When Nate McGuire saw a bike rack filled with bikes, he saw an opportunity. The co-founder and CEO of Spokefly said the idea for his peer-to-peer bike sharing business came to him after a crash totaled his car, and he was using other means to get around town and to his job.

"I would be at work looking at traffic during rush hour thinking all my friends have these cool bikes at the office that they rode in but they're not using," McGuire said. "It would be really cool if I could pick up one of these bikes, ride home and not have to deal with traffic."

Spokefly launched in October and has approximately 50 bikes available for riding. McGuire plans to have 100 bikes available by the end of January and 400 bikes listed by the time South By Southwest starts in March.

"We've seen a lot of great growth," he said.

McGuire said there are two aspects to the business, riders and listers. Listers go to the company's website to add their bike to the business' registry, including a description of the bike and the lister's address. Once the information is entered, Spokefly sends a new combination lock to the bike owner, and the lister places the bike where they think it will get the most use. Some of the more popular locations have been downtown, the Capital Factory and West Campus, McGuire said.

Those listing their bikes make money based on how much their bike is used, and all bikes are insured.

When riders check out a bike online, McGuire said they are sent a text with the combination and address. Riders can drop the bike off anywhere. Its final location is uploaded from information obtained on the user's cell phone.

Memberships range from $14.99 to $79.99 with varying ride time limits between membership levels.

"What this really does is make bikes that are just idle available for people to use," McGuire said. "It takes bikes that are just sitting around helping them make a little extra money."

For more information, visit www.spokefly.com.