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6 months before UberCab launched, 2009 saw the launch of Cabulous. It had icons of moving cabs on a map and also the ability to e-hail a cab.
It didn’t close the loop on the UX though (no payments), raised too little (<$1MM), had a wide city-wide focus and declined Bill Gurley!
It didn’t close the loop on the UX though (no payments), raised too little (<$1MM), had a wide city-wide focus and declined Bill Gurley!
Here is Gurley suggesting a rebrand as “Limo Magic” to go into black cars + his $8 million investment offer, one year before UberCab launched with limos/black cars.
Amazing to see multiple people converging on a similar solution to a problem.
Source: “Upstarts”
cc @IlyaAbyzov
Amazing to see multiple people converging on a similar solution to a problem.
Source: “Upstarts”
cc @IlyaAbyzov
Also adding relevant pages from this book regarding the Cabulous reference in the original tweet above.
“Upstarts” - by @BradStone
Chapter 3 - The Non-starters
Highly recommend
Impact of early deltas in decision-making are not apparent initially but compound massively later
“Upstarts” - by @BradStone
Chapter 3 - The Non-starters
Highly recommend
Impact of early deltas in decision-making are not apparent initially but compound massively later
October 24th, 2009 is when the first Cabulous ride happened. Kieran Farr picked up the first passenger in San Francisco.
Sounds like a great idea back in 2009!
More screenshots of Cabulous (these are from 2010 - archive.org)
This needs to be closely studied how despite being in SF with a 6 month-1 yr headstart over UberCab, they still missed out on a $100B+ market opportunity
This needs to be closely studied how despite being in SF with a 6 month-1 yr headstart over UberCab, they still missed out on a $100B+ market opportunity
Also, came across this tweet from 2010, where Ryan Graves is trying to correct mis-information shared by the co-founder of a competitor! This got just 2 re-tweets back then! :)
The early adopter market for customers and drivers using the iPhone to discover and connect was simply too small in 2009-2010, which resulted in lack of momentum for Cabