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Thursday, May 24, 2012
5/24 Rideshare Going to Round 2 Cleantech Open
5/23 - Rideshare Attending GBB
We are going to Green Business Basecamp:
From: Carrie Norton <info@greenbusinessbasecamp.com>
To: tpham@rideshare.us.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:42 AM
Subject: Breaking News about Green Business BASE CAMP — Open this now!
From: Carrie Norton <info@greenbusinessbasecamp.com>
To: tpham@rideshare.us.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:42 AM
Subject: Breaking News about Green Business BASE CAMP — Open this now!
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Tuesday, May 1, 2012
4/26 Greenstart = Greenstop
We received the unfortunate news today that we were not accepted into the 3rd Greenstart Incubator class.
On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 4:42 PM, Daniel Goldfarb <daniel@greenstart.com> wrote:
“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.”
~ Mary Anne Radmacher
On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 4:42 PM, Daniel Goldfarb <daniel@greenstart.com> wrote:
Thomas,First off, I’d like to thank you for using your entrepreneurial talents to address the energy challenge. This is the pressing challenge of our time and only disruptive innovation brought about by entrepreneurs like yourself can solve it. Also, thank you for the interesting and passionate presentation.Greenstart’s mission is to help tilt the scale in favor of startups at the intersection of cleantech + IT, but we are only able to offer our services to a small number of companies. Unfortunately, due to a large and highly qualified applicant pool we cannot offer you a spot in our 3rd program.But we still want to help you, because we know starting a company is hard. We have compiled lists of resources and readings that we advise all startups at your stage to utilize. If you have any questions about the below resources don’t hesitate. The Cleantech Mixer is an immediate opportunity worth checking out to showcase your product and vision to about 200 attendees in the cleantech space including VCs, media and experts.Resources:Investor’s Circle, vator.tv, iStart, AngelList, Toniic international impact investors network,Greentech Academy, Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster, Venture Greenhouse, Berkeley Startup Cluster, Environmental Business Cluster, Green Business Basecamp Readings:Also, if your company gains some further traction, reaches an important milestone or changes tack, we’d love to take another look in September for our Fall program.Best of luck,DanielP.S. We wanted to share some inspiring words from Justin Rosenstein’s January 20th TechCrunch post "Do Great Things":"Don’t lose the fire you started with. If you’re going to devote the best years of your life to your work, have enough love for yourself and the world around you to work on something that matters to you deeply. Something that’s beating out of your chest and compels you to throw yourself at it completely. No one knows whether you and your teammates will realize your audacious visions, but in order to do great things, we must attempt great things.”
--DANIEL GOLDFARB@greenstart@danielgoldfarb
4/25 Meeting with Professor R. Jay (Jayakrishnan) and Jaeyoung Jung
Dr. Jay, the Professor of Civil & Engineering at UC Irvine's Institute of Transporation reached out to me after reading and article at http://startupfounder.info/startups-in-l-rideshare-2-0/.
He wanted to share his notes and research over the last decade with High-coverage point-to-point (HCPPT) solution. In addition, he introduced me to his current PhD student, Jaeyoung Jung to show me their current works and to see how we both can benefit by finding a way to fix traffic and replac fixed route transit systems with rides using spare seats or what he referred to as P8, ie, Point to
Point Personal Passenger Pooled Public Private Para Transport.
His research was amazing and covered Orange County extensively. OC suffers from density issues for short term commuters, but OC is a good test market for long distance commuters as most travel into LA County for work. Ridesharing for short distance commuters can be addressed with rideshare, but incentives work best with longer distance commuters which we plan to address first.
He liked the roll-out strategy we have in place along with our business model which he agrees is the best model for success. We both envision the future to be on-demand pods, but 1-step at a time is needed to get there...when Google releases their driverless cars.
I also indicated to him the roadblocks we encountered with creating a public rideshare system:
- Insurance
- Liability
- Regulation
- Change in behavior
- Marketing
4/24 10th Founders Showcase
And the winner is @itembase. For a summary, see http://fi.co/posts/575 @founding
It was an exciting event with several great speakers:
1) Kevin Hartz of Eventbrite interviewed by Michael Copeland
@founding @kevinhartz @mvc @eventbrite 3rd company #Xoom#mentors @davemclure reason success 2006 3cofounders culture
2) Dan Shapiro being interviewed by Dylan Twyney
@dylan20 @ontela #danshapiro @ @founding advice Why VC money: want 10x, 90% margins, grab market share.
@nardopolo @founding terrific speech #vision #Cleantech reminds me of #Shark nathan fillion 3 MM build 6 prototypehttp://pic.twitter.com/CKn0e8tW
It was an exciting event with several great speakers:
1) Kevin Hartz of Eventbrite interviewed by Michael Copeland
2) Dan Shapiro being interviewed by Dylan Twyney
3) Mark Frohnmayer - Arcimoto 3 wheeled car of the future "yes, you can rideshare in this vehicle"
Friday, April 27, 2012
4/23 Founder Mentor Review
I made it through the first cut of the mentor review at FI.
