Mar Alarcon is founder and CEO of p2p carsharing SocialCar in Spain.
1. The biggest challenge to overcome while launching SocialCar…
The P2P carsharing service was clear for us. The biggest challenge was to design the right process and tools to ensure safety and warranties for all our users, car owners and car drivers. The P2P carsharing was a totally unknown service in Spain when we launched. After hard work we reached the right flow to ensure warranties and security through a tailor made insurance product from a very reputable insurance company. But things were not over, and then we faced a huge population who had never heard about renting their own cars. Having always a “we all win” claim in our minds helped us so much to fit the concept into the media, who has turned into our best speaker. After two years of hard work and still acting solo we could say 30% of the Spanish population have heard about renting their cars to their neighbors, even those who tried the service get enthused and become our brand ambassadors.
2. Your favourite success story so far…
..are all the personal stories we have access to. SocialCar is a business that places people (peers) at the core of it. Our best asset is the community. It turns that in our community we got a rap singer, Weleló, who was so pleased with the service that he spontaneously composed a song for us. He wrote the lyrics talking about his experience and the smartness of the sharing economy. It was simply perfect! He involved other friends to help him composing the music and producing a video. SocialCar’s team and other users were so excited that we also volunteered to perform in the video. Now, Weleló’s impulsive clip is the best testimonial for our service
Another key fact in terms of success is having a very diverse offer, including adapted cars for disabled people. This is a disadvantaged collective in terms of renting a car because of the short supply of adapted vehicles up for rent. Fundación ONCE, the biggest Spanish institution helping this community, got enthused with our capacity to help adapted car owners to recover the investment on it and with the fact of finally having a marketplace to rent adapted cars. This is a goodwill that anyone can´t stop!
3. How did you come up with the name for SocialCar?
The word “social” reflects many of the sharing economy innate values. However “Social” is something in our entrepreneurial DNA. First business plan we did was Social Bank a microcredit bank in Spain, after a real business came with Social Capital with a software that measured the economic impact of companies’ CSR actions. Later, SocialEnergy came out, a renewable energy company. Therefore our P2P car sharing new venture had to be SocialCar. Who knows which other Social business will be launched in the future?
4. Another example of Collaborative Consumption I admire is…
As a mother, any marketplace related with kids’ stuff is a good idea for me (Pikatoy, Percentil, etc). As a company, Kantox is my choice, a trusty marketplace to exchange foreign currencies spot and forward without the intermediation of banks. In fact, any initiative focused on optimizing existing resources and appealing people to a more efficient consumption works for me.
5. What productivity/organisational habit could you not do without?
I could not be productive without the flexibility that allows me what an ideal work-life balance. I am expecting my third child and I have enough energy to run SocialCar. Despite the fact that we are now sailing in a big chaos, good new things couldn’t happen without some form of it. My family is the reason why I believe in SocialCar and make me fight against anyone who pretend to blend my daily efforts to run the company and set the P2P model in the society. It is a must that we leave a better society to our children.
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Mar Alarcón is Founder and CEO at SocialCar and Co-Founder at Social Energy. Founded in 2011, Social Car is an Internet based P2P platform where car owners can safely rent their car to their neighbours, first P2P carsharing player in Spain. Founded in 2005, Social Energy is an international renewable energy systems integrator for roof mounted systems and complete PV power plants in Spain, France and Italy. Prior to that, Mar worked as a Tax Advisor at Cuatrecasas Abogados and, later, discovered the Social Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh during her internship at Grameen Bank with the Peace Nobel Prize, Professor Muhammad Yunus. She has an international education from her Law Degree at UAB, an LLM at University of London to her Business Program at Peking University and CEIBS. She also holds a PDD at IESE. Mother of soon to be three she rides her blue bike every day to Social Car headquarters to work with her committed team.
