Archive for Transportation

SAFETRIP

SAFETRIP is a wonderful app designed to book non-emergency and emergency medical transport for the elderly, veterans, homeless, and anyone else in need. Surprisingly, this revolutionary idea was co-founded by young engineer Langston Whitlock. 

At 12 years-old,  Langston was learning to code and fell in love with it. Eventually, Langston used his newfound knowledge to make an app to contact his absent father. With these skills, Langston was later brought on to the SAFETRIP team by Ja’Nese Jean. 

Ja’Nese Jean, a co-founder of SAFETRIP, birthed the idea when witnessing a homeless veteran not having access to healthcare or transportation. Knowing Langston’s skillset, she invited him to the developing team to collaborate together and make the revolutionary app come to life. 

This app allows its users to book emergency or non-emergency transportation. Vehicles include premium cars, vans, wheelchair accessible vehicles, and ambulances as needed. 

Since its creation, SAFETRIP has raised over 2 million dollars in funding because of Langston’s technology. Although it’s currently based in Georgia, the company hopes to soon expand into other parts of the country and make an even bigger impact. 

Jeff Cripe, Founder of Cargo

Entrepreneur Jeff Cripe, who is 29 years old, is an impressive example of a young innovative thinker.  Cripe began as an employee at Birchbox where he was first introduced to the world of startups.  Not long after, Cripe had an idea, and decided to take a shot at his own startup.  Cripe’s idea was to piggyback off of already existing rideshare services and add a vending component.  By adding a box full of snacks, along with a scannable QR code that allows riders to make a payment, Cripes company, known as Cargo, added an entire new way to generate profit within the ridesharing market.  Already, Cargo has partnered with Uber, Grab, and Go-Jek, all leaders in the rideshare industry.  Part of what makes Cripe’s idea so effective is its simplicity.  Cargo didn’t require the invention of anything new.  Ridesharing has existed for almost a decade, and vending machines much longer.  It was simply the combination of these two concepts that was so revolutionary, and allowed for Cargo’s success.  Cripe’s story offers inspiration for how simply seeing the potential for a combination of two products in a way that no one else has seen before can lead to the creation of a successful company.

Langston Whitlock’s SafeTrip: Unique, Thriving, & Safe

Langston Whitlock is an 18-year-old Atlanta-native, Georgia State University freshman, longtime coder, drummer, son, and brother. Also, he is cofounder and chief information officer (CIO) of the multi-million dollar company, SafeTrip, which provides ridesharing services for the homeless and elderly in the Atlanta, Georgia area who are in need of reliable transportation to medical appointments and wheelchair compatibility. It all started when Whitlock and Ja’Nese Jean, opera singer, social entrepreneur, philanthropist, and now SafetTrip’s CEO, who had been friendly colleagues in Atlanta for several years, were attending a local event and discovered the problem they would soon solve with SafeTrip. As they were at the community outreach event, Whitlock told Jean that he had heard from a local homeless veteran that many people in the area were unable to make it to important medical appointments due to lack of transportation. Jean replied by asking “Can you make an app for that?”

Whitlock learned how to write code as a young 12-year-old when he created an anonymous messaging app to try and contact his father; at 16 he became the youngest person to be recognized by Forbes Enterprise Technology judges and CIO for the company, meaning he oversees the development team and helps implement sourcing data and new technologies, such as users being able to pay for rides by debit, credit, or insurance. Though everyone else who works for the company is older than him, he says this is no issue at all and it works well; if anything, he says, “They love me cause I’m a kid, I guess.” Additionally, his perspective as a young person has proven valuable: SafeTrip recruits new high school graduates to be drivers for the company in order to further community-connectedness and to help teens who may not have a clear path ahead of them; also, these kids have just recently learned things like defensive driving and CPR at school, so these skills are fresh in their minds.

