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Good points, thanks Ben! 1) Sponsorship is a great idea, but it seems like a great idea. At StartupBus, the majority of our costs are covered through sponsorsh

Good points, thanks Ben! 1) Sponsorship is a great idea, but it seems like a great idea. At StartupBus, the majority of our costs are covered through sponsorship. 2) BauerIT works with us on StartupBus every year and they have already offered a very reduced rate. This is slightly off-topic, but I second that they are amazing and highly recommended for all bus needs. It does seem to be more economical over the long run to buy a bus though. If you're interested in specifics, we can take this offline. I'll shoot you an email in a bit. 3) Looks like it won't easily be possible to run it for profit at prices comparable to caltrain (which is my goal), so I'm open to making it a community service (this also helps with setting expectations). As a non-immigrant visa holder it's a hassle for me to turn a profit on anything anyway ;)

dotBen 15y ago
Arhh, I didn't know you were part of the startup bus crew. Elias is a good friend of mine. I'm guessing you're Ausie too if you have a non-immigrant visa. As it happens, so do I so I have same challenges. To your point on CalTrain, and what everyone who might use this service needs to understand, is that CalTrain is run at a loss - $12 each way from SF<>MountainView doesn't cover their true costs. In fact my client pays me $40/round-trip if I drive between SF and Mountain View because it's 80 miles round-trip ($0.5/mile driving costs, which is standard). Further more, Caltrin have scales of economy on their side too. So if people are looking to pay the same as CalTrain then they're going to be disappointed - unless you can subsidize with sponsorship.