I haven’t blogged in a while, so this is essentially me committing to blog at least once a week again. Reflection is important in life, especially when you take in the type of information I take in on a daily basis.
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
-Confucius
Life has been like a whirlwind recently, I have been meeting incredible people some good some bad. These people have tasted my faith in good ways and bad ways; however nothing but great lessons have been learned.
I am currently starting a mobile tech company from scratch, this by far has been one of the toughest tasks I have faced to date. I love and savor every second of it, have you ever had an idea, a single idea, an idea that derived from some random stimuli in your mind? Of Course! wtf? One of the advisers on my board is Chief Marketing Officer, Bruce Marable of Defined Clarity. He introduced me to start up video blogging website www.Thisweekinstartups.com (also known as TWiST), I am officially addicted. This site isn’t for the weak minded, easily distracted individual, TWiST is for people who strategize and execute. Jason (Follow him on twitter), the host of the show is an animal, he is no holds bar and rest assure he gets valuable content for anyone who watches.
He recently interviewed Travis Kalanick, successful entrepreneur in the Tech world. He recently co-founded Uber. It reminds me so much of my start up Dine & Ditch, basically what Travis has done is created a mobile application for you to push a button(or SMS) on your phone and a town car will come pick you up in 15 minutes. The application has your credit card info in side of the application so you don’t have to worry about paying on exit. Uber is essentially negating the concept of a dispatching office.
Genius idea, the price is a bit more expensive that yellow cabs and less than town car pick ups. Uber is currently in Seattle, San Francisco and New York City, during the interview a deposition was brought up about NYC. Travis’s answer was eloquent and practical and any entrepreneur could learn from his response. [Video below]
Jason: Why do they feel like Uber is failing in NYC?
Travis: They feel like there are taxis everywhere.
Jason: But if you ride in a Town car you don’t ride in a taxi.
Travis: I mean, maybe. You can get into a Liberty car and have a pretty crappy experience too.
Jason: Thats true too, but its generally not going to suck.
Travis: Fair enough, Here is the bottom line. I talk to folks and their like I have options for back up. Everything from Yellow cab, to black car, to subway to bus to what ever, right. Here is the thing, I say, “No, there are taxis everywhere in New York, I know there are taxi’s everywhere in New York. I get there defenses down 1st.
I would say, “but tell me about those times when it is difficult to get a taxi in New York, you talk to a New York and you say it to them like that. The next thing you hear is, 7th avenue between 28th and 35th from 7:15 am to 8:45 am, YOUR SCREWED.”
“Tribeca, early afternoon, gameover!”
etc.
etc.
“What you have is you have pin points spread across the city at different times, that if you if you added those pin points. Your talking about a half a BILLION dollar market, that is where you start, but than you talk about shift change in NY. …. Each of these problems are like $100 million dollar problems.
He continues to talk about patches and niches in different cities. Here a gentleman is talking about a business model that has been around for decades, with zero supply issues and zero demand issues. He digs deep into this business model reading between the lines and talks of places where supply is low. Creating value that you cannot question if you are living the lifestyle that his market lives.
There is no question of what his value proposition is and why there is a void that needs to be filled. He is sure to add value you for all parties in his business model, the consumers and the drivers. Now your value in the market, across the board.
Just as you look at yourself in the mirror and reflect upon where you should probably work harder in the gym; reflect on your business so you know it all too well and know where to work.
“There is a trend in society, towards an On Demand lifestyle.” – Travis Kalanick
yup, Dine and Ditch will help drive it!
written by Nate Nichols
@thenichols
