We have frequently been asked about the story behind Rentman. In this interview, our founder Roy van den Broek will answer some questions about how Rentman began. He'll explain how Rentman grew from a one-time project to a leading rental software provider with over 50,000 users.
Existing background in Audio Visual
Roy ran his first AV rental business at the age of 16. He already had close ties with rental companies in the Netherlands and was able to speak with even more people at industry-related events.
“Since I used to own a rental company and worked a lot as a freelancer, I quickly noticed that the available rental management solutions were not highly regarded among people in the industry”. - Roy van den Broek
According to Roy, more people wanted to work online and were not happy with the software packages they were currently using. As a computer science student, Roy saw a chance in developing a better solution.
He quickly found five companies that liked the idea of a simpler, more flexible online tool and were willing to invest. They fully supported his wish for change and were very enthusiastic about the possibilities of a new solution.
As the task was too big for one man, Roy decided to hire other programmers to further focus on ‘Project Rentman’. “Getting started was easy because I knew immediately which functions and modules were most important since I worked in the industry myself."
From a one-time project to over 50,000 users
Rentman quickly developed with the help of vital feedback from various types of AV rental companies. It was supposed to be a one-time project and Roy thought he would get back to renting out speakers afterwards. However, it turned out that people were really satisfied with his product.
Roy decided to stick with the development of Rentman: “I quickly realized that Rentman wouldn’t just be a one-time project. It grew much faster than we expected and now more than 50,000 people are working with our software daily”, Roy explains.
Building simple and user-friendly software
Rentman was quickly adopted by multiple companies from the AV, event, and production industries. Rentman introduced one of the first cloud tools for rental management in the Netherlands and that news quickly spread across the country and internationally.
Nowadays, Rentman is being used in over 70 countries and employs more than 50 people on 2 continents who work hard on optimizing the product. According to the founder, the most important aspect of his rental management system is simplicity.
Rentman offers an effective tool for managing your event rental projects, inventory and crew. It is quick to implement and easy to use. Anyone who wants to get started with Rentman can do so within seconds.
The cloud-based application eliminates costs for companies as they don’t have to acquire any additional hardware or take care of maintenance. Besides, no download is needed – you can simply log in via the browser or mobile app and can get started immediately.
Automating simple tasks and simplifying communication
After logging in you can quickly see results in the form of quotations, invoices and fully planned projects. Rentman helps automate each part of the process to speed up everyday tasks and communication.
”Logging in from anywhere is a major advantage for our customers. It simplifies their communication and therefore saves money. That’s exactly what we want to achieve with Rentman.”
Roy believes that in the future many simple tasks can be automated in the rental industry. He sees the future of Rentman as an intelligent software package that takes over employees’ administration and communication tasks. That way, the different operations of a company can be combined into one intelligent system.
“I think it's really exciting to see how things that we pioneered are slowly changing the whole industry – for example digital signatures on documents” Roy explains.