For a class called Formation of New Ventures, I analyzed the entreprenerial state of a web-based ride-sharing platfrom called Zimride, based on research and interviews with the founders.

I identified a number of key factors that had made them successful to date:

• Lack of dilution from outside investors and low requirement for development capital
• Flexibility in business model and revenue stream
• Ability to test in a small market but easily scale up without significant modifications.

I also made a number of recommendations for the future, as they grow into a larger enterprise and begin considering scaling up operations significantly:

• Prove that the general public will buy into the concept of ride-sharing
by growing the Zimride user base
• Unravel the legalities and liabilities of facilitating the ride-sharing transaction
• Investigate other players in the space, not only to find a competitive advantage, but also to explore potential partnerships