We lost another 7 Founders today. From a class size of 40, we're currently at 27.
Mentors Reviewing:
- Walter O'Brien
- Dale Fox
- Lindsey Goodman
- Tom Marchesello
- Mark Landay
Pitch Version 1:
PROBLEM
We help drivers GET PAID while commuting to work by using our application to sell their Open Seats to passengers at Park & Rides.
MARKET
Public transportation is a $54 B industry with over 120 MM daily commuters.
Rideshare makes money by connecting those commuters and charge a 5% reservation fee on an average fare of $7.
SECRET SAUCE
The secret sauce is our crowdsourced vanpool/carpool timetable which gives passenger the flexibility they want in their schedule.
TEAM
I'm a software architect with over 16 years of experience.
We currently have an MVP in private beta testing.
CONCLUSION
We are looking to raise $500K in seed funding so we can build a team and put an end to traffic and pollution.
PITCH VERSION 2:
Frustrated being stuck in traffic and wishing you could zoom by in that carpool lane?
Now imagine if you can be in the carpool lane and get paid for it.
We help drivers GET PAID while commuting to work by using our application to sell their Open Seats to passengers at Park & Rides.
Public transportation is a $54 B industry with over 120 MM daily commuters.
Rideshare makes money by connecting those commuters and charge a 5% reservation fee on an average fare of $7.
The secret sauce is our crowdsourced vanpool/carpool timetable which gives passenger the flexibility they want in their schedule.
I'm a software architect with over 16 years of experience.
We currently have an MVP in private beta testing.
We are looking to raise $500K in seed funding so we can build a team and put an end to traffic and pollution.
We lost another 7 Founders today. From a class size of 40, we're currently at 27.
Mentors Reviewing:
- Walter O'Brien
- Dale Fox
- Lindsey Goodman
- Tom Marchesello
- Mark Landay
Pitch Version 1:
PROBLEM
We help drivers GET PAID while commuting to work by using our application to sell their Open Seats to passengers at Park & Rides.
MARKET
Public transportation is a $54 B industry with over 120 MM daily commuters.
Rideshare makes money by connecting those commuters and charge a 5% reservation fee on an average fare of $7.
SECRET SAUCE
The secret sauce is our crowdsourced vanpool/carpool timetable which gives passenger the flexibility they want in their schedule.
TEAM
I'm a software architect with over 16 years of experience.
We currently have an MVP in private beta testing.
CONCLUSION
We are looking to raise $500K in seed funding so we can build a team and put an end to traffic and pollution.
PITCH VERSION 2:
Frustrated being stuck in traffic and wishing you could zoom by in that carpool lane?
Now imagine if you can be in the carpool lane and get paid for it.
We help drivers GET PAID while commuting to work by using our application to sell their Open Seats to passengers at Park & Rides.
Public transportation is a $54 B industry with over 120 MM daily commuters.
Rideshare makes money by connecting those commuters and charge a 5% reservation fee on an average fare of $7.
The secret sauce is our crowdsourced vanpool/carpool timetable which gives passenger the flexibility they want in their schedule.
I'm a software architect with over 16 years of experience.
We currently have an MVP in private beta testing.
We are looking to raise $500K in seed funding so we can build a team and put an end to traffic and pollution.
Friday, April 20, 2012
4/19 Greenstart Interview
Pitch Slides:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aGBpo1izIs35kQdzfjFhOCFZg72akL3CnlxTwrDs7C8/edit
Carey: Have you ever sat in traffic and looked
longingly over at the HOV lane and wished you could be in it? Well, for us, the
answer was yes. And what’s the best way to do it? Car pooling.
Tom: Rideshare
2.0 is RidePal for carpooling.
Carey: Rideshare
2.0 takes the sting out of rush hour by helping drivers get paid to drive to work while slashing commute times for every
one.
CHANGE
SLIDE: (2 PROBLEM)
Tom: There
are over 120 million cars on the road every day in America, polluting the air and
causing needless and frustrating traffic gridlock during rush hour.
In Los Angeles, we have over 4 million
commuters every day and most of them are driving alone.
That means one
person is driving in a car made to hold a at least four people! Meanwhile 80% of the riding capacity
of the road is going to waste.
To battle this phenomenon, cities like Los
Angeles have built over 438 miles of HOV lanes, yet they sit empty most of the
time because people want the flexibility to come and go as they please and few
people want to drive with a complete stranger they have no social connection
with.
With long commutes – as so many are in Los Angeles
– public transportation is no help either. Because buses and trains transport
dozens or hundreds of people, they
must make endless stops that make commute times longer than driving alone in a
car.
Change
slide: (3 SOLUTION)
Rideshare 2-point-Oh is a web and mobile app
that uses crowdsourcing to enable the drivers of smaller vehicles – like cars --
to offer their Open Seats to passengers.
Rideshare 2-point-oh focuses on corporate and
government commuters. We create a safe social network for both riders and
drivers by validating each user’s identity with their employers.
We also focus on peak rush hour times to
provide the most choices for users.
