Where Next

Existing Market. 

Step 1: What I want next is a way to profit besides advertisements. I want to be able to expand the number of drivers and this is only possible if there is another flow of income. Maybe this means having riders tip or pay only a small amount.

Step 2: "What should we be doing that we aren't planning to do?" All three customers said that this should expand into places other than college campuses. However, I do not think this is a good idea because the target market is college students in small college towns, if not it may be too complicated. But, I will look into it and brainstorm the pros and cons. One person said I should be charging the riders just a small fee because if not the drivers would not be paid enough and would not be willing to go out of their way to pick someone up. I told her about my idea of finding another flow of income and she completely agreed with me.

Step 3: To be able to really grow I need to find a new way to earn money besides ads. This is because this limits the number of drivers I can have and ultimately makes the app run less efficiently. I think I am going to make the drivers pay a monthly rate of around 5$ to be able to use the app. This will really add up and make a profit besides the advertisements. This is also way cheaper than the alternatives since 5$ is what the consumer would be using just for one ride not a whole month worth of rides.

New Market.

Step 1: I am currently targeting college students without cars on college campuses. A radically different new market would be adults in cities with no cars.

Step 2: I think this market would be a lot harder since adults generally do have cars and if they do not they are comfortable using public transportation, especially in big cities. My carpool app would work though, if let’s say the less affluent adult population of a city needed to share rides with others for free. This could be to a certain working district in the mornings or to a group of adults going out in the same area at night on the weekend.

Step 3: The two people I interviewed where one of my mothers friends and one of my dads friends. They said they would not really want to use the carpooling app because they would rather use public transportation. They said it might be a bit weird to go with a stranger. I think this is very different from college students since we do not care as much who it is since we are all university students and share that common identity. It is harder for adults to feel a friendly connection like this. They said the business may work if it was in place at the same office building. Then workers from the same buildings or jobs could ride together.

Step 4: I think it was very hard for me to think of my business being in a new market because it is such a niche market my carpooling app is actually targeting, college students with no cars. The new market is much harder to please both because of the age difference and also because of the geographic location. Working adults in big cities are very different from college students in college towns. I think what surprised me the most is that adults do not feel comfortable at all going in cars with strangers even if it is free and safe. But after thinking about it more I understand it better, my parents were always very skeptical about uber and lyft, and they still do not take them very often at all. Overall, this new market is not attractive at all.