RideBee

Why did you start your start-up, which problem do you address and how do you solve it?

On our daily commute to work in Munich and Stuttgart we have all experienced an ever increasing traffic jam. With our carpooling platform, which is dedicated to commuting to work, we are tackling this social problem and enabling our users to reduce their travel costs and emissions by more than 50% while creating productive time for them during their journey.

What is special about your business model, what do you do differently?

We offer our platform for businesses and charge a monthly SaaS fee. Employees use RideBee without any commission and only reimburse each other for travel expenses. This is important - in combination with special comfort features like group chats, live location sharing and integrated payment - to keep users on the platform even if they have found a suitable carpool.

What has been your greatest success so far?

In our last corporate project we were able to attract more than 350 users to RideBee and have thus exceeded our own goals. It is important to achieve a critical mass right at the beginning and we ensure this through various online and offline channels on site.

What would you recommend to other founders?

First: Don't listen to the pessimists! There will always be people who make the barriers too high or simply wouldn't use your product personally and therefore don't believe in the business model. Second: To get your business up and running quickly, you should focus on two things - product development and sales! Do not underestimate how many hours other small tasks accumulate and how little time you will sometimes invest in these two areas.

Where did you get to know each other as a team?

Lukas and Tobias got to know each other while studying abroad in Melbourne in 2014. In another exchange semester 2017 at Carnegie Mellon University Fabian and Lukas met each other. As a team we are based in Munich.

What was the hardest feedback you ever got in a pitch?

How can you claim to reduce car traffic when in reality you are cheaper than Uber and thus make car use more attractive than public transport or the bicycle? - It is true that some forms of shared mobility actually create more kilometres than they save. However, since most of our customers live in rural areas where alternatives such as public transport are less attractive, we do not cannibalize on other sustainable modes of transport.

Where do you see yourself in 3 years?

In 2022, we will be operating on a solid B2B customer base within Europe, using our advanced business mobility solutions. We will also have extended our reach with a B2C carpooling application serving points of interest such as airports, football stadiums, festivals and exhibition centres.

Do you still have a social life despite starting up?

We have started to work 7 days a week, in critical times 12-16 hours a day. But we realized that we limited sleep, sports, meeting friends and other leisure activities. In the long run, this does not keep you happy or productive. In the meantime, we have learned that we can plan outside of work hours and still reach our milestones.

If an investor gave you €500,000, what would you do with that money?

Actually we are currently looking for an investment. About half of the money will be spent on product development to further improve the user experience on all devices (we are available on iOS, Android and web) and thus improve user retention. The other half would go into sales and marketing to capitalise on the good momentum of the corporate social responsibility initiatives we are currently facing.

Suppose you were the governing mayor of Munich for one day, what would you change?

I'm not sure that we would be able to do all that: If possible, we would introduce higher parking fees and a congestion charge, provide funds for building new and improving existing bicycle infrastructure and launch pilot projects such as special carpool lanes (in the suburbs). And since we are only in office for one day, we would make sure that the decisions are irreversible.