Yotta Point

Whisk - the Open Table of Car Ride Services

Part of an Entrepreneur Q&A Series [see past Q&As here: GLTYR]

Whisk (http://www.whisk.me) is a startup currently based in New York City that aims to change the way transportation providers offer, and customers use, car ride services. It has a few competitors such as Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, and Hailo although their business models are different. Whisk was founded by three people - Michael Ibrahim (CEO), Ram Trichur (President), and Vivek Chandran (CTO). Ram happens to be a close relative - so I did a Q&A with him about what he and his team are trying to do with Whisk.

Yottapoint: What is Whisk?

Ram: We are an on-demand ride service. Customers can request a ride through their smart phone and control the entire ride experience through the Whisk App. We are also quickly becoming the go-to technology platform for the industry, transforming the way in which current car service operators run their business.

Yottapoint: Why did you pick this name? I noticed there are a number of other small companies with the same name [Whisk (NYC), Whisk (SF), SF Whisk] - do you think this might make it difficult for people to reach you or learn more about your services?

Ram: We had a healthy debate about that! A couple of things influenced our decision. In the context of moving people, the name intuitively conveys taking someone to their destination quickly. We were also able acquire a nice domain (http://whisk.me) which builds on that sentiment. We also felt that a discoverable brand is less important for a mobile only service ...once someone has the App on the phone, it becomes a habit, and a majority of new customer acquisition comes from existing customer referrals and press mentions (vs. Googling for something generic like "car service"). There was of course the downside that searching for Whisk on the app store will be a tough fight for relevance ....we are happy that after just a few months now we are the top result on the Apple app-store and the second result on Google-play store if you type in Whisk.

Yottapoint: How/why did you come up with the idea for Whisk?

Ram: The co-founders of Whisk are New Yorkers. Though we have a good public transportation system, getting a cab in NYC is difficult especially if the weather is bad, you have young kids or it is the notorious "shift change time" for taxis. Going in a taxi is also not a very pleasant experience always. You are cramped for room, some drivers are just rude, and if you have a problem - all you can do is call 311. My colleague and I at McKinsey discussed this in late 2012. We realized that there were other well-funded players in the market - but after much research, we concluded that the market was still nascent and there was a tremendous opportunity to partner with the industry to build something really big.

Yottapoint: Do you operate only in NYC right now? If so, any plans to expand to other cities?

Ram: NYC is 40% of the ground transportation market in the US. We are well on our way to establishing a solid base here. In the next several months we will be expanding to a few other metros.

Yottapoint: You seem to have several competitors – Uber being the big one, but also Lyft, Sidecar, Hailo. Can you help us understand the key differences between Whisk and these other services?

GLTYR - a New App for C2C, C2B, B2C, B2B Multi-Media Communication

Part of an Entrepreneur Q&A Series [see other Q&As here: Whisk]

UPDATE on 3/9/14: Added some responses from Sudhakar to user questions in the comments section.

I was recently catching up with my good friend - the multi-talented Subra Sudhakar - a tech industry veteran, CEO of the startup School Cues and an accomplished Indian classical musician who has played with leading Indian musicians over the years. As it turned out, I discovered he had just co-founded another startup - called GLTYR. Having heard from him about it, I checked it out myself and was impressed because I think this product will be a catalyst for more advanced personalized video/audio/text communication in the coming years. Here is a Q&A I did with Sudhakar about his new product/company (with minor edits for grammar/clarity).

Yotta Point: What is GLTYR?

Sudhakar: GLTYR (pronounced “Glitter”) is a mobile app that helps create and present your message to make an emotional connection with your audience. Your message comes alive with a picture, audio and video and up to 900 characters of text. What makes this app even more exciting is that a GLTYR message can be created and sent out in as little as three to five minutes (depending on the length of your message) - entirely through the app.

Yotta Point: How did you come up with the idea for GLTYR?

Sudhakar: The genesis for GLTYR came from a combination of five technology and behavioral trends –

1. The average human attention span is two minutes or less in absorbing and retaining information.
2. Content will ultimately end up being created and consumed on a mobile device, rendering the desktop obsolete in several scenarios or applications
3. The world is going mobile so quickly that there is a greater probability that a coffee shop owner in a remote village in Mongolia will use a smart phone and not a computer to create and send out quick messages / digital fliers that would drive his brand across the globe in less than a few minutes.
4. There are several fields where the concurrent confluence of audio-video-visual-text integrated with human creativity is required to make a strong emotional connection with the audience. These fields or areas include commercials, dating profiles, resumes, food, performing arts, marketing fliers, greetings, invitations, business cards, elevator pitches, value propositions etc.
5. The cost of producing audio-video-visual commercials is prohibitively expensive for the average consumer or a small business. The cost of purchasing, filling out and sending greeting cards is also getting more expensive. Plus, these cards are unemotional, with a limited shelf life on the refrigerator door. We would like to make it ridiculously affordable for people to create messages / commercials / cards / resumes on the fly which integrates picture, audio, video and text and push it out in less than a few minutes to thousands of people.

Yotta Point: Why should anyone consider using GLTYR? Aren’t there other apps out there which have similar capabilities?