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SMART Presentation Summary

This talk addressed the critical elements that led to the success of Zipcar and creation of GoLoco, and emphasized the role of technology as a necessary enabling ingredient.

Key points of the talk are summarized below:

The idea/innovation existed—it was not ours
Both carsharing and ridesharing have been around for a long time. We “farmed” other people’s ideas, and picked only the best ones. We did the picking based on criteria and ideas below. We executed well and branded in an appealing way.

There was a strong unmet demand
As we surveyed the market, the rising costs of car ownership (financial, time, environmental, social) led us to understand that there was a lot of dissatisfaction out there, a desire for a better path. What can be done to increase the value of car transportation? How can we make more efficient use of this asset?

• Increase number of ‘owners’ per asset (car sharing—Zipcar)
• Increase number of riders per trip (ride sharing—GoLoco)
• Increase value of time in car (continuous connectivity)
• Increase value of other investments (laptops, PDAs, ipods)
• Integral part of a mobility network
• Integral part of a communications network

New technology enabled the service/product
Both Zipcar and GoLoco rely on wireless data transmission and the internet. Without low cost communication between individuals and cars, it is too costly to try to share assets and resources effectively among many people.

In networks, size is power
Transportation is a network and lends itself to the benefits of network effects. However, it is difficult and nontrivial to get from a small network to a large one, and the end user needs to feel benefits even in a low network environment.

Marketing is (almost) everything
Customer-focus is required. This trumps environmental or policy issues every time.

   

• View her PowerPoint presentation (pdf)

Links

GoLoco’s Website:
Find more information or to share a ride.

ZipCar’s Website:
Find more information or book a ZipCar in your city

Biography

Robin Chase is founder and CEO of GoLoco, an online ridesharing community. GoLoco helps people quickly arrange to share car trips of all lengths between trusted friends, neighbors, and colleagues, and handles online payments from passengers to drivers for their share of the trip costs. GoLoco’s innovative combination of social networks and online payment systems recasts how we think about car travel, making it a time for socializing and with a new emphasis on trip efficiency, in order to reduce per passenger costs.

Robin is also founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world. Zipcar’s use of the Internet and wireless technology enables rental cars to emulate personal cars. Zipcar’s disruptive technology gives its members on-demand access to cars by-the-hour, revolutionizing people's relationship to their cars and improving the quality of urban life for all.

Robin is frequently consulted by transportation and planning departments, city and state government agencies, and NGOs about wireless and mesh networking applications in the transportation sector, innovation and economic development. She served on the Boston Mayor’s Wireless Task Force, and the Governor-elect’s Transportation Transition Working Committee.

Robin lectures widely and has been frequently featured in the major media including the Today Show, The New York Times, National Public Radio, Fast Company, Wired, and Time magazines, as well as several books on entrepreneurship. She has received many awards, including the Massachusetts Governor’s Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit, Start-up Woman of the Year, Fast Company’s Fast 50 Champions of Innovation, technology and innovation awards from Fortune, CIO, and Info World Magazines, and numerous environmental awards from national, state, and local governments and organizations.

Robin graduated from Wellesley College and MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and was a Harvard University Loeb Fellow. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and three children.