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So long Sidecar and thanks
- bobsky 11y agoStrange they didn't make this announcement on their official blog, going to their site one would think nothing happened. Saddest part, no one cares. An hour plus since the news and hardly anybody is talking about it on Twitter including any reaction to their tweet. For how much they fought in this transportation movement, they're going out with a whimper.
- dexterdog 11y agoHonestly would anybody really care that much if Uber shut down? The users and drivers would just move to Lyft or some other service. This isn't Facebook that has a bunch of your life's history.
- hkmurakami 11y agoUber shutting down would have significant macro-effects for fundraising at all levels (including VCs raising from LPs)
- Nullabillity 11y agoLyft is still only available in the US, so yes.
- Cyberdog 11y agoAnd in fewer cities/regions in the US, at that. Though, granted, the sudden and mysterious hypothetical death of Uber would probably motivate Lyft to ramp up in all those other markets, too.
- atom-morgan 11y agoUber is approaching household name at this point. If Uber shut down today I would definitely hear about it outside of HN.
- marme 11y agoUber is only a household name for younger people in cities. I just recently had to explain to my mother what uber was because she had never heard of it. For people over 50 living in suburbs they never hear about all this companies that many people on here think are huge companies that have worldwide recognition. You cant say something is a household name until more than 50% of middle aged people can tell you what a company does just by mentioning their name
- benologist 11y agoMy 60-something Australian mother knew what Uber was before we even summoned one, here in Costa Rica where their arrival was very publicly contentious.
- nemothekid 11y agoMaybe your folks don't watch as much broadcast television as you'd imagine. My parents (over 50) know what Uber is given - The amount of name drops the service gets on late night TV (Conan, SNL) - The news it generates (medallions, the france protests) - The viral facebook posts that go around when someone spends $300+ on an uber ride to go home. Despite the fact they live in a suburb. In any case, if we used your stringent definition of "household name", I doubt companies like Samsung, Sony or Twitter would fit the bill despite having massive consumer reach (and marketing spends).
- sparky_ 11y agoFrom reading the post, I'm still not clear if they're simply pivoting over the next year, or actually shutting down.
- minimaxir 11y agoNot the first ride-sharing company killed by the Uber/Lyft wars, but was one of the few with $35M raised: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/side-cr https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/side-cr
- elwell 11y agoWhy did they lose to Uber and Lyft?
- pbreit 11y agoProbably a lot of reasons but I think they clung to their scheme of letting drivers set their prices which I believe they both thought might be preferred as well as "more legal". But it was generally a worse experience.
- johnrob 11y agoSpot on. Uber and Lyft made legality gambles that paid off (they weren't shut down), and were then able to reap the reward (apps were easy to use). I hope hindsight doesn't forget that it was indeed a gamble. Homejoy made a similar bet in the housecleaning industry, but couldn't find a way to pay the illegal workers that make up a good portion of the industry (there were other issues Homejoy mentioned, but this one stood out to me - I could be wrong though).
- toomuchtodo 11y ago> Uber and Lyft made legality gambles that paid off (they weren't shut down) Has the IRS ruled yet on whether Uber and Lyft are going to owe hundreds of millions in back taxes and penalties due to misclassifying drivers as independent contractors? No? Still plenty of time to be shut down.
- eli 11y agoSure, but it's hard to argue they'd be better off acting more like Sidecar.
- pbreit 11y agoThat'll never happen. For starters, 1099 classification is very defensible. 2nd, if some drivers should be W2s, any type of deal would likely only be in the future. 3rd, in the very, very worse case, there's no way it would be 100s of millions.
- kazinator 11y agoNot the exactly the words you want to hear on the freeway from your motorcyclist.
- tzier 11y agoSidecar doesn't get enough credit for starting the rideshare movement. (Uber started the mobile-calling movement, but were black cars and TNC compliant until they started UberX.) Sidecar was often were piloting products a half year before Uber and Lyft implemented them (ridesharing, Shared Rides, etc). I think Uber and Lyft won since (a) Uber was first and had an extra 2 years of brand recognition already, and (b) Lyft had superior marketing in their early days (bright pink mustaches, mandatory fist bumps). As Uber/Lyft raised more money, they caught up more - though Sidecar was still first in a lot of products (Sidecar Deliveries, having HIPAA compliant drivers, etc.) If I were them, I would explore the niche of regulation-friendly drivers - e.g. HIPAA certified drivers. They've already started doing this, but I'm sure their consumer facing product has bogged down product development and such. The Medium post isn't clear on if they're laying off team and such, does anyone know? Edit: I would also explore using their logistics infrastructure and making it available to any businesses that have their own delivery fleets, but don't know how to optimize them. There was a Techstars co doing this (https://routific.com/ https://routific.com/) but I imagine Sidecar is much further along.
- morgante 11y agoHow exactly is a driver HIPAA compliant?
- chrischen 11y agoProbably in regards to ambulances. After getting sedation they explicitly told me they won't let me be picked up by Uber/Lyft.
- BostonEnginerd 11y agoI think it has more to do with handicap accessibility rather than anything HIPAA related.
- tzier 11y agoNot handicap accessible - Uber/Lyft are legally required to have those options so will have them as an option. Wouldn't be a big enough market for that otherwise, and would probably be illegal due to illegal price discrimination.
- Touche 11y agoThanks for the 2 day notice.
- mkolodny 11y ago> nearly four years ago we invented what is now known as “ridesharing” People, including myself, were ridesharing using Craiglist for 10+ years before Sidecar existed. It was even called ridesharing: https://web.archive.org/web/20011107033237/http://newyork.craigslist.org/rid/ https://web.archive.org/web/20011107033237/http://newyork.cr...
- 1024core 11y agoAnd 10 years before that, there were rideshare boards in college campuses, so students could coordinate rides to their hometowns or springbreak destinations.
- brianwawok 11y agoBack when I was in school we shared ponies. Ponysharing would allow 2 or 3 or us to make it home for winter break on the same pony, and split the cost of feed.
- mkolodny 11y agoHe didn't say they invented ponysharing, so that one is yours.
- Kinnard 11y agoI wonder why they didn't op for merger or acquisition . . . and what they're planning next. I remember meeting them early on in 2013, they seemed waaay ahead of Uber and Lyft.
- tzier 11y agoFounder had previous exit, could be why they didn't capitalize as much (though that's pure speculation). They're probably just restructuring and using existing technology for another company.
- syedkarim 11y agoWhy would a founder with a previous exit not want to capitalize as much, especially when the two major players are so heavily capitalized?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- flysfo 11y agoI worked at this company, in the offices, for almost 2 years. It was quite an adventure.
- flysfo 11y agoI worked at this company, in the offices, for about 2 years. It was quite an adventure. A lot of up and downs. This is no surprise. People in this company were great but a lot of the decisions seemed reckless and unnecessary. So much talent squandered. A lot of potential wasted. That being said, the people were a great group. That's life.