Tag Archives: Expansion

Uber: The disruptive $17 billion idea

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UBER

In the past, when a person needed to get somewhere with a cab, the process was a nightmare. You either called a cab, frustratingly attempted to give the driver directions and then waited for the car to arrive; or you stood on the side of the road, in the heat, rain, or snow, and hoped a vacant cab would pass by and stop for you.  You had to make sure you were carrying enough cash on you to pay the fare, and not a large note, just in case the driver wasn’t carrying enough change.

When Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick were hanging out in Paris on a cold winter night late in 2008, both entrepreneurs were discussing what was next for them.  Garret had just sold StumbleUpon to eBay and Travis had recently sold Red Swoosh to Akamai. Garrett had had enough of the frustrating cab experience and the horrible taxi problem in San Francisco and this lead them to discuss a limo timeshare service – the two of them splitting the costs of a driver, a car and a parking spot in a garage alone with an iPhone app.

A couple of months later the prototype was coming along and a beta version was soon released. The beta version was invite only which Garret and Travis started sharing with their friends. Those who tried it the app, loved it and told their friends about it who requested invites as well. On 31st May 2010, Uber launched in San Francisco and that’s when Uber started growing to a private car service currently available in over 200 cities in more than 40 countries, valued at $17 billion, and perceived as a disruptive innovation that has revolutionized ridesharing globally.

The main key to Uber’s success is that it enhanced consumer experience by reinventing the entire experience of getting private transportation.  The app is integrated with Google maps on, which you can pinpoint your location, see where the nearest cabs are, and watch as the cab gets closer to you.  Additionally, you can see the driver’s information, which also includes ratings from previous passengers. The car arrives within minutes so you end up waiting less and once you reach your destination, the app charges your credit card so you don’t have to carry cash on you.  The result? A great product that provides a real seamless solution to the millions of people frustrated with the old process of getting a cab.

Because Uber enhanced the entire experience and not just one element, they created a deep change in the industry, which sparked word of mouth and press coverage. The cab riders became Uber’s advocates, who shared their experience with their friends and on social media, leading to a growth of passionate customers.

Another contributing factor to Uber’s success is that they acknowledged that if they were to expand in other cities, they required local efforts tailored to each new location. Team launchers, described as a SEAL team, are responsible to get business running in new cities by being logistically savvy, getting a grasp of the city’s transportation ecosystem and using marketing creativity to encourage user adoption and market penetration.  They often operationalize a new Uber city within 8 weeks and then recruit a team of local talented staff to run the business locally and sustain long-term growth. The company supports the new launches by utilizing industry partnerships, local events, and more; fueling word of mouth and local growth.

Uber has truly disrupted and revolutionized the ridesharing experience and has potential of doing so much more in the future to sustain its growth.  How this company reinvented an experience that has been there for so long is a great example for startups and entrepreneurs to gain from. It is proof that every industry has room for growth and innovation, regardless of how old it is.

Charlie Graham-Brown – Switzerland – Seedstars

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Charlie-Graham-Brown

Charlie Graham-Brown
CFO, Seedstars World
Geneva, Switzerland

Seedstars World CFO, Charlie Graham-Brown, has six years of investment and analytical investment experience in innovative financial institutions primarily focused on developing countries.  He studied at The University of Leeds (UK) with a year at the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA), where he secured a Master of Engineering First Class Honors degree. He later got an MBA at the  Collège des Ingénieurs in Paris then became a CFA charter holder. Now working at Seedstars World, Charlie manages business development and the investment fund.

Seedstars, the parent venture firm, is a business development and investment fund management for startups and investors focused on emerging markets. They wanted to identity startups in emerging markets that they could invest in and started the Seedstars World Competition, as a method to scout out startups from around the world.

Seedstars World is a global startup competition being held in 35 emerging cities around the world this year, and is crucial since they also offer startups from different areas exposure to European and U.S. investors. It is a great way for venture capitalists to scout for potential investments from emerging markets. The 35 winning startups will make it to the global competition in Geneva, Switzerland where they will spend 3 days at a workshop to work on their pitch, then compete for a $500k investment from Seedstars.

The final showdown happens in front of a panel of European investors, which earned last year’s laureates an additional $6M investment.

Seedstars has truly been uplifting startups in emerging markets, providing them with global exposure, the opportunity to find financiers on a global scale, and a real chance to compete in much larger markets. For the entrepreneurs, the risks are a lot higher, but so are the potential rewards!

All in all, Charlie has spent most of his post-academic life empowering the global startup ecosystem and is far from done. Seedstars is expanding every year and has just made its way into Lebanon for the first time.

 

Rand Hindi – Snips – France

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Rand-Hindi

Rand Hindi
Founder & CEO of Snips
Paris, France

The founder and CEO of Snips, Rand Hindi, started coding at the age of 10, founded his first startup and the age of 14, created a web development agency at 15, and all before starting his PhD at the age of 21!

He is an entrepreneur, bioinformatician and algorithm architect who founded Snips, specializing in predictive modeling for smart cities. Rand is most particularly interested and passionate about how data can make city life more efficient. His vision is to manage the cities with fast-growing populations by predicting what will happen. Existing cities are unable to handle the growing population because they do not have the capacity to add more public transportation or space, which could negatively impact the inhabitants.

Snips collects and analyzes all the data a city and its population produce. The collected data could be anything you could think of – parking spots, crimes, flows in public transportation, traffic jams, waste management, energy consumption, and so forth. This huge amount of data is collected in real time and analyzed in real time offering solutions. The aim is for the city to learn from what its citizens are doing and adapt to them, thus ensuring they are not constrained and could get a better quality of life not matter how much the density y increases.

For example, to predict crime, Rand’s approach is not to simply look at historical data since crime patterns change.  His approach is to also look at other factors, such as what caused the crimes. As a result, this allows the police to dispatch in places where crimes are more likely to happen and prevent the crime from occurring, hence predictive policing.

Another example, already in use in Paris, is the flow in public transportation. In partnership with the French National Railway SNCF, Snips released an app called Tranquilien that provides commuters an indication of how crowded different trains will be up to 3 days in advance. In other words, if you want to take the train, you can check the app for when is the best time to find seats and take that option instead of taking a train where you will be standing and squeezed between other commuters. The information is gathered from an analysis that factors the weather information, historical passenger counts, if any major events are taking place, and real-time check-ins from the app users. As a result, the app diffuses the load of commuters and increases the efficiency of the railway network.

What Rand would ultimately like to accomplish is what he calls “Algorithmic Urbanism,” a new way to design cities integrating all the predictions together and modeling an entire city and how it interacts with its citizens. A real solution to how cities can sustain population growth and dramatically increase their quality of life!