: TechCrunch.com)

This was not an easy competition to win as there were lots of incredible and disruptive startups in the contest. However since it is all about innovation and disruption it’s hard to match 20% of a major company’s market in a single day and not be impressive.

According to DomainTools the domain name was registered in 1997 by Simplicity Labs in Lexington, MA. It then changed hands and ended-up with TheDomain’s Michael Berkens who sold the name in July or August of 2010. It wasn’t until February of this year that the name was acquired by the now-famous TechCrunch Disrupt 2011 winners.

Congrats to the winners, they coupled a great idea with a great domain and achieved what just about every startup in the world would want to achieve. It’s a big day for them and they deserve all the success they’ve had, and the continued achievements ahead, this is only the beginning for GetAround.com!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton