Abe Geiger is the founder of Shake, an app that allows you to create legally binding agreements in a matter of seconds. This is a major step forward in the sharing economy, making it easier for microentrepreneurs and freelancers to establish trust and protect themselves in transactions. Whether it’s renting out your car or hiring a new designer, Shake makes legal agreeements accessible, affordable, and understandable to individuals and small businesses. East Coast Curator, Melissa O’Young, asked Abe a few questions to get the download on Shake.
1. What inspired you to start Shake and what is the idea behind it?
Our company is founded around the idea of treating a Shake agreement like a legally-binding, digital handshake. Shake was founded by myself, Stuart Ellman (Managing Partner, RRE), Jon Steinberg (President and COO, BuzzFeed) and Jared Grusd (General Council, Spotify). Jon and Jared previously worked together at Google, and found that they were able to execute deals much more quickly with shorter, more succinct agreements. Prior to founding Shake, I was working on a similar legaltech idea because I saw the inefficiency and lack of transparency in the industry. Reducing friction in the sharing economy and adding trust to P2P transactions were ideas I was thinking a lot about. If getting an agreement in place feels like a burden, consumers are less likely to put terms in writing. The philosophy behind Shake is that agreements do not need to be lengthy or complex in order to be effective.
2. How will Shake impact (or help) the sharing economy?
Shake makes it easy to document transactions that would otherwise be cemented with a simple handshake. So many deals are done without any paperwork at all, and while the less structured, more personal nature of P2P commerce is part of its appeal, it’s hugely important to get deals in writing. If you’re buying or selling something on Craigslist, it’s so important to make sure the terms of your deal are put in writing in case anything goes wrong. Putting a simple infrastructure for the sharing economy in place gives consumers an easy way to standardize their day-to-day transactions. Services like Square and Venmo have taken the first steps in setting up this infrastructure, but consumers also need a simple way to document basic agreement terms. Shake gives those in the sharing economy the ability to protect both themselves and their transactions in a matter of minutes.
3. What are some stories or examples of people who have benefited from using Shake?
We love talking to users and getting peoples’ Shake stories, and it’s really exciting to see Shake being used for a variety of different purposes. The idea is to preserve relationships by setting clear expectations up front. Our hope is that Shake makes signing agreements easy enough that no simple transaction is left undocumented. We’ve seen our users use Shake to do everything from getting friendly Super Bowl wagers in writing to renting out skeeball machines. We’ve talked to freelancers who have been screwed in the past and decided it was time to get their agreements in writing with Shake, even with people they know are trustworthy. We’ve also spoken with users who use Shake for strictly personal reasons, like lending a clothes to a roommate or signing a small loan with a loved one. Shake makes it easy for people to err on the side of caution and get a written agreement in place in a matter of minutes.
4. Tell us something about yourself that we can’t find on the Internet
I can knit! Nothing too complex, but I do know how to knit simple stuff.
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Shake raised $3 million in a Series A financing round in November 2013. You can read about it here.
