team program; A startup for sharing intercity trips

Traveling is one of the most enjoyable pastimes of Iranian people. We usually do it for various reasons, including entertainment, university,Business And… we travel and traveling has become a part of the normal life of the last few generations of us humans. As much as traveling is usually fun, sometimes these trips can be uncomfortable and difficult.

Travel expenses, road hazards, not having a travel companion on the way, etc. may disrupt the travel experience so that we cannot enjoy our trip enough. It is because of these issues that a large number of travelers stop traveling with their own cars and use public transportation. The small part that uses a private car, the quality of their trip decreases due to the problems mentioned earlier. This issue has caused Startup in this field to work and provide a solution for this issue.

crew, Startup It is in the field of intercity travel sharing that tries to solve these problems through the carpooling system. A type of travel sharing, which is called carpooling or carpooling, refers to an activity in which a person who intends to travel to a certain destination with a private car, shares the empty seats of his car with other people on the same route for a fee (or free). Shares Such trips are called shared trips, which have many benefits for both parties. This system helps the car owner to reduce the cost and risk of travel. On the other hand, people who intended to travel by public transportation can do their trip with a lower cost and with more comfort and confidence through the team.

Using the successful experiences of this field in the world and its own forces, the team is operating in the field of intercity transportation. This startup is trying to organize intercity transportation better by creating a safe and friendly environment by developing platforms that facilitate and suitable applications.

In addition to paying attention to solving the transportation problem, the team tries to create social values, reduce per capita pollution, etc., which doubles the need to take a more serious look at this startup. To learn more about Ekip startup and its field of work, we spoke with Ekip’s co-founder Mehran Rezaei. So stay with us.

Introduce yourself and tell about your experiences before the team.

I am Mehran Rezaei, a graduate of the field Entrepreneurship University of Tehran and I am the 2nd rank of master’s degree. Entering the field of startups started for me when I started studying at the entrepreneurship school and holding 2 startup weekends, and finally, after the feasibility of several ideas in the field of tourism, we came up with the idea of ​​a game startup. The location-based game of a city called Poirot, which we worked on with a team of 5 people for about 9 months, and we had good results from it. Of course, Poirot is stopped now for several reasons.

What exactly does the team do?

Ekip is an online system for sharing intercity trips. Crew works in such a way that, if a person is going to travel in his own car and there is an empty seat in his car, he can register the details of the trip and the number of seats in Crew and his fellow passengers can reserve that seat and travel together The advantage of this method is to reduce travel costs for both parties, the car owner can cover the cost of gasoline and depreciation by specifying an amount for each seat that is usually lower than the price of a taxi or bus. On the other hand, the person who becomes his companion can travel with a lower cost. In this win-win equation, in addition to creating material value for both parties, social values ​​are also created in such a way that people meet new people, can develop their working and friendly relationships, and also reduce fuel consumption and per capita Help pollution.

Team’s solution is an efficient solution for students and employees who have different places of work and life and who constantly commute between two cities. For example, if an employee uses a team instead of using a bus between Isfahan and Tehran during a year, he will save 1 million and 600 thousand Tomans on average. (The numbers are calculated based on the difference between the average price of the bus for this route and the price of the crew’s trip and round trip once a week)

Now, if the same employee travels with his personal car and registers it in the team and has an average of 2 fellow passengers each time, he can earn 4 million 800 thousand Tomans in a year in addition to his own commuting.

How did you come up with the idea of ​​the team?!

This idea came to our mind as a personal concern for intra-city travel, and with market studies and detailed research on previous startups that had failed in this field in Iran; We found the main advantage in inter-city trips, which, of course, are more complicated than intra-city trips.

Do you currently have competitors?

Team is currently the only startup in the field of carpooling in Iran, whose service is active and is being served on the website and application. Among the previous startups in this field, we can mention Karvanro, Rahespar, Hempa, and Maybarim, each of these startups has been carefully examined and the strategies of the team have been optimized according to the unsuccessful experiences of the Iranian market in the past and the best successful international experiences. . But our closest main competitors are domestic car hailing services that can enter this market with a strategic change in general policies.

Is there a successful foreign example for your business?

The best foreign model available in this market Blablakar It started working in France in 2005 and currently has more than 65 million active users and operates in 22 countries. But according to the conditions of the domestic market and the infrastructure barriers to the entry of foreign companies, the probability of foreign competitors entering is very low.

How many team members are there?

Our team includes 2 software developers, 1 graphic designer and 2 business developers.

How long did it take you to get to the initial version of the product?

From the beginning of the idea to reaching the initial product, it took about 6 months, and part of this period was spent on market research and validation of the idea, and after that, validation of the product-market.

Have you ever had a fundraising and acceleration process? If not, do you intend to attract capital?

We are currently negotiating with several large tourism companies and we would like to define cooperation models with them. We hope to reach an agreement with one of these companies soon.

Have you ever received important feedback from your users that led to the improvement of your product?

We are in constant contact with users and have considered indicators for audience surveys to adapt the product to the needs of the market as much as possible. By reviewing successful applications in foreign markets, we have prepared a feature list of features required by users, which we find customer preferences from this list and add to the product after reviewing and interviewing our users over the phone. For example, we are currently optimizing the authentication processes so that the user can verify his identity with the same quality with less effort.

Do you have any other services to offer on the team platform?

According to the needs assessment we have done in the market, it is possible to develop new markets in other fields that exist in this market, by providing multifaceted values ​​for different parties of this industry, whose benchmarking is being done based on successful models.

And the last word…

We believe that due to the bright future ecosystem Iranian startups, startups will remain in this market that manage costs with a correct view of the market and product, and produce multifaceted values ​​primarily with the aim of survival and then with the aim of organic growth.