Idea Napkin No. 1

Let's begin shall we...

1. I am a Dominican and Puerto Rican second year college student. I have a lot of talents but when I'm asked to write or speak about them, I usually forget to mention a good number. I am creative, passionate, and driven. I like to look outside the box and try to push through any obstacle, even if that makes me a bit stubborn. I am a leader and have the ability to inspire others, making the people around me better. My aspirations in broad terms are to be successful but specifically I want to be able to use my creative abilities to connect with the world. Regarding my business concept, Swift, I want people to get where they need to go when they want get there. The role it would play in my life would erase my need to rely on unreliable forms of transportation when I need to get places especially as someone with no car.

2. What I am offering to customers is a 24 hour weekend shuttle service for students and patrons in the Gainesville area. Swift, would meet the demand for better, more reliable, and much faster transport on the weekend for individuals whose days don't just end at 6 p.m. The service would be designed to have a shuttle run reaching stops every 10-12 minutes or sooner. It would be a flat rate cost to ride, eliminating a pricing model, and designed to have shorter routes with more vehicles assigned to certain routes

3. Who I am offering the service to would be students who have to rely on the buss on the weekends because they do not have any other form of transportation available. These students would ideally also have enough things to do in their schedule that they have late nights and particular early mornings.

4. Customers will believe this to be valuable for a number of reasons. They will be able to get to some of the most important places in Gainesville no matter the time on the weekend, like Walmart, campus, a friends house, and etc.

5. What would set my service apart from a service like Uber is the fact tat would have routes similar to but more efficient than the RTS system and a flat rate charge to ride. Uber is convenient however, the pricing model leaves too much room for fluctuation especially when drivers are in high demand, in which case the price is amplified. Lastly, the service would be 24 hours on the weekend; giving patrons the ability to get anywhere anytime.

I believe that my concept is good in theory but much harder to get down logistically on paper. On numerous occasions when describing my service I have gotten the response, "oh, so kind of like Uber?," which only leads me to believe that it would be much harder to separate the concept from a business that already exists. The flat rate charge per ride would be convenient for customers however it may not provide enough to employ the amount of shuttles I would like to have ideally at a given time which would therefore increase wait times and essentially defeat the purpose of the service altogether. Also customers who have been largely dissatified with the weekend bus system have largely adapted to not relying on the service. Building reliance and demand could be harder than anticipated.