
Bridj shuts down - seibelj
http://www.bridj.com/
======
xapata
Here's the most important paragraph:

"We made the strategic choice to pursue a deal with a major car company who
promised a close date for a sizable transaction in lieu of a traditional
venture capital funding round. The close date timeline extended from weeks to
months, as they sought to gain the appropriate internal approvals that we (and
they) thought were already in place. Throughout, we remained convinced of the
close strategic fit and both sides had every expectation that the transaction
would close. Despite assurances, and all parties acting in the best of faith,
that didn’t happen."

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

It's bizarre that the board advisors would let that happen. I'm curious how
they'd explain the failure. If you've ever done business with an enterprise,
you should know that decisions can take years, not weeks or months. Though
sometimes a few days if you get to the right person at the right time.

~~~
seibelj
IMO, it sounds like a cop-out. More likely the business was pretty shaky and
no one would invest at even semi-reasonable terms, so they use the "deal fell
through" excuse.

Are we supposed to believe they only pursued one source of funding, which was
delayed months, and during that entire time never tried to find anything else?
More likely... they couldn't.

~~~
KallDrexx
I don't find it a cop-out at all.

A massive sales opportunity came up that could potentially allow them to
bootstrap the service without further investment, or investment on better
terms based on the increased revenue and growth from the sale. By the time
they realized the sales opportunity wasn't going through the investors that
were interested had gotten pushed back without reasonable growth to back up
the push-back, and uncertainty of the major deal going through, which means
the investors would have wanted more for their money then they wanted before.
The situation would have then spiraled out more and more as time went on.

Such is why strategy and execution of these types of decisions is key for a
startup to succeed.

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accountyaccount
I think part of their problem is Uber's aggressive fair discounting and driver
subsidies. Why would I take a Bridj when I can get a 20-minute-long UberPOOL
ride through Boston for $3 - $4?

People at my company literally take an Uber to/from work daily because it's
only moderately more expensive than the subway (MBTA fares are $2.25 - $2.75).

At this point Uber's grown to the size where they can just slash prices and
outlast anyone who can't lose as much money as they can. I wouldn't be
surprised if public transportation actually started losing a considerable
amount of fares to Uber.

~~~
Finnucane
Your coworkers haven't figured out how to get a monthly pass? A lot of
employers offer a program to buy them with pre-tax income, so effectively a
large discount. Can you get Uber for $40/month?

~~~
runamok
Not sure if they are still doing this "POOL Pass" thing but possibly.

[https://newsroom.uber.com/us-massachusetts/july-pool-pass-
ri...](https://newsroom.uber.com/us-massachusetts/july-pool-pass-ride-for-a-
penny-all-month-long/)

~~~
praneshp
Any idea why they have to charge $.01 per trip?

My wife uses the unlimited flat fare package in south bay, 2.99 per pool ride
or 7 per uberX ride (with caveats that apply rarely).

~~~
xapata
I have a few guesses:

\- Their software isn't set up to do $0 rides. Even the "free" rides show the
total charge and take off a discount.

\- They want to do analysis on the price elasticity of demand and don't want
to have a divide by zero error.

\- Someone thought it'd induce better behavior. Humans start getting weird
with "free" things.

~~~
praneshp
Thanks for replying. I was wondering if they had to charge something to comply
with a law or something (not that they would really let that get into the way
of a feature).

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michaelbuckbee
A more detailed Boston Globe article on the shutdown [1]

Bridj was a service that was interesting as it hit a point somewhere between
traditional bus services and on demand Uber/Lyft style transportation options.

1 - [https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/04/30/bridj-
local-...](https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/04/30/bridj-local-demand-
bus-service-shutting-down/56xoGs674wYgyUWdrD9EuO/story.html)

------
vabmit
It seems like they did fail to really analyse the potential in the Boston
market. I live in Southern New Hampshire and like nearly everyone that doesn't
hold a minimum wage job here, I work in Boston and commute into the city every
day (because the New Hampshire corporate tax system is terrible). The commute
is an absolutely miserable experience.

I used to drive but finally gave it up when my employer changed the way they
compensated commuting expenses. Now, I take Boston Express Bus which costs me
$315/month. The buses are always over full. There's probably about $100K per
month for the Bus Company just in work day commuters. They also do a large
number of air port runs through out the day.

The problem with the buses is they go to a train/subway/bus station on the
south side of the city. But, many (if not most) of the commuters work on the
north side of the city. So, they have to buy an additional $65/month subway
card and waste an additional 45-75 minutes a day travelling through the
congested city to get to and from the buses. Using the subway system in Boston
is even more miserable than driving because it is horribly managed and badly
maintained. Most riders would love to avoid it.

Instead of doing local uber-like shuttles in a city already over served by
subway and bus routes that compete with each other (in additional to taxis,
uber, employer shuttles, etc), Bridj could have charged $350-$500 per month
per person to do a run from southern NH with a Kendall Square drop off and
pick up. People would have loved it. Similar routes could have been set up
from the South and and West. I think they easily could have done $300,000 to
$600,000 per month in revenue with that model.

It's a shame they didn't take a good look at the market. The roads in and out
of Boston are hopelessly overloaded. They could have made a ton of money and
improved people's quality of life significantly. I assume many other large
cites (SF, LA, NYC) are the same. Employers locate in the large cities and
don't pay their employees enough to live in the cities. That is a problem
calling out for a business like Bridj to address.

