About us
The project
Commodat is a free non-profit service for sharing accomodation and vehicles between relatives, which we originally thought of for our personal use and that of our families and friends. To make sharing Stéphane's car easier and to bring transparency to the occupation of a studio appartment in the mountains.
This notion of non-commodification is fundamental for us. Our main ambition is to put digital technology at the service of human relations in order to preserve and strengthen the richness of family and friends relationships. We're going against the flow of all digital solutions and services based on monetizing relationships which, by doing so, impoverishes them by reducing them to their simple economic aspect.
During the COVID-19 health crisis, a large number of owners made their homes available to medical and hospital staff, we felt happy to witness so much solidarity. However, this joy was tinged with bitterness when the government chose by default the main seasonal rental platform, increasingly criticized for its negative impact on housing in large cities, to support these initiatives. This contradiction pushed us to accelerate the public launch of Commodat. We are deeply convinced that this momentum of sharing and openness will grow beyond the crisis and that an open-to-all Commodat must be its receptacle.
Commodat is a platform imagined for our families and loved ones. The attention paid to securing data, be it personal data or data about goods, is essential. The data collected for the proper use of Commodat remain in Commodat and are not shared with third parties. In addition, the platform is designed so that your goods are visible and accessible only to the people you have invited and accepted into your group. People outside your collective do not have access to your goods.
Finally we do a lot by ourselves, but running a service like Commodat represents a cost and to continue improving it while maintaining our independence, you can support us by making a donation
To sum up
Our motivation
We want to act for the common good.
We believe that there are limits to the increase in goods and believe that there is something to be gained from sharing more and consuming less.
We are positioning ourselves against the commodification of any relationship, and want to promote loan and donations.
We want to carry out this project to have fun and to give meaning to our work.
Our means
We will facilitate sharing goods between relatives:
- By simplifying the management of sharing goods, starting with real estate and cars.
- By securing the loan, technically and legally.
- By keeping the gesture free.
- By preserving trust through transparency.
A commodate (commodatum), also known as loan for use, in civil law and Scots Law is a gratuitous loan; a loan, or free concession of anything moveable or immoveable, for a certain timeframe, on condition of restoring again the same individual after a certain time.
The team
Baudouin de Pontcharra
Baudouin is 36 years old. He is married and father of three.
Being the president of Solidarités Nouvelles pour le Logement since 2018, Baudouin is involved in the sector of housing, mutual aid and associations.
Alongside this associative commitment, Baudouin co-founded in 2012 the digital agency Chalandiz, dedicated to real estate players.
He started his career as Director of Operations at Foncière Unibail-Rodamco, after graduating from ESSEC, in the Real Estate and Sustainable Development Chair.
Baudouin currently shares 5 properties (including the family home in the countryside) and 1 car (Stephane's) on Commodat.
Stéphane Akkaoui
Stéphane, 35, is a web developer and entrepreneur living in Paris.
Stéphane co-founded Chalandiz with Baudouin and participated in the creation of other startups like Sociabliz, later sold to the Acticall group, Envouthé, or more recently Moonshot Analytics and Good Terms.
Stéphane was Director of Operations for TSC, a digital customer care agency, then led the R&D effort within the Sitel Group to promote and develop technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, blockchain or Virtual Reality to the 77,000 employees and the group's many large account customers.
Stéphane currently shares 2 properties (including the studio appartment in the mountains), a car and a motorcycle.
Credits
Commodat's logo, graphic charter and general design was produced by Coralie Hochard.
The images used by Commodat come from the following authors: