If you’ve ever tried to book group transportation for a lot of people (birthday, bachelor party, family reunion, work retreats, etc.), you probably know how difficult it can be to find reliable transportation. A new company called Swoop seeks to change that difficulty by making it easy to find reliable transportation – and the company partners with drivers in a mutually beneficial relationship. Sound too good to be true? Check out the latest episode where I interview Amir Ghorbani of Swoop.
If you’d like to read a transcript of this podcast, please click here.
Intro
- If you’ve ever tried to organize a party bus or shuttle for a big group of people, you’ll know how difficult it is to find something reliable and compare your options
- While Uber and Lyft have revolutionized individual transportation, there’s still a huge market for big group transportation – and that’s where Swoop comes in
- Today I’m speaking with Amir Ghorbani, the co-founder and CEO of Swoop
- Swoop’s mission is to provide customers with group transportation that is reliable, affordable and fun.
- Think about taking a group bus ride to wine country or taking a large family to theme parks
- Taxes are coming up and don’t forget you can write off mileage as a rideshare driver! I recommend Stride Drive, a free app for Android and iOS that tracks your mileage for free. You can find out more about Stride here.
Interview with Amir Ghorbani
- Amir Ghorbani is from LA and comes from a transportation background – his parents owned a transportation company called LAX VIP Limousine
- He always had a passion for technology, so after spending two years at Deloitte and earning his CPA, he made a leap of faith to pursue his vision and created Swoop
- Swoop makes it easy, fun and reliable to book group transportation, and has worked with companies like Nike, Twitter, Malibu Wines and more
Creating Swoop
- Realized there wasn’t a simple, easy and reliable way to book group travel when he was trying to book group travel with friends
- Right now, there are a lot of methods to find group transportation: Yelp, Google search – but it’s fragmented and reviews of group transport are scarce
- Swoop doesn’t own the group transport vehicles, all vehicles are owned by transportation providers
- The whole industry is fragmented – not 1% of the whole market is owned by a single company in the US
Swoop Transportation Providers
- Typical Swoop transportation provider has roughly 5-10 vehicles in their fleet, and most transportation providers specialize (charters, limos, etc.)
- Group transport providers have to be commercially licensed – small and large group transports are both required to have licensing
- Swoop initially started as instant book but realized market was for advanced requests of group transportation – but 15-20% of bookings are “instant” meaning same day
- Drivers are rewarded for being great: many repeat customers will request certain drivers by name and refer their friends
- Currently finds transportation providers through referrals
- Transportation providers have liked the partnership: Swoop basically advertises for them and helps them increase their bottom line – benefit for both
Swoop for Consumers
- Swoop really wants to make it easy for the customer to choose a vehicle, see what they’re going to get – make the whole experience seamless, somewhat like Uber/Lyft did
- Swoop Marketplace really allows people to see and choose what type of vehicle they want – pictures, descriptions, etc.
- Customer feedback is very important to Swoop as they continue to user test and improve
The Future of Swoop
- Some challenges: scalability, supply and standards
- Plan is to grow the company outside of LA, where it is currently based
- Building out the web app for fully automated booking
- Has partnered with Malibu Wines (wine tours) and plans continued growth in those areas
Outro
- Thank you to Amir for coming on and talking to us about Swoop – I’m always interested in new companies’ origin stories
- Also another avenue for drivers: had you ever thought about driving for large groups before? So many options out there
- Don’t forget to check out Stride Drive – a free mileage tracking app that will help you out at tax time!
- Do you have a story or experience you want to share on this podcast? Reach out to me – always looking for interesting perspectives!
- Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and you can always contact me if you have questions – I like to hear from you all!
Show Notes
- Interested in driving for Swoop? Reach out to them at: info@swoopapp.com
- Swoop
- Stride Drive
- Subscribe to iTunes and never miss an episode!
- Connect with me on Twitter
If you’d like to read a transcript of this podcast, please click here.
