Robin Chase Books
Robin Chase is an American entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the world’s leading car-sharing company. She is also the founder of Buzzcar and Veniam, and a recognized thought leader in the fields of collaborative consumption, transportation innovation, and the sharing economy.
Known for: Peers Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism
Books by Robin Chase
Peers Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism
In Peers Inc, entrepreneur Robin Chase argues that the most important business model of the digital age is not a traditional corporation and not pure grassroots collaboration, but a hybrid of both. She calls it “Peers Inc”: a system in which institutions build platforms, infrastructure, and rules, while individuals contribute creativity, labor, assets, and local knowledge. The result is a more flexible, scalable, and resource-efficient economy. Drawing on her experience co-founding Zipcar and her work in mobility and networked business, Chase shows how idle cars, spare rooms, underused tools, and untapped talent can be transformed into economic value when the right platform unlocks them. But this is not just a book about the sharing economy. It is a wider argument about how capitalism is changing, how innovation increasingly comes from the edges, and why trust, openness, and participation matter more than centralized control. For entrepreneurs, policymakers, and anyone trying to understand the future of work and business, Peers Inc offers a clear framework for seeing where opportunity is headed.
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Excess Capacity Is Hidden Wealth
One of the most powerful economic opportunities is often sitting right in front of us, unused. Robin Chase begins with a simple observation: modern life is full of excess capacity. Cars spend most of their time parked. Guest rooms stay empty for months. Tools sit in garages. Skills remain idle becau...
From Peers Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism
Platforms Turn Chaos Into Opportunity
Unused resources are everywhere, but without coordination they remain economically invisible. This is where platforms matter. Chase argues that platforms are the enabling architecture of the collaborative economy. They connect peers who do not know each other, reduce friction, standardize interactio...
From Peers Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism
Peers Provide Flexibility And Innovation
Large organizations are good at consistency, but they often struggle with creativity, local adaptation, and speed. Peers bring those qualities into the system. In Chase’s framework, peers are individuals and small actors who contribute their own assets, initiative, labor, and ideas. They are not pas...
From Peers Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism
Institutions Still Matter Deeply
The collaborative economy is not a story of companies disappearing. It is a story of their role changing. Chase is careful to explain that “Inc” remains essential. Institutions provide the scale, capital, infrastructure, legal structure, brand, data systems, and process discipline that peers typical...
From Peers Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism
Trust Is The Real Infrastructure
Most collaborative markets would collapse instantly without trust. Strangers do not share homes, cars, money, or services simply because technology exists. They do it because a platform creates enough confidence for risk to feel manageable. Chase emphasizes that trust is not a soft extra. It is core...
From Peers Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism
Openness Accelerates Better Innovation
A closed organization can optimize what it already knows. An open system can discover what it never would have imagined. Chase argues that one of the greatest advantages of the Peers Inc model is its openness to external innovation. When more people can participate, contribute, and build on top of a...
From Peers Inc: How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism
About Robin Chase
Robin Chase is an American entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the world’s leading car-sharing company. She is also the founder of Buzzcar and Veniam, and a recognized thought leader in the fields of collaborative consumption, transportation innovation, and the sharin...
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Robin Chase is an American entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the world’s leading car-sharing company. She is also the founder of Buzzcar and Veniam, and a recognized thought leader in the fields of collaborative consumption, transportation innovation, and the sharin...
Robin Chase is an American entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the world’s leading car-sharing company. She is also the founder of Buzzcar and Veniam, and a recognized thought leader in the fields of collaborative consumption, transportation innovation, and the sharing economy.
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Robin Chase is an American entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the world’s leading car-sharing company. She is also the founder of Buzzcar and Veniam, and a recognized thought leader in the fields of collaborative consumption, transportation innovation, and the sharing economy.
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