And best of all, we design our routes around
HOV lane for faster commutes and Park ‘n Rides for rider convenience and
flexibility.
CHANGE
SLIDE:
(4 TECHNOLOGY)
The technology consists of a social web
application with a real time open seat availability and scheduling capability.
You can schedule for time of day you want to leave every morning and the
frequency. It also allows for drivers and passengers to check in when they’re
beginning and ending their journey.
We will have a payment solution that allows
passengers to pay when they reserve a seat. Drivers will get paid on a weekly
or monthly basis for the rides they’ve completed.
We’re also in talks with 2 different mobile app
developers.
Change
Slide: (5 TEAM)
Tom Pham is the chief commuter and
technologist. He’s an SAP enterprise resource planning software architect for
16 years for Fortune 500 companies. This is his fourth startup. My passion is
technology and Tom’s son has asthma. Seeing his son’s difficulty breathing
because of air quality motivated him to be passionate about making the air
cleaner in
Los Angeles and all over the world. Children
are the most affected by pollution. If I can help him, maybe I can help other
people in the world. I just wanna make a difference.
We met at a UCLA event several months ago. Kept
seeing each other and kept coming up with ideas for RideshareLA.
Carey has started 3 businesses and has a
background in envrionmental and sustainability issues, including her research
firm, Global Brainstorm Research, for which she was the senior research
consultant on “An Inconvenient Truth.” She’s worked at PBS and in documentary
TV and film for 20 years. In 2005, received the National Philanthropy Award.
She’s a member of Tree People and perhaps a little too proudly drives a Prius.
Max is an economist from Northwestern
University. He was a Sustainability Analyst at the World Economic Forum. Max
worked with some of the world’s leading retail companies, including Nike,
Starbucks and Timberland to help measure and reduce their environmental impact
and make their operations more socially responsible. Max monitors Rideshare’s
compliance with all state and local certification and regulatory requirements,
as well as efforts to market our service to utilities and refineries whom we
can help to meet those same requirements. He also oversees Rideshare blog and
grant writing.
Bach Win is rideshare’s Chief Engineer and UI
expert. His company, B-Line Express develops software for NASA and Porsche.
Bach and his team of developers created the Rideshare web-based “B” site. Bach
lives in Maryland and has seen the success of the sluglines in the Washington,
DC / Maryland area and therefore wanted to develop the web app.
Change
Slide: (6 TRACTION)
Finalist UCLA Anderson Knapp Venture
Competition (June 2011) – got 3 months
of mentoring . Great experience and the research indicated we needed to do a
pivot.
Tried RideshareLA as a peer to peer business
model but discovered there were legal problems with that model We did research
and found that peer to peer was not profitable based on competitors who had
gotten funded. Also, we decided that p2p was a temporary solution to the
traffic gridlock and air pollution and didn’t satisfy safety concerns of users.
As well as other legal aspects that killed the idea – it becomes a taxi
service. Carpool guidelines – have to be heading in the same direction. We’re a
Fair Share Model that only covers the cost of commuting so it’s not a
profit-driven model and they’re paid on an escrow basis, which prevents it
being considered a taxi service. Can’t go out of your way, (PickupPal in Canada
got dinged for the taxi law).
We were also pursuing a ride estimator mobile
app so college students could invoice their buddies for rides back and forth
from college and on other road trips. SMS payment system that would’ve been
expanding out to a peer to peer payment system. Became more of a mobile payment
app and had too many expenses.
Toward the end of last year, it was an uphill
battle and we almost gave up. But then we met Mike Jones (former CEO of
MySpace) through UCLA and he said he thought it was a brilliant idea and we
should continue.
So then we regrouped, and incorporated into a
C-corp and tried again.
Corporate commuters
Created Site A in J in January and it was a
robust social platform
Then met Bach Nyugen (Win), who develops
software for NASA and was interested in created the app for us.
Created Advisory Board this year
Met Glen Hellman (Vistage)
Met Leslie Caplan – sustainability advisor –
heads up sustainability for the SF area and she invented the (Business Model Generation Canvas Class)
David Goldschmidt (StartupWeekend in Chicago)
Tested Vanpool idea – surveyed vanpool
passengers and drivers. Passengers loved the idea because of the flexibility
but drivers were hesitant because they liked locking their customers into
monthly contracts and didn’t want the administrative cost and hassle of trying
to sell empty seats. We may return to this model later but at this point, we
decided to pivot.
We’re gonna do a Trial Run Launch aiming to do
by August 2012
We’re heavily networked and spending a lot of
time at startup events to learn the latest trends, technologies and funding
sources.
http://tecbruins.org/activities/tca-mentorship
http://www.techcoastangels.com/
Change
Slide: (7 FUTURE PROSPECTS)
Future Prospects
•Pursuing a partnership with Metro to promote
our service at Park ‘n Rides
•Currently Metro DC promotes sluglines and
we’re trying to get them to promote it here in LA
•Pursuing a partnership with MTA at LAX – we
have an in with their sustainability person to set up carpooling for their
employees (43,000 people work there)
•Thank you for listening to our presentation.
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