Venture Concept 1

Opportunity

My business, ADV carpool is based on the simple unmet need that college students without cars have a difficult time getting where they need to go cheaply and efficiently. Students with no cars have to rely on Uber or Lyft, which can be very expensive depending on the day and time. Or, they take the RTS bus, which takes almost double the time because it makes very frequent stops and also does not run late at night or on the weekend. So students without cars or scooters have to either work around their roomates schedules (if they have cars) to run simple errands. Another opportunity my business exploits is the problem that many students on college campuses live hours away and can only get home through flights, buses, or other students. But finding another student leaving the exact same time and day as you can be extremely difficult, especially when navigating convoluted posts on Facebook. Bus tickets are expensive and the rides take forever, and flying is also a luxury many students going from Gainesville to another Florida city cannot afford. The need is again any college student without a car who cannot run errands, get around places in town, or get back home cheaply and efficiently. The typical customer would be anyone freshman-senior although younger students are more likely to not have a car. Students currently are satisfying their need through Lyft, Uber, or the bus but I think if they found a free and safe mode of carpooling they would definitely leave these apps or the bus and switch over to ADV carpool. The only other competitor that is also free and quick is SNAP, but it is less personal and is bound only inside the University of Florida, not around all of Gainesville. I think this is a relatively big opportunity that will have a window of opportunity open as long as not all college students have cars.

Innovation

The app I am developing is pretty innovative as it pairs you with a driver going to the same exact place you want to around a time that you want to go. This app works similar to Uber or Lyft, but it is actually completely free for riders and drivers make money every time they take somebody with them. Profit is made through ads, which is used to pay drivers and also for me to be able to profit. Local business can pay to have their business advertised to all people using the app. Before anyone gets in the ride they would have to watch a video or look at an ad. There would also be coupons that business could do. For example, Subway can put a coupon for a bogo 6 inch. The rider would show this to them through the ad so Subway knows that thanks to ADV carpool they are getting more exposure and more business as a result. I think this is pretty innovative since most business do this in addition to what they charge for a product/service, I would be doing this as the only way to get profit, which can be annoying for consumers, but it outweighs the cost of calling a paid ride or taking the bus.

Venture Concept

I think consumers would switch to my business because of the unfair advantage that it is completely free and safe. As described above, the ad profiting innovation allows college students to get around efficiently for $0! The only major competitor is SNAP but they only operate within the university, not places around let’s say archer or downtown. I think customers would switch over to ADV carpool because watching a 10 second ad is less annoying than having to pay up to $10 for an uber or spending an extra 15 minutes on the bus. The customer experience definitely plays a large part in my business because riders will only continue to use the app if they feel safe riding and feel like they are just going with another friendly UF students, not like it’s a formal organized ride like an uber is. It needs to have a community feeling. My business would also only really work in college towns because this is safer and it is easier to reach the target market this way. There would be as many employees as possible, because the more drivers, the more efficiently the app works. But, there cannot be TOO many because then I would have to figure out a different way to pay them because ads would not suffice.