I forget which app it was, but when in the US for the Boston Marathon this year, my friend and I used one of these systems. It was amazing - we left one set of cards and a phone in a bag the day before, plus clothes. We could then finish the race, go to the shop to get our bag (a chinese health store - they stored it in a back room), and get changed, then go have beers. No need to go back to our hotel (which was near Hopkinton).
It's actually a more legitimate service I think than the likes of uber, as it is anciliary service for more income for small shops (we also bought 'candy' when in the store - a bit more revenue for them), as opposed to people relying on it to make a living.
This sounds great. I would compare it more to airbnb - using someone's stuff that would otherwise go unused. So actually extracting lost value. Uber might one day become that (I hear the typical personal car goes unused something like 90% of the day), but when everything is self-driving.
I think the days of Airbnb being "rent out a spare room" are gone, whenever I look, most Airbnb properties tend to be used as dedicated short-term lets and has supplanted the old holiday letting market.
I've seen a mix. Some are definitely dedicated AirBnB rentals where it's obvious the owners are professional landlords; but we've stayed in ADUs where owners occupied the primary residences, cottages being rent out part-time, etc.
It's been an incredible model. We've already paid out $100's of thousands of revenue to small business owners in new "found" revenue. It's a totally new income stream and in many cases helps with rising rents and declining retail.
One difference is that using unused space is free (other than the transaction cost/effort). Whereas most of the cost associated with using a car is mileage rather than time based. So while there's some cost associated with a car sitting unused, there's even more cost associated with putting miles on it.
Rent is a fixed cost so if a shop is already paying $5k / month in rent, and they can turn an unused or repurposed closet into a $1k / month revenue stream, they are very happy. Not to mention all the new people (hopefully patrons) coming into their store!
The Uber bit makes little sense to me. If Uber takes my car at night, then I doubt I'll make much money, since not many people are out at night. And if it takes my car in the day, then I don't have immediate access to the car when I need it, which is the entire reason I use my car as opposed to a bus or a train.
I think for a certain class of workers, their car is used exactly once to get to work and once to get back. If that were the case I could see Uber usefully taken control of the car in between.
A better example would have been Waze Carpool or even older the practice of "slugging" which finds riders needing to go a similar way and saves toll or gas.
As a side hustle it reminds me a bit of the parcel reception service that a lot of shops in France and elsewhere do. Very useful for Amazon etc if you’re not at home. I’ve always wondered if they’re paid for it, or do it for free Hoping it will bring customers. Probably half way between
So awesome to hear this. Bounce is very present in Boston with more than 30 locations. We didn't develop that market until summer, however. We love runners and it's super cool to hear this story. Do you have any ideas for how we get the word out to that community?
>Do you have any ideas for how we get the word out to that community?
sponsor some running races. There's a ton of smaller (200-300 participant) races happening in cities all across the country every weekend that would love a sponsor and be happy to tell their racers about your service. $1000 and a couple t-shirts to be given out as draw prizes would make you a major sponsor.
Sponsoring races might work, semi-major ones who have a magazine and you can suggest it to, but that's going to cost (I've no idea on your funding, and don't need to know).
The freeone would be an adverotial type approach in something like Runner's World. They're always desperate for content, so delivering it on a plate (happy for my example to be used) they would probably like. Always free to ask.
Then there is the manual option - hitting all the facebook groups that exist, and the twitter, sugges0ting for all races (likely half and full marathons). You are probably too late for Houson Marathon tomorrow, but that's a good one where people will be in the same position.
Ultimately you are relying on word of mouth, but it's how you get that initial buzz!
If runners world are interested, theres probably some way of contacting me through here (I've now idea on the best way) and I am happy to add in to the story with some concrete details. For me it was a long day at the office and not what I wanted (2:54), but at least it's a respectable time which may help their interest too.
It's actually a more legitimate service I think than the likes of uber, as it is anciliary service for more income for small shops (we also bought 'candy' when in the store - a bit more revenue for them), as opposed to people relying on it to make a living.