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Great idea, patents filed, now how do I gain traction?

So I’m bootstrapping a new ride-sharing service, working during the day to support it and building it in the morning/night. I’ve gotten it hammered out as much as it needs to be to start gaining interest: business plan, landing page, social pages, etc.

The problem is I’m entirely new to creating a business from scratch so I’m having trouble getting the message in front of the right people. I’m currently running FB ads and Google ads both have had marginal success but nothing to scream about.

How do I get this in front of drivers and riders to gain interest/build traction while I’m still working on the finer details (aka product not finished yet)?

Any ideas would be very welcomed, if you feel it’s a stupid question, I get it, but right this second I’m feeling stuck.

For anyone interested the reason it’s “revolutionary” is that it will offer the drivers 100% of each fare (doing away with the typical 20% cut most of the companies take) So I feel it’s poised to gain a sizable market share of drivers and with the rates being the same as other popular ride-sharing services it will gain riders as well.

  • Try pitching your idea to students at a local college. See what they think. Cheaper service should appeal to students.

    Also, this is not the kind of business that is well suited to bootstrapping. It takes a lot of money to grow quickly and to clear the regulatory hurdles.

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  • The biggest hurdle is not the cost, its getting past the chicken and egg problem. Nobody is going to sign up to get a ride from your app if there’s no drivers available to pick them up. No driver is going to use your app if nobody is on it.

    That’s why Uber and Lyft spend millions on customer acquisition efforts including giving away $30 – $40 for signing up. Can you afford to do that?

    Basically once there’s an incumbent in a “marketplace” its extremely hard to unseat them regardless of your offer.

    Eons ago, Yahoo! tried to take on eBay by allowing people to complete auctions without fees. Guess how that went? Yup Yahoo! isn’t doing auctions anymore.

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    • Paragraph 1: It’s not about the cost.

      Paragraph 2: Oh wait, it really is about the cost.

      This is why Uber raised 6 billion and Lyft raised 1 billion. Ride-sharing services are insanely expensive to scale out.

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      • Obviously I wouldn’t consciously contradict myself. When I said it’s not about the cost I meant it’s not about how much you charge.

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        • Appreciate the clarification. But on the flip side, there has to be a reason Uber/lyft have waged pricing wars.

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    • You’re right, but Yahoo did start accepting paypal and ebay started placing yahoo ads on Ebay due to an arrangement they struck up before they did away with their auction site.

      They bowed out with grace and got something out of the venture which is better than just going out of business due to willful ignorance.

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  • I appreciate the replies so far, but I feel that it’s missing the actual question. I’m wondering what the best way to put the message in front of the right people and the most cost effective way at that.

    By gaining early interest (just signing up for updates not actually applying to drive) it will validate the idea and allow it to be modified as needed.

    Plus it will allow me to use those metrics towards some small level funding to begin my push and growth. (so don’t worry it won’t (and couldn’t be) bootstrapped the whole way through.

    I appreciate each of you bringing up a few great points, I’m sorry I didn’t explain it further. But I do hope there might be another answer or two I haven’t gotten yet that will spark a new idea on how to gain basic traction faster.

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    • The unfortunate answer is that if you’re targeting the folks Uber is targeting you have no option but to spend a ton of money to get them.

      Your only option if you’re trying to do it on the cheap is to target a market that Uber is not focusing on… Like maybe real ride sharing the market the original Lyft focused on.

      That’s how Airbnb succeeded early on. They had no chance going up against He encumbent vacation rentals sites so they targeted a market nobody was serving well… Renting short term rooms. Then once they owned that space they were able to go up market and fight with the vaca rentals Giants and win.

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      • THIS is exactly what I was looking for. I really appreciate your thoughtful reply.

        I actually had a market in mind that is greatly undeserved and it was going to be launched as a secondary market due to rate of adoption. But with your fresh perspective I think it would be best to gain a foothold on that market before I expanded to what would be my primary market.

        Again I really appreciate your input, email me if you want updates so I can get you some free rides when it’s launched in your area 😉

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    • Correct, it can be a nightmare. I actually started with a different vision in mind, after I selected the location to start, had the business plan and financials worked out and scouted the area the regulations hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized it would be impossible to scale at more than a snails pace.

      That particular idea was going to benefit the drivers and riders as well but it would have taken so long to scale it wouldn’t have been a great benefit to more than one or two metros until 7-10 years in. Due to regulations.

      So I pivoted to solve the problems with the current ride-sharing systems which could build a faster economy of scale and be a benefit to all the major metros within 3-5 years.

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  • Go from house to house and spam people with leaflets. Start with your local village/area/town and then go from there.

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  • 100% control by driver of receiving the fare in a ride sharing service without paying anything to a company sounds like hitch-hiking.

    What kind of drivers are you attracting that get 100% of the fare? How do you control drivers from charging as much as Uber anyway? Or afford to put measures in place for accountability to limit things going wrong during the ride experience? Or arguments about the fare after they drive the person, because different drivers are setting different rates for the same route ‘because they can’.

    No fee. Sounds like it will attract even less quality drivers that are less committed to the business of being a legit, respectful driver = more dangerous rides. Plus with a 20% cut, drivers will make some effort toward a positive experience of the ride. What if they dump the rider somewhere because they suddenly dont need the fare and there’s a delay like traffic.

    Part of the fee to the company is that it gives perception to a rider of a legit service with certain level of standards. As a female with little funds, I’d think I’d rather pay a bit more for a ride in a stranger’s car, with a company, knowing the driver and company are sharing the fare coming out of my pocket so both are mutually invested that the experience and service is decent and safe. When the driver has full control of the service its unsettling. If you’ve ever taken rides in foreign countries where many cabs are full ‘independents’ you’ll know what I mean.

    100% free sounds good for some businesses but not in a service where a person’s safety and well-being is involved.

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  • When a driver thinks about gouging a captive rider into paying a higher fare, they’ll have some hesitation knowing a percentage of the fare charged is going to corporate. When none of it is going to corporate, whats stopping them from hard nose re-negotiating during the ride and if you dont agree they dump you on the side of the road causing you to be late or a– out on some back street.

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