
Ridejoy: Lessons Learned - samsolomon
http://www.jasonshen.com/2017/ridejoy-lessons-learned/
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nedwin
"For the next two years, people continued to sign up for and use Ridejoy
despite our complete lack of involvement in the site. Apple featured our app
twice in the App Store, once in a travel collection, and later for Earth Day.
Finally, in April 2015, Ridejoy disappeared completely after we forgot to
renew the domain. "

ouch.

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jrowley
Yeah I was blown away by this. I don't have any experience launching something
and then having to kill it off.

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untilHellbanned
A refreshing, balanced post-mortem. Keep trying guys, you'll hit upon
something.

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jakozaur
One of the business model that didn't work well in USA, but is a big success
in Europe (valuation $1.6 bln):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlaBlaCar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlaBlaCar)

~~~
seltzered_
Not familiar with Europe, but I'm really curious why blablacar has been a
success - Are there cultural reasons? Are there 'power seller' drivers perhaps
in the form of work commute rideshares (which is something Waze is now doing)?
Or something just different about it's business model or how it was started
(e.g. mostly bootstrapped or happened to remain longer)?

Curious since every year or so I start wondering how to make a better ski
daytrip carpooling network. Despite having various ideas / mockups, the best
solution still seems (which is what I use in WA) to just use a meetup.com
group with decent communication and pre-defined prices for a few well-known
end-destinations.

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prostoalex
The economics "If you go from SF to LA and drive four passengers at $40 a
seat" do not compete favorably with a bus ride ($10 on megabus, ~$1 if you
find a coupon and book way in advance).

As a driver, I'd be totally up for splitting the gas money with someone, but
as a passenger it just seems like a more expensive offering with no increase
in benefits for me.

Are European buses or trains more expensive?

~~~
jasonshen
Author of the article here. It's a bit more complicated for both the driver
and the seller.

Drivers have to coordinate pick up and drop off of passengers, which is a
pain, especially in LA. On the other hand, passengers getting dropped off can
also be a huge benefit since the bus stop probably isn't your final
destination.

In general, Europe is denser (more cities within a closer distance), gas
prices are higher, and people are maybe more trusting of strangers.

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wehadfun
Do you have to have a working prototype or connection to get funding for an
idea.

Could someone call up some VCs and fly out to Cal and raise some funding over
a couple of trips?

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dgrealy
7% for 20k seems a bit steep. Even with YC placement being nearly priceless as
it is.

~~~
jasonshen
That was the standard offer from YC from it's early days up until 2014, when
they switched to $120k for 7%. [http://venturebeat.com/2014/04/22/future-y-
combinators-new-d...](http://venturebeat.com/2014/04/22/future-y-combinators-
new-deal-more-money-but-still-for-7-in-equity/)

