A world full of stuff gathering dust, and your people who didn't know they could ask.
The people you care about are buying copies, renting, or worse: deciding not to start at all. The drill they needed stays in your drawer, and they give up instead.
Existing tool-lending programs are great if they're local, but running one takes a building and staff that need paychecks. A handful of people willing to lend to each other shouldn't need any of that.
Free-for-alls on social platforms are risky, even if you kinda know everybody. You have to post your stuff with your name attached, you have to ask if anyone has something every time, and there's not a good way to tell some people no.
ToolPool.Garden was made because we had this problem with our group. Our community was always there, we just needed a way to unlock its full potential.
A pool starts with people who already trust each other and is easy to grow from there. Listings are anonymous by default, each borrow is worked out in a 1-on-1 chat with an optional checklist, and an owner's name stays hidden until they decide a borrower has earned it. A pool can have skills and requests, not just tools. And it doesn't just need to be tools, it can be anything that you want to share, like board games, knitting supplies, camping, whatever.
Starting out is free, and we only start charging after a pool's first month, and only once it has 20 members or 250 things listed. After that, it costs $4.99 a month, and the subscription can be handed to someone else, anytime. Instead of making the app for big customers and trying to charge them more, we're doing the opposite instead. Our mission is to help as many pools as we can.
We're building this because owning everything is expensive, wasteful and lonely. Besides, a tool was always just a reason to show up for each other. Third spaces have mostly gone away, and we think ToolPool.Garden is the kind of social infrastructure that can bring them back.