RSG088: Rideshare Consulting with Tom Mourmouras

In this podcast episode, you’re in for a behind the scenes look at The Rideshare Guy! You may not know this, but there’s a whole team behind RSG, and today I’m talking with an integral member of this team who helps me grow the RSG business. Keep reading below, because we’re going to talk about what goes on behind the scenes at RSG and how we re-invest the money RSG earns into content, providing valuable services to drivers and more.

If you’d like to read a transcript of this podcast, please click here.

Intro

  • Today I’m chatting with Tom Mourmouras, a consultant and expert in the mobility and ridesharing spaces
  • Tom’s worked for companies like TrueCar, Evercar and Lyft – and now he helps me out with the consulting side of Rideshare Guy Media
  • Consulting is a revenue stream I’ve covered in previous episodes (see show notes below for links!)
  • Running a team like RSG takes money, and between consulting and a product we’ve launched, we’re able to continue publishing (almost) every single day
  • In this episode, we’ll be talking about how Tom and I started working together, our consulting product, and how you might get into this line of work

Interview with Tom Mourmouras

  • Tom has been involved in the mobility and ridesharing space for 7 years
  • After 2 years in finance, Tom moved to TrueCar, Evercar and then Lyft, where he was on a three-person team that introduced ridesharing to the LA community
  • In 2017, Tom founded his consulting company, Naxos Mobility, and he’s currently consulting for FarePilot, Shell Clean Port and the Rideshare Guy

Consulting with The Rideshare Guy

  • Basically, Tom helps leverage expertise from RSG and his own experience to create an opportunity for businesses (or anyone interested in consulting) to get help in entering the mobility or ridesharing space
  • Also help companies with research, validate new business models, market strategies, etc. and generally avoid the pitfalls that may come with starting a new business in the mobility/rideshare space
  • One of the goals of offering this type of consultant work is to help companies cut through the jargon and noise that may slow their businesses down
  • We offer highly specialized competency in mobility and ridesharing, so if a company wants to learn what the opinions, goals, difficulties, etc. of drivers are, we’re the place to go
  • RSG Media offers a custom survey for companies, in addition to consulting work

Benefits of Consulting

  • Helps companies define their product and audience
  • Helps companies avoid some of the costly mistakes associated with starting, running, or maintaining a business in the rideshare/mobility space
  • Without naming names for professional/privacy reasons, RSG consulting has been able to save companies money

How Consulting Benefits Drivers

  • RSG has been working with drivers for a long time – Harry has probably interacted with 40-50,000 drivers in the last 5 years and interviewed the CEO of Uber
  • RSG appreciates all of the drivers who have taken surveys over the years – helps RSG improve the kind of information we provide as well
  • Have gone from only publishing a few days a week, to something almost every single day

Rideshare Interview Prep

  • New product we recently created, driven by interest from RSG readers
  • For people who have upcoming interviews with Lyft, Uber, Via, etc.
  • Helps them prepare for their interviews with Lyft, Uber, Via, etc. based on RSG/Tom’s experience with those companies
  • New product so far, but initial success rates have been very good – typically the people reaching out are smart, motivated people who haven’t worked in rideshare before but have come from backgrounds in banking, management consulting, etc.

Advice for Getting Into the Mobility/Consulting Space

  • Most important thing to do is keep learning, keep meeting people
  • Meet people at conferences, happy hours, etc.
  • Try to avoid free happy hours or free conferences – typically the more expensive the conference, the better for finding clients
  • 10,000 hour rule – if you do something for 10,000 hours (roughly 5-6 years), you’re going to be pretty good at it. Be persistent

Outro

  • Big thanks to Tom for coming on the podcast and providing us this deep insight into how the consulting side of the business works
  • I’ve known Tom for a while, and I think he’s great at what he does, so I was excited when we were able to partner up on a couple of projects
  • If you’ve got an entrepreneurial mindset, figure out what the value you bring is. What is the knowledge that you have or can acquire that other people don’t have? Think about how you can sell your knowledge, if you’re interested in consulting

Show Notes

If you’d like to read a transcript of this podcast, please click here.