
Sidecar Puts Passengers Aside, Pivots to a Mostly-Deliveries Company - prostoalex
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2015/08/05/sidecar-pivots-to-mostly-deliveries-company/
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shalmanese
Sidecar is an excellent illustration of the first mover disadvantage. When
Sidecar started, they looked carefully at the existing laws and crafted their
product to stay, to their best judgement, on the exact right side of the law.
That's why, in early Sidecar, for example, drivers negotiated directly with
passengers for the fare and why sidecar cars carried no visible exterior
markings.

Lyft and Uber decided to play the much higher risk/higher reward game of
antagonizing regulators in exchange for better product. In the early days of
the rideshare war, the Lyft pink mustaches were everywhere and everyone was
made aware that Lyft existed due to them.

It's an excellent example of how "playing clean" is not always in an
entrepreneur's best interest and how luck and a willingness to take risk can
alter fortunes on a profound scale.

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gojomo
According to Wikipedia, Uber was founded almost 3 years before Sidecar (March
2009 versus January 2012)... so Sidecar may have suffered a "timid-mover
disadvantage", but not really a "first-mover disadvantage".

~~~
dylanjermiah
Uber Black was 2010 - 2012. Than after Lyft properly launched their service
Uber followed with the now more popular UberX.

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viscanti
UberX launched in early 2012, before Lyft. But Lyft, Sidecar and Uber were all
likely developing their 'low cost uber' versions at around the same time.
After how much success Uber had already had with just Black cars, the idea for
a lower cost alternative was obvious enough that lots of companies jumped in.

~~~
dylanjermiah
Sure? IIRC Uber was hesitant to launch a 'ride sharing' product until Lyft did
in SF. Any links to guide me?

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Animats
_“Customer acquisition and driver acquisition in this category are very
expensive, and it does make a big difference when you offer promotions — $500
for a driver, or $20 credit — versus our more typical $5 offerings of
credit.”_

So that's where Uber's capital is going. They're buying market share with
actual money.

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bakztfuture
I recently put together a collection showing the evolution over time of the
top ridesharing/taxi hailing startups (using content from the Internet
Archive) like Lyft, Shuddle, Uber, Sidecar, and BlaBlaCar [1].

One thing that surprised me the most when putting it together - Zipcar was
founded way back in June 2000, well before Uber/Sidecar/Lyft, and is still
around alive and well today [2]. I often feel like it does not get enough
credit for helping to improve the transportation space, especially compared to
attention given to Uber/this new class of transportation-focused startups.

[1] You can check out the collection here:
[http://www.startuptimelines.org/collections/uber_lyft_taxi_s...](http://www.startuptimelines.org/collections/uber_lyft_taxi_startup_app_competitors/)

[2] [http://www.startuptimelines.org/startup-
timelines/zipcar/](http://www.startuptimelines.org/startup-timelines/zipcar/)

~~~
danso
Maybe I missed this (it's hard to peruse the milestones/headlines from the
timeline layout), but there's no mention on the timeline of Zipcar being
bought out by Avis in 2013. While Zipcar is still alive in name today, I don't
think everyone would call it an unmitigated success:

[http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/1/5553910/driven-how-
zipcars-...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/1/5553910/driven-how-zipcars-
founders-built-and-lost-a-car-sharing-empire)

[http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/01/02/aviss-
smart...](http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/01/02/aviss-smart-zipcar-
buy/)

> _As with many high-flying IPOs, however, Zipcar never fulfilled its promise,
> and its stock never again saw those heady first-day levels. By the end of
> 2012, its market capitalization had fallen to $330 million, while Avis
> Budget’s market cap was $2.1 billion — making an acquisition both easy and
> obvious. In the past eight months alone, Zipcar stock fell by 40% while Avis
> stock rose by 60%_

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asveikau
I tried to use sidecar once but ran into ui bugs that didn't let me complete a
purchase. Not sure if my isolated experience is representative, but I read
"customer acquisition blah blah blah" \- making the app work better could have
helped.

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melvinmt
Typical example of Next Feature Fallacy (including their pivot):
[http://andrewchen.co/the-next-feature-fallacy-the-fallacy-
th...](http://andrewchen.co/the-next-feature-fallacy-the-fallacy-that-the-
next-new-feature-will-suddenly-make-people-use-your-product/)

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larrys
Separately, continuing after funding to use a domain hack side.cr is a non-
starter. Worse yet SEO miss if you google "sidecar" they don't even come up.
[1]

[1] Except on the right panel as "company" but not in the actual results
unless you click that link.

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stevewepay
I'm curious what patents Sidecar holds, if they truly were the innovators, and
if they can use that as some sort of advantage against Uber and Lyft.

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waterlesscloud
I suspect Uber will eventually move into deliveries too. It's a natural
extension.

~~~
xux
[http://newsroom.uber.com/bringing-the-neighborhood-shop-
to-y...](http://newsroom.uber.com/bringing-the-neighborhood-shop-to-your-
doorstep/)