~~~
inthewoods
"I used to drive but finally gave it up when my employer changed the way they
compensated commuting expenses. Now, I take Boston Express Bus which costs me
$315/month. The buses are always over full. There's probably about $100K per
month for the Bus Company just in work day commuters."

Most buses hold about, what, 80 people - 80 x $315/month = $25k. How did you
get to $100k?

It looks to me like a tough business from a capital perspective - if each bus
costs your $300-500k (or you lease them), you'd have them utilized for only 4
hours per day.

~~~
vabmit
The buses that they are currently using hold just over 50 people. I made a
very conservative guess for how many people would leave the existing bus
service. There are more than 10 bus trips each morning down Interstate 93 that
could be considered "commuter" (400-500 people):
[http://bostonexpressbus.com/images/stories/schedules/I93.pdf](http://bostonexpressbus.com/images/stories/schedules/I93.pdf)

There are similar bus schedules from the next city over to the west, Nashua,
down Route 3 and another similar schedule from the next city over to the east,
Portsmouth. There are additional bus companies that service different cities
and towns in Massachusetts. However, they all go to the bus station on the
south side of the city.

You would have to lease the buses. The drivers would be the most expensive
part of the model, though. There is a shortage of people with commercial
licences in this area. The drivers can make anywhere from $45K-$60K per year
in salary (not counting benefits). Brijd had already purchased shuttles/buses
and had drivers. The Brijd buses were much smaller - probably 25 to 30 seats.
But, had they discovered the potential business model early enough they could
have bought different vehicles. There is enough demand in the area to deploy
double decker buses (80-100 seats). I, and probably many others, would pay a
significant premium over the existing $315/month to load/unload on the north
side of the city and avoid the additional hour of commute and MBTA subway pass
costs.

It would be much more difficult that a cloud based software start-up due to
the capital outlays. But, it could definitely be done and be profitable.

~~~
xapata
Yeah, but that's just a bus company. To be a high-growth startup, you need
something scalable. Like Megabus... Oh.

BTW, I'll bet if you can get in touch with someone from Megabus they'd set up
that route. In other cities they drop off in all sorts of random places. It
might be some licensing or regulation issue.

------
swampthinker
As someone who lives in Boston, Bridj's office location raised a huge red flag
for me. They have office space on the ground level of Newbury St.

For those not familiar, Newbury St. Is Boston's luxury shopping street. Our
"5th Ave" if you will.

~~~
lighttower
When I lived in Boston they were in Cambridge innovation center at Kendall

~~~
swampthinker
Yeah I remember them there, which made the move even more shocking.

------
acomjean
As a bike commuter in the Boston Area, I saw the BRIDJ vans (they were
actually bigger than vans but smaller than busses, but I have not a name),
during my commute. I could never see inside to see if the vehicles were full.

I looked into using them, but they didn't serve my area.

Seemed like a good idea, there was even talk they would be used when they cut
late night T (bus) service again in Boston.

For an City that has such weak transportation, and terrible winter weather,
they'll be missed here.

~~~
egeozcan
What is (...was) the difference between Bridj and private bus services?

~~~
kevinmannix
They had an app where you could easily schedule a ride for the next day. It
took away the opaqueness that comes with using private transportation.

------
pedalpete
Slightly off topic, but... I have a request for anybody who is going to be
putting up your next "we're shutting down page", please tell us what it was
you did, or were aiming to do.

I find whenever I see one of these notices, I have no idea what the company
was, what they were trying to do, how far they got. It's like a eulogy which
only tells a bit about how the person died, but shares no information about
what they accomplished or even aimed to accomplish in their lives.

~~~
xapata
It's funny that you draw the parallel to humans. I'm now imagining the
obituary of my startup:

Xapateria filed for bankruptcy last week, after a long fight with customer
churn. They tried an experimental fundraising approach that gave a few months
of extra life, but ultimately succumbed. Xapatistas enjoyed off-sites in the
Caribbean, craft espresso, and weekly frisbee tournaments. They are left
behind by an excellent collection of Aeron chairs and Apple hardware.

~~~
pedalpete
I was thinking much more along the lines of "Xapateria's lifelong goal of ...
we experienced ... we discovered... ultimately failed due to ...", but I like
your humour angle.

------
taude
The BridgJ's leaving Coolidge Corner were often full durig peak times (and as
such, charged about $6/ride). It was nice because ( could go to Seaport or
Kendall Square without transferring trains and with a guaranteed a seat (with
WIFI). It was a convenient, good service.

It easily takes an hour from Coolidge Corner to an office near South Station,
despite it only being about 4.5 miles. Two trains + a walk.

Sometimes I'd take Lyft Line, but it often wasn't as cheap as pricing varied
wildly....

------
Animats
Did they tell all the people who are waiting for their buses?

