Avego is a two-year old startup that plans to take carpooling into the fast lane. The carpooling space has become hot in the past few years, with a number of new companies cropping up that plan to use the web and mobile tech to make it easier to find and share rides.
Avego, a spinoff of Mapflow, has probably the most sophisticated technology of the bunch, with a nice iPhone app that lets you find drivers or passengers in your area and catch or offer a ride. The company has developed an innovative incentive system, with micropayments transferred between rider and driver via iPhone. Meanwhile, Avego takes a small cut of every transaction.
I like this idea of monetizing underused seats, but the main problem I see with Avego's business model is that it's trying to change consumer behavior too much. While it is technical wizardy to be able to see people in your area that are looking for a ride via iPhone... do you really want to sit inches away from them? I think there are real, valid safety and trust issues with this approach.
To get around these issues, Avego has developed a reputation and identity validation system, where drivers and riders rate each other and are asked to exchange a nominal transaction before beginning a trip. However, these seem insufficient for addressing the understandable weariness most people will feel about riding in cars with strangers. There's just a lot more at stake than buying a used book on Amazon.
iCarpool is another ridesharing startup, but it focuses on serving companies and organizations with carpooling needs for their employees. For users, this approach eliminates much of the anxiety of riding with strangers.
Like Avego, it offers real-time geo-matching and updates for drivers and riders, so if one employee/passenger is running late at a meeting, she can catch the next driver home and doesn't hold up others or miss a ride.
iCarpool is a great solution for commuters going to and from the office, but it seems to fall short for trips elsewhere or for people who don't work at an iCarpool company.
For those groups, which I think include most students, there is Zimride, which gets my vote for best user experience. (Just to be clear, I created a profile and played around with each carpool startup app and website, but did not actually carpool... I don't need to drive around that much!)
Zimride is the brainchild of John Zimmer, a Cornell grad and former Lehman banker. Zimmer started Zimride in college, and as a former resident of Ithaca, I can definitely attest to the value of shared rides to and from NYC.
Zimride is similar to other carpooling startups only on the surface -- it forgoes just-in-time carpooling in favor of a finely-tuned screening process. The site leverages Facebook profiles and networks, along with some clever reputation management and ride preference features, so users can get a good amount of ride details before committing.
Zimride will tell you if you have friends in common with the driver or other riders, let you see the driver's car size, smoking preferences and so on. The company recently announced a partnership with Zipcar and is also a recipient of a fbFund grant.
All these efforts are commendable though. And here's hoping that they can change consumer behavior. As Robin Chase, a founder of Zipcar, said in her TED talk last year, "we need to reduce C02 omissions in 10 to 15 years by 80% in order to avert catastrophic effects... in 10 years, fuel-efficient cars will reduce our fossil fuel needs by 4%. That’s not enough."
Digital Verdure is about breakthrough startups and marketing ideas that bridge the digital-environmental opportunity gap.
My name is Alex Patriquin and I'll be covering businesses and ideas that shape consumer behavior through digital communications technology for profit and environmental benefit.
In 2009, our country is poised to revitalize its investment in green technology and infrastructure. President Obama's recently passed stimulus package lays the framework for energy and environmental initiatives to grow dramatically over the next few years.
Meanwhile a vocal and growing popular movement in support of sustainable business practices has emerged, amplified and aggregated by advances in digital media, particularly the explosion of social web technology.
At Net Green, we embrace this confluence of factors as an unprecedented opportunity for entrepreneurs and market innovators to profitably tap the country's collective pro-green momentum by building brand-based, web-connected communities.
Here’s just a couple of innovative green startups and business ideas that exemplify these trends -
ZipCar stands out as an early winner in combining digital technology and a sustainable business mission. The innovative car rental company empowers customers to find available vehicles in their neighborhoods through real time inventory tracking and a squeaky clean Google Maps integration. You can search by available time, location, price or model. When you find a nearby vehicle, you simply wave your RFID "ZipCard" and Viola! You've got wheels.
The reservation system is delivered through a downright fun interface via web or iPhone -- way more pleasant than hacking through a traditional car company's site, only to have to schlep to the agency and fill out more forms in those depressing beige offices.
With an easygoing brand, subscription-based pricing model and online tools to facilitate household sharing and referrals, the company has won a devoted loyal following and growing member base.
As for environmental factors, ZipCar claims that members drive less than owners would, saving 219 gallons of oil per member or 32 million gallons PER YEAR. ZipCar has penetrated only 0.05% of the addressable car sharing market, so the road ahead is just beginning.
RecycleBank is an incentive-based approach to recycling that connects households with the technology to manage their own recycling programs and rewards from well-known marketers for participating.
The company provides households with specially-designed recycle bins that contain an RFID chip. Bins are collected weekly and weighed by collection trucks, with credit attributed to each household via the RFID chip and updated in real time to the web.
From the RecycleBank website, household members can monitor their credits and redeem them for rewards from hundreds of retail stores and manufacturers, such as CVS and Kraft.
It's a fact that most people say they want to recycle, but often behave very differently. RecycleBank encourages households to follow through by providing tangible incentives and making it easy.
You can log in to your account at RecycleBank.com and keep track of how many gallons of oil and hundreds of trees you've saved by recycling. There's even links directly to Overstock.com and other online retailers for when you've saved up enough points to redeem that $20 gift certificate.
RecycleBank works exclusively in communities with single-stream recycling systems, which means you don't need to separate paper, plastic, glass and metal before it goes in their big blue bins -- all that gets sorted out down the line at a recycling facility.
As of today, RecycleBank claims to have recycled the equivalent of 1.3 million trees and 89 million gallons of oil.
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