{"id":7363,"date":"2021-03-24T05:59:19","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T12:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.neighbor.com\/storage-blog\/?p=7363"},"modified":"2024-01-29T17:24:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T00:24:35","slug":"announcing-neighbors-53m-series-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neighbor.com\/storage-blog\/announcing-neighbors-53m-series-b\/","title":{"rendered":"Announcing Neighbor\u2019s $53M Series B"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2017, Neighbor launched in a small university town in Utah with a bold mission to “solve our neighbors’ biggest challenges.”<\/p>\n

To do that, we would need to build the world’s first hyperlocal marketplace. A marketplace where participants not only transact with each other, but often know each other. In other words, we would need to restore community, something that has been degrading for decades.<\/p>\n

Many very smart individuals said it couldn’t be done. Marketplaces are hard enough to build, without layering on the complexity of hyperlocal network effects. Plus, technology just seems to be limited when it comes to building community.<\/p>\n

\"Neighbor's<\/p>\n

The Limitations of Technology<\/h2>\n

Technology has given us many things. It has elevated our standard of living. It has given us access to unimaginable amounts of information. It has connected people separated by long distances. It has taken us to the moon and promises to take us further still. In short, technology has changed the world.<\/p>\n

But technology hasn’t brought us closer together. For all its boundless ambition, it seems technology’s hands are tied in this one elusive area. In fact, if anything, it seems that community bonds have grown weaker as technology has grown more integral. Neighbors no longer greet each other or consider themselves part of a singular group. Community organizations, such as the Rotary Club, the PTA, local food pantries or churches, struggle more each year to recruit participants.<\/p>\n

In the vacuum, individuals increasingly look to larger, more national bodies to provide support and relief. Donations to major political parties grow each year, while local organizations flounder. And as communities increasingly lose their will to support their own, the stakes grow higher that far-removed politicians hopefully discern a master plan that works as well for Kalamazoo as it does for Phoenix.<\/p>\n

Technology appears to offer us no remedy, nor even a hope of growing and empowering communities and neighbors once again.<\/p>\n

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Earn $1,000s per year with your unused space<\/h2>\r\n