Ridester.com - Hitchhiking on the Internet at Outside the Valley

« CBS Buys Wallstrip - Is The Future of New Media Outside the Valley? | Home | Vidoop - Tulsa, Oklahoma »

Ridester.com - Hitchhiking on the Internet

By Adam | May 22, 2007

Ridester.com, an Austin based internet startup, is hoping to change the way we think about intercity trips. Riding on the coattails of high gas prices and the increased growth of car poolers – the service provides an online marketplace where travelers are able to share the costs of trips by offering or requesting rides.

According to Bureau of Transportation statistics, Americans alone make 2.6 billion trips a year, 89% of which are personal vehicle travel. Unlike air and bus travel, however, these personal vehicle trips have not been monetized. By creating a forum for people offering or requesting rides to meet, and taking a commission for each exchange, Ridester is hoping to be one of the first in this space to “cash-in” on personal vehicle trips.

Here’s how it works:

Ride Requests: Users in need of a ride type in their departing and arriving zip codes. The site then looks through its database to search for matches. Based on the results, ‘requesters’ can choose the person they would like to travel with based on cost, smoking preferences, driver gender, and even music tastes.
Ride Offers: Users planning on making a trip post their departing and arriving zip codes, planned departure date and time, and the offering price of the trip per passenger. Like requesters, those offering rides can choose the person(s) they would like to travel with based on the ride requesters characteristics.
Payment: Once a match has been determined, the ride requester makes their purchase using PayPal or credit card. Payment is then deposited directly in the drivers PayPal account or a check is mailed directly by Ridester. A $2 ticket fee and 9.5% processing fee is applied to each transaction.

In under a year the site has grown to over 30,000 early adopters – all with little marketing. However, the long term viability of the site is highly dependent on network effects. For people requesting and offering rides to find a suitable match, the service will likely need to have an active user base in the six figure range. Jake Boshernitzan, the first time entrepreneur who launched the site, is well aware of the need to get more users utilizing Ridester. To further build out and market the service he is currently pursuing additional funding with VCs and angel investors.

Outside The Valley Score

Location: Austin = 1
Founders: First startup = 2
Technology: Existing technologies = 1
Funding: $25K Angel Funding= 2

Total Score – 6.0

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.