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I find this rather surprising. I used to work for Hailo, and we failed mostly due to bad business decision (focusing way too much on regulations/instead of disr

I find this rather surprising. I used to work for Hailo, and we failed mostly due to bad business decision (focusing way too much on regulations/instead of disrupting the taxi industry we tried to partner) with way-way less funding ($100 mil in all - at the time less than 25) we built an app of such high quality, almost every driver or passenger we talked to (tens of thousands) said while Uber's network is superior, they wish they could use Hailo's app because it's just faster, nicer, feels more polished and less buggy. It is not rocket science, really. I don't think it's about tech quality. As our case proved, it's all about the extent of the network - people want a (cheap) ride, if they get it, they are happy.

hitr 10y ago
>people want a (cheap) ride That is what wins in the end, Uber's pricing is 20-30% cheaper than all competitor's at least in India.But even if they match it, things like time estimation, wait time etc are mostly accurate with Uber's app which adds to the total experience.
- gnipgnip 10y ago
  The trouble for Indian startups is that, USD is quite cheap compared to INR, and these companies can manage to sustain that massive burn rate, and also out-compete technically. Flipkart, Ola, not sure what else. I wonder how Didi pulled it off.... state hand ? cheap CNY (fiscal control) ? local investors ?.
elcct 10y ago
If you have terrible tech there is no way you could succeed. (I am not saying about Karhoo, it is just an example) Think of buggy app, unreliable, slow backend, bad predictions, billing issues and so on. You really have top notch tech to have things running smoothly. What you probably had in mind is excess of features instead of focusing on the core ones.
- friendly_chap 10y ago
  Not breathing or being dead is surely a disadvantage when starting a company, but just because you breathe and you are alive does not mean you will be able to sell that as a core value. Tech must be only good enough. No customer cares about it unless it annoys the hell out of them. It's not Uber's USP.

hitr 10y ago

>people want a (cheap) ride That is what wins in the end, Uber's pricing is 20-30% cheaper than all competitor's at least in India.But even if they match it, things like time estimation, wait time etc are mostly accurate with Uber's app which adds to the total experience.

gnipgnip 10y ago
The trouble for Indian startups is that, USD is quite cheap compared to INR, and these companies can manage to sustain that massive burn rate, and also out-compete technically. Flipkart, Ola, not sure what else. I wonder how Didi pulled it off.... state hand ? cheap CNY (fiscal control) ? local investors ?.

elcct 10y ago

If you have terrible tech there is no way you could succeed. (I am not saying about Karhoo, it is just an example) Think of buggy app, unreliable, slow backend, bad predictions, billing issues and so on. You really have top notch tech to have things running smoothly. What you probably had in mind is excess of features instead of focusing on the core ones.

friendly_chap 10y ago
Not breathing or being dead is surely a disadvantage when starting a company, but just because you breathe and you are alive does not mean you will be able to sell that as a core value. Tech must be only good enough. No customer cares about it unless it annoys the hell out of them. It's not Uber's USP.