Archive for the ‘Zipcar’ Category

Bridj – Another Successful Startup Launched

5 September 2014

140513 LOGO Bridj-logo-taglineLike start-ups RelayRides in 2010 and Ember in 2001, it has been satisfying to help a bright, young founding CEO get his start-up off the ground. As the second person at Bridj, my first task was to quickly hire a team. It was that team which:

  • Launched the service on June 2nd (on time, no less!),
  • Expanded service every couple of weeks,
  • Raised $4 million in venture capital from Atlas Ventures, Zipcar investor Jill Preotle, NextView Ventures, Suffolk Equity, and FreshTracks Capital and,
  • Positioned the company for great things to come in Boston and beyond.

I am proud of what we accomplished as a team.

My time at Bridj was similar to assignments at Ember (where I was interim COO and which went on to raise a total of $89 million in venture capital before being acquired in 2012 by Silicon Labs) and RelayRides  (more…)

Posted in Atlas Ventures, Bridj, FreshTracks Capital, Gabe Klein, NextView Ventures, Sufolk Equity, Zipcar | Leave a Comment »

Google Ventures & August Capital announce they are funding my current company, RelayRides.

15 December 2010

Since summer, I’ve been interim COO at RelayRides, the world’s first neighbor-to-neighbor carsharing service.  I work for founding CEO Shelby Clark.  Yesterday we announced funding from August Capital and Google Ventures.

RelayRides is an innovative twist on the traditional carsharing model, ala Zipcar.  I believe our business model will have an important impact on the young and rapidly growing $12.5B global carsharing industry. Adding neighbor-to-neighbor carsharing to a community with traditional carsharing is one of those instances when one plus one equals more than two, as detailed here.

RelayRides is a perfect example of Collaborative Consumption. Rather than putting new cars on the road like other carsharing services, RelayRides goes the eco-friendly route by leveraging existing, often idle autos.  Neighbors help each other.  Car owners recover some of the costs of owning an expensive asset while they simultaneously provide a new, convenient transportation option for their neighbors in need of a car.

After operating in Cambridge for six months, Tuesday we launched our second city, San Francisco, generating a slew of great press.

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Posted in August Capital, Carsharing, Collaborative Consumption, Des Pieri, Desmond Pieri, Google Ventures, Howard Hartenbaum, Interim COO, Interim Management, Joe Kraus, Neighbor-to-neighbor, Person-to-person, San Francisco, The Mesh; Why the Future of Business is Sharing, What's Mine is Yours, Zipcar | 1 Comment »