Hey, there! Log in / Register
Company that won prize in competition to encourage Boston startups is moving to San Francisco
By adamg on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 8:39am
Xconomy reports that RelayRides, a sorta ZipCar clone that started in Cambridge and won $50,000 in a MassChallenge competition earlier this year, is moving to San Francisco, where the money is greener.
Greg Gomer says the move makes sense for the company, which lets people share their own cars, because:
San Fran is much more environmentally friendly and certainly more open when it comes to sharing of any kinds than Boston.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Oh good
Maybe they can return the money, too.
You stay classy there, Greg
You stay classy there, Greg
I would like to know how
I would like to know how "much more" environmentally friendly san fran is compared to Boston. Boston has a higher percentage of the population using public trans, but that doesn't exactly fit their business model.
I know san fran has a law requiring residents and restaurants to recycle food, which is something I would like to see replicated here.
Both cities are on par in terms of energy derived from renewable sources (SF around 12%, Boston 8% - both in top 10) [http://www.sustainlane.us/articles/city_renewable_...
Popular Science rates Boston #3 and SF #2 in the 50 most green cities. [http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-02/...
Finally, I can't speak for SF on this one, and i have already wasted 30 mins on this post (procrastinating work until i finish my coffee :) ), but boston also recycles yard clippings, and most solid waste is used to power the water treatment with a byproduct of compost.
Now with that said, SF certainly seems to have the edge on enviromental friendliness, but I think it is a stretch to call it "much more", and use that to justify taking our $50k and leaving.
Also, if anything i have said is incorrect, please someone feel free to correct me.
Quote?
The quote I saw in the linked article was:
I didn't see the "San Francisco is better than Boston" kind of quote -- did I miss it? You're not trying to start a fight here are you? (I mean we'd whoop their ass, obviously, but I'd prefer to be pissing on L.A. if given the choice.)
Besides they'll still be operating here (according to them). So who cares if the HQ goes west? And $50K -- it's a lot to me, but in the grand scheme of things...
looks like the guy who wrote the article said it, not the CEO...
The quote is in there,but in the article, not in the comment from the RelayrRide guy.
A tactical decision...
...because once they piss away all their funding, they won't freeze to death sleeping on the streets of Silicon Valley.
In fairness, starting a ZipCar like venture two blocks from ZipCar's office isn't really a smart choice. Then again, their business model ism't really fully baked...but they may be.
Nothing that they're saying is wrong
San Francisco is a better place for tech startups and the tech industry in general, sad to say. I realize there was a time that Boston punched in the same league but it's been a good ten years since that could've been considered true.
Odd premise
Because I'm a Zipcar user, I kept getting pestered to join this company, but its basic concept makes no sense to me: if I owned a car in the first place, why would I need to borrow anyone else's?
I believe you've got it
I believe you've got it backwards. RelayRides matches up people who own private cars they do not make full use of and non-car-owners who are looking to rent for single-trip use, and acts as broker and escrow. Imagine a lo-tech ZipCar, but with ownership of the fleet distributed through a portion of the client population.
Personally, I think there are huge problems here with liability and QoS, but I wish them well. They are right that the market is better in the Bay area for small-scale service startups (imo, it's a misnomer to count this as a "green" startup).
***
More generally. I wouldn't be terribly concerned about the odd start-up moving west. As I pointed out on UH previously (and rather recently), the numbers show that MA continues to equal or beat CA in per-capita start-ups and venture dollars invested. Together with NY, MA and CA are in rather a seperate class from the rest of the US in this regard; the majority of start-up activity in the US occurs in just those three states. We should focus less on 'the ones that get away' and more on promoting and encouraging even more to start and stay here.
Ah,
So...I'm letting total strangers borrow my car. Yeah, good luck with that.
Hence...
...they're moving to the Moonbeam State. In Massachusetts this might work in Cambridge, J.P., Davis Square and Northampton. The rest of us are too cynically crusty.
sorry...
I'm JP liberal moonbat all the way and a ZipCar user, but I can't quite imagine asking my neighbors to lend me their car...unless I knew them well and in that case, why do I need a company to make the introduction? If it was a nice car, I'd be nervous about dinging it or something, and if it's a beat-up sh*tbox, I wouldn't want to drive it.
if you own a car you share it
if you own a car you share it with people that don't have cars, and you get reimbursed some amount when people do use it- I thik I saw that reimbursement could average about 4,000 a year.
It sounds like a good idea to me, but then again, I'm from San Francisco originally.....maybe I can still share after 30 years in Boston?
You don't
The idea is that car owners join to make money by letting members without cars borrow theirs.
I joined because it was free but I haven't used it yet, since Zipcar has cars within walking distance to me.
Does it have anything to do
Does it have anything to do with California recently passing a law that encourages car sharing....?
They May Love The Earth...
Ok, they may love the Earth more than we do, but will it always love them back? I love my cat, but he sometimes scratches if I pick him up when he doesn't want to be picked up and carried to another room. And as we all know, the Earth has had San Francisco in its sights for a long time.
San Francisco also has a
San Francisco also has a higher rate of car ownership....
they just drive better
Love both cities, but if it was my car, I MIGHT lend it to a CA driver. MA driver? No way. I know how we drive!
You've got it 100% backwards.
You've got it 100% backwards. MA is the safest state by far wrt auto safety. California is safer than the US average, but still more than half again as dangerous a place to be in a car as MA. Additionally, auto-theft and pedestrian accident rates are much higher in CA than MA, and much higher in SF than Boston.
What SF has going for it is a pre-existing and healthy ride-sharing culture, and a venture capital community that has a particular appetite for net-mediated social service start-ups.