The app itself launched in 2018 and in 2019 made $3.4 million in revenue; also, it currently has $2 million in funding. Their motivation, besides wanting to better their community and help those in need, is also rooted in that the Atlanta-based company wants to show that the Atlanta technology scene is just as impressive and valuable as Silicon Valley. Additionally, Whitlock is personally committed to providing for his mother and bringing her all the happiness in the world, as a way of repaying her for the work she has put in throughout his life.

Overall, Langston Whitlock is a great example of a young entrepreneur in the 21st century. He and his cofounder saw a problem in their community and, using their existing skillsets and resources as active community members, and building on the typical idea of ridesharing went out and solved a real problem for the greater good.

Kyle Doerksen: Onewheel

Kyle Doerksen, creator of the futuristic one-wheel skateboard, was born in 1987. During his childhood he gained prestige by winning the Canada wide science fair, and he learned to snowboard which became crucial to his future life. He had a love of LEGOs and a knack for taking apart and rebuilding his parents appliances.

He attended Stanford university, and instead of deciding on one major, he chose to combine computer science, electrical engineering, and biology, wrapping them into a degree he called neuroengineering. During his first interdisciplinary degree he realized that it would be helpful for him to get another degree, this time in mechanical engineering.

Although Kyle had a wide range of interests and ideas including a work on a radar system that could “see” underground, he eventually landed on the concept of electric transportation. He worked for a time in a company called Farady bikes, an electric bike company. He was important to the company, but it wasn’t what he ultimately wanted to do. Before he had even started at Faraday bikes, he had been working on another idea, one that would eventually become an incredible reality.

This was his design for a one-wheeled, gyroscopic, electric skateboard: the Onewheel. His daily walk to work was long and somewhat mundane and he began to investigate types of transportation. His earlier love of snowboarding paired with his knack for electrical vehicles birthed the Onewheel. After making a few prototypes he decided to put his idea on Kickstarter. The idea achieved massive success gaining the required 100,000 dollars in backing in less than 4 days. He launched the idea, made the boards, and achieved great success.

Ultimately Kyle Doerksen could be considered more of an inventor than a businessman, but his innovation in the world of transportation is incredible. His innovation was not only designed to fulfill a transportation need though, his product is interesting, suave, and brings genuine joy to the riders. His futuristic Onewheel was an incredible innovation in the realm of transportation.

Sustainable Air Transportation

Wright Electric was founded by Jeffrey Mark Engler to solve the problem carbon emissions by airplanes.  Flying is an essential part of modern transportation, but it can triple a persons carbon footprint.  Wright Electric is working on developing an electric airplane that will have much lower carbon emissions than current passenger jets.  The Wright 1 airplane that is in development will be able to carry 186 passengers, and it will use batteries to power electric motors for propulsion.  Lower carbon emissions will be achieved by using electric power and a more aerodynamic design that reduces drag and makes the airplane more efficient.  Battery powered airplanes are becoming more realistic as a result of research by government agencies such as NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory that are making batteries more efficient and lighter.  An electric airplane has some additional benefits.  Electric motors are much quieter than traditional jet engines, and the decreased use of fuel will make electric airplanes cheaper to fly.  Wright electric is also designing their airplane so that batteries can be quickly swapped at an airport to allow for a faster turnaround time.

Wright Electric has partnered with experienced airlines such as EasyJet, Jetex, and VivaAerobus to get commercial, operational, and maintenance insight during the design process.  The Wright 1 will not have a very large range at first with 500km or 311mi flights from London to Paris, but it will be able to get up a 1,280km or 800mi range.  The Wright 1 will also have slower cruising speeds than similarly sized passenger jets, but Wright Electric expects this to be fine for the short flights that they will be starting with.  Wright Electric is planning to perform ground tests of its motors in 2021 and flight tests in 2023.  They are hoping to have the airplane on the market by 2030.

Dustin McBride – Zambikes

After a mission trip to Zambia, millennial entrepreneur, Dustin McBride, began brainstorming ways to meet a few critical needs that he experienced there: access to transportation as well as sustainable employment. This eventually lead to the formation of Zambikes, a company that builds and sells bikes in Lusaka, Zambia. This company meets the needs of many Zambians by providing job opportunities in an environment that encourages financial and personal development and by providing greater access to one of the most affordable and practical mode of transportation in Zambia.

