Spinlister background

Spinlister was founded in 2011 as a peer-to-peer bike share. The company was founded by Will Dennis and Jeff Noh after Dennis listed his own bike for rent on Craigslist in New York City and saw interest from both locals and tourists to rent it out for more than a few hours.

The company has had a rocky history, having changed leadership numerous times as well as selling twice.

Here is a brief history of Spinlister:

• 2011 - Founded, raising $450,000 in seed funding including from a Brazilian liquor entrepreneur, Marcelo Loureiro. Only a year after the sharing platform debuted as an Airbnb-type service for bikes, the company’s founders changed its name to Liquid and rebranded as a broader peer-to-peer marketplace.
• 2013 - investor Marcelo Loureiro took over the company and changed its name back to Spinlister, refocusing the business on bike-sharing
• 2018 April - Service shut down -citing an inability to raise new funding
• 2019 - service reemerged under the management of Chief Executive Mark Gustafson, who also co-founded electric bicycle company Story Bikes.
• 2020 December - Sold to Rokit
• 2021-2022 - Mark Gustafson ran Spinlister in 2021 and 2022 under the Movatic company name but left Movatic in April 2023.

As of summer 2023, the Spinlister website, while still reachable via the web, appears to be dead. Creating new profiles or starting transactions doesn't work.

Summer 2024 update: Spinlister is still a ghost ship on the internet.... Appears to work, but can't create new accounts or transact.

Rent your bike on Spokeo

Spinlister was a great service for hosts and renters alike

Spinlister was a global bike share and at its peak had tens of thousands of bike listings worldwide, operating in 63 countries.

In launching Spokeo, I have spoken to a few folks who were tied to Spinlister. I connected with Marcelo Loureiro, one of the founders, and learned more about Spinlister from him. Marcelo was very transparent about the history of Spinlister.

I've also connected with numerous people who rented bikes on Spinlister (let's call them "hosts"). The five former Spinlister hosts I've spoken with all had overall good experiences as part of the Spinlister community, operating a nice side gig renting out their bikes. Spinlister hosts were frustrated by the several times when Spinlister went dark, but despite this, hung on to continue renting their bikes.

Hosts reported making up to $1000 a month renting bikes on Spinlister.

Rent your bike on Spokeo

Spokeo is the new Spinlister

Is it, really? ... well, maybe... while we aspire to one day have as much global coverage as Spinlister, we hope Spokeo is a bit more reliable than Spinlister. We are taking things more slowly and cautiously to ensure we get things right from the start.

We've designed Spokeo with one overriding goal in mind: to build a high-trust marketplace where hosts and renters alike are confident that their experience will be wonderful.

Check out Spokeo and get back to renting your bikes and bike gear.

Rent your bike or bike gear