Have you ever needed an expensive tool for a home project – perhaps a gas lawn edger, chainsaw, compact table saw, hydraulic hammer, high-pressure power washer, or cordless driver? If you don't already own it and can't justify spending hundreds of dollars on something you might never use again, three local high school students have a solution.

Charlie Greenberg and Alex Topping of Chestnut Hill, along with Andrew Blum of Center City, all rising seniors at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (SCH), have launched RENTR, a business born from their work in the school's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL).

RENTR's concept is straightforward: connect people who own specialized tools that often sit idle with those who need them for one-time use, in exchange for a service fee.

"We hope to grab a piece of the $14 billion tool rental market while solving for the underutilization of expensive tools and creating passive income for tool owners," Greenberg explained.

This innovative business venture, launched this spring in SCH's venture accelerator program, has had the trio of aspiring entrepreneurs "hustling hard both in school and on weekends to refine their idea," according to Karen Tracy, SCH director of communications and marketing.

Topping and Greenberg's entrepreneurial journey began in first grade, making them the youngest students at SCH to embrace the CEL program when it was first introduced. They've partnered on numerous projects since then, with RENTR being their final collaboration as they enter their last year of high school.

The students' hard work paid off when they took their idea to Silicon Valley, California, on June 19-21 this year. There, they won the teamwork award at TYE Globals, the annual flagship event for The Youth Entrepreneurship Division of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs).

TiE, a nonprofit organization, aims to foster entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking, education, funding, and incubation, with a focus on nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs.

At the competition, which brought together young innovators from 27 chapters worldwide, the SCH trio competed against much larger teams, many of whom had been developing their business ideas for several years.

"We gave a flawless presentation which truly demonstrated teamwork, given that two of us were in person and one of the team (Blum) joined from another country.” said Topping. “We are so grateful for all the support from our mentor Suchit Bachalli and Mr. (Ed) Glassman (executive director of SCH's CEL)."

Glassman sees great potential for RENTR in the local community. "With RENTR, Charlie, Alex, and Andrew have developed a service that has great potential for the Chestnut Hill Community. We have a lot of families in this neighborhood with robust tool collections and a DIY sensibility," he said.

The business is starting small, focusing initially on Chestnut Hill. "We are launching only in Chestnut Hill and starting with people we know," Greenberg explained. "We hope to get referrals and get as many tools as we can. It will be like an Airbnb. The customer will communicate directly with the lender of tools. We will get 12 percent. The goal is to have a great experience."

He added that proximity is key to the service: "The customer must live not far from the lender. That is why it will be just in Chestnut Hill at first, but we hope eventually to move beyond the Philadelphia area."

The RENTR website is up and running, though still being refined. "It took two weeks to get the website up and running, and it is still not perfect," Greenberg admitted. "This is our third prototype," Topping added.

Pricing will vary based on the tool. "It's hard to say exactly what we will charge, probably $5 or $10 a day to $90 to $100 a day, depending on the tool," Topping explained. "People can look on the website for prices. There is no way everybody has every single tool."

This fall, RENTR plans to introduce an app that will streamline the process of finding and renting tools. The trio of teenage entrepreneurs insists it will make finding a table saw or backpack blower as easy as requesting an Uber.

"We want to take this as far as it will go," Blum said.

For more information, visit RENTRmarketplace.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.