McBride is driven by his love for God and his desire to serve Him by meeting the needs of others. This passion, along with the many entrepreneurial traits he displays, has allowed his company to be successful. McBride began by identifying a problem that Zambians were facing, and then addressing the problem in a way that appealed to the people’s needs. Then he took an idea that was already established and started innovating to develop new ideas. He noticed that the most common form of transportation among Zambians were bikes, because very few could afford cars. However, bikes were also in limited supply and many families did not have access to bikes. In addition, there was a great need for ways to transport goods to and from the market to sell, as well as ways to transport sick people to and from the medical center. With this in mind, McBride developed two bike attachments to meet these needs. One was a cart designed to haul goods and the other was a cart designed to carry people to and from the medical center. This is a great example of innovating a current product to better meet the needs of the people.

McBride is a unique example of an entrepreneur because he is not only in the business of improving a product, he is also in the business of improving lives. Zambikes improves the quality of life for Zambians by providing transportation that is less time consuming that walking, which allows them to be more productive with their time. It also allows for more direct access to health care by providing quick and safe transport. Most importantly, Zambikes provides vital employment opportunities to the community that go far beyond earning a respectable wage. The company empowers their employees by providing them with skills training, opportunities for advancement, an environment that encourages personal development as well as spiritual growth, and the ability to create sustainable businesses themselves. Zambikes is truly changing Africa one bike at a time!

Sources:

https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/dustin-mcbride

https://www.facebook.com/zambikes/

Travis Kalanick & Garrrett Camp – Uber

The story of how Uber came to be all started on a winter night when the pair was attending a conference and could not get a cab to get back to the hotel.  Initially, they thought of a time-share limo service that could be ordered via an app.  They did not act on the idea, but when Camp returned to San Francisco he bought the domain name ubercab.com.  Camp experimented with the idea with prototypes and eventually persuaded Kalanick to come back and help him.

The official launch came in May of 2010 in San Francisco.  The user would order a ride to pick them up at a select location at a select time on the Uber app.  The ease and simplicity of the process led to a quick rise in popularity. Today, Uber is still the leading service in cab services, but Lyft has emerged as a big competitor.

I recently used Uber for the first time, and was very impressed with how easy and efficient the service works.  As nice as it is for those looking to get a ride, it has also created a lot of jobs for people looking to become an Uber driver.  It is not super hard to get certified, and can be a good side job if you live near a big city.

Bird is the Word

Travis VanderZanden was born to improve public transportation which he is now revolutionizing through the foundation of Bird-a company that rents electric scooters in cities through an app. Growing up in a single mother home, he often went with his mom to work which in his case was the bus stop. She was a Valley Transit bus driver in Appleton, Wisconson for over 30 years. It was during those times riding on her bus that VanderZanden first identified problems with the wait time, traffic, parking, and so on in the transportation realm.

Although the roots of his most recent innovation were planted very early on, there were many steps in between then and his foundation of Bird. Always possessing the determination and drive to succeed, VanderZanden worked hard for his education, started a couple short-lived companies, and made it high up in the rankings of other businesses before his big breakthrough with Bird in 2016. His first two startup attempts were QikCom (2008), an enterprise communication app, then Cherry, a car-wash app he started in 2011. Cherry was bought by Lyft where he took his turn as COO. After a fallout, VanderZanden was picked up by their rival, Uber, as Vice President of Driver Growth. After a twisted mess of lawsuits between the companies over his switch, Vanderzanden left in 2016-the year his breakthrough idea came about.

Travis VanderZanden (founder) riding a Bird

Planted by childhood experiences with his mother, the idea of Bird culminated with another family experience when his daughters wanted to keep riding their scooters even after receiving bikes for Christmas. This struck him with the idea of scooters for adults which snowballed into Bird. VanderZanden’s whole goal with Bird and whatever he has in store for the future is centered around minimizing the number of cars on the road and making public transportation more accessible. Bird is so revolutionary it has shaken cities and rattled local governments as they react to this radical change in travel which the laws of the road were not prepared for. Bird certainly has obstacles to overcome with educating the public and ensuring safety, but this is to be expected with such a major innovation. This endeavor has incredible potential shown by the annual revenue at upwards of $100 million within the first 14 months-a faster takeoff than even Airbnb and Uber!

Zum: Safe Transportation for Children

Have you ever had to scramble to find an elementary student a safe and reliable ride from school, practice, or rehearsal? Do you ever stress about conflicting schedules? What do you do in these situations? Cancel obligations, like most people?

Rita Narayan, founder of Zum, saw a big need for safe, reliable transportation. Rita quit her thriving career to raise her four children, but she later asked the question: how can I advance my career while ensuring my kids have safe, reliable care. With that, Rita and her two brothers sought to create a platform to to solve this problem that many parents experience.

Now, Zum is the fastest growning ride and care company for children.

On their website, they outline their history, mission, and how the rides are ensured to be safe service for the children. Zum drivers and caretakers have screenings, vetting processes (fingerprinting, driving rests, sex offender records, address history and SSN validation), and a car inspections ensuring safety is always first.

After reading through many reviews on Zum, everything is very positive that I saw. Zum is on track to soon reach 1 Million rides.  They envision going nation wide in the future while being the #1 transportation and care service for children.

Elon Musk: Technological Empire

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By now, most Americans know who Elon Musk is. It is extremely difficult to miss the luxurious design of one of his Tesla vehicles drive by you or to not be intrigued about his realistic idea for commercializing space travel. Elon Musk, with a net worth of $12.9 billion, is one of the most successful businessmen that lives today and his story of success is one that very few people are aware of.

His parents always had aspirations of their son from the time that he was very young. They noticed he was a tinkerer so they bought him his first computer when he was nine. It came with an astounding five kilobytes of storage and with this computer, Musk made a simple video game called “Blastar.” It was a simpler version of the game “Space Invaders” but was nonetheless an impressive code, especially when you remember it was created by a nine year old. When he was twelve, Musk sold the game for $500 ($1,200 today).

After dropping out of graduate school, Musk and his brother had an idea for an online-type of yellow page directory similar to that of Google and Yelp today. He saw that the internet was going to be the future and wanted to develop the technology and make a living from it. This idea for the directory was groundbreaking in the 90s and was quickly purchased by the company Compaq for $307 million from the two innovative minds. Using his newfound profit, Elon saw the potential that the internet held and decided to create an online banking business. Being in a cutthroat market for online banking, he and another company, Confinity, merged and became what is known today as PayPal. This company was soon sold to eBay for $1.2 billion to handle the online transactions for the online mega-store.

In 2002, Musk founded one of his famous companies, SpaceX, with the mission to make humanity a multi-planetary species. While he was in the development stage, he started his most famous company, Tesla, in 2004. Although Musk is aided largely in his efforts through federal subsidies and investments, Musk funds a large amount of his massive companies himself. Since their conception in 2002 and 2004, Musk has continually invested his own money into his own businesses. By doing so, he is the one making the decisions that lead to the success of the company. If the company loses money, he loses his fortune. This keeps him motivated.

How Tesla and SpaceX have already merged - Business Insider

Although each of these companies has had numerous drawbacks–SpaceX couldn’t get their rockets into orbit until they practically ran out of money blowing them up and Tesla continues to lose money–Elon’s exceptional leadership has and continues to lead these companies to the top of their markets. With estimated combined company values of over $24.3 billion, there is no doubt that with these great companies comes great leadership, something that Elon Musk continues to illustrate through his dedication and hard work.

 

Sources:

www.theverge.com/2015/6/9/8752333/elon-musk-blastar-pc-game

www.gobankingrates.com/making-money/business/how-much-is-tesla-worth

www.waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html

www.moneymorning.com/2018/02/12/how-much-is-spacex-worth/

Roadster Image: https://is.gd/6GjSnC