Every great shift in history starts the same way: someone, somewhere, questions the status quo. Do we really need to own everything we use? Does more things actually make us happier? What if borrowing, not buying, was the smarter move? At Knocknock, we’re not just an app. We’re a quiet revolution. A nudge to reimagine what we value, how we spend, and how we connect with our community. It’s time to challenge the norm and we’re not the first to do it.

Disruption has a track record with challenging conventions not new. It’s how we got companies like Airbnb, which asked: Why build more hotels when spare rooms are sitting empty? Now it’s a $100B+ company that helped redefine tourism. Spotify, which wondered: What if we didn’t need to buy songs? It transformed music from ownership to access, now serving over 600 million users. Patagonia, which flipped fashion’s fast-cycle obsession by saying: Buy less, repair more. The brand has become a benchmark for sustainability and values-driven business. These companies didn’t invent something wildly new; they simply questioned the old way of doing things. Then they built smarter, better alternatives. Academic researchers call this “institutional entrepreneurship”, when we intentionally break with established norms to create alternative practices (Garud, Hardy, & Maguire, 2007).

Knocknock’s Version of the “Why?”, we asked a simple question: Why does everyone need to own a drill when most are used for less than 13 minutes in their lifetime? (Yes, that’s a real stat—see Bakker et al., 2014). We built Knocknock to answer that “why” with a “what if”. What if we could borrow from a neighbour instead? What if we could earn by sharing our idle items? What if the default wasn’t to consume, but to collaborate? It’s not just disruption direction for the sake of it. Nor is it anti-business. We’re about anti-waste. We’re not slowing down convenience, we’re speeding up common sense. And the real-world benefits stack up fast: Financially – Borrowing a pressure washer for $20 instead of buying it for $300? That’s money in your pocket. Socially – Meeting the people around you, building trust, and actually being part of a community. Environmentally – One borrowed item = one less manufactured product = a smaller carbon footprint (Botsman & Rogers, 2010).

The Research Backs It. The rise of the sharing economy is not just a tech trend; it’s a cultural pivot. According to Belk (2010), sharing is “a mode of distribution in which individuals make goods or services available to others without monetary exchange.” But platforms like Knocknock take this further, adding security, trust mechanisms, and verified identities, making sharing safe and scalable. And it’s catching on: a PwC report (2016) predicted the global sharing economy could be worth $335 billion by 2025.

A few more who have challenged the norm. Tesla made electric cars cool, because they challenged the assumption that eco = boring. Who Gives A Crap turned toilet paper into a force for good donating 50% of profits to sanitation projects. Thankyou bottled water and used it to fight global poverty. They all started by challenging what people assumed was “normal.” Now they’re rewriting the rules.

So What About You? Are you ready to rethink what you own? To borrow instead of buy? To join a movement instead of adding to the clutter? Because sometimes all it takes to start a better future… is to knock on a neighbour’s door. Or better yet Knocknock.

References

  • Bakker, C. A., Wang, F., Huisman, J., & den Hollander, M. C. (2014). Products that go round: Exploring product life extension through design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 69, 10-16.

  • Belk, R. (2010). Sharing. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(5), 715–734.

  • Botsman, R., & Rogers, R. (2010). What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. HarperBusiness.

  • Garud, R., Hardy, C., & Maguire, S. (2007). Institutional entrepreneurship as embedded agency: An introduction to the special issue. Organization Studies, 28(7), 957–969.

  • PwC. (2016). The Sharing Economy – Sizing the Revenue Opportunity.

  • Patagonia. (n.d.). Don’t Buy This Jacket. [Ad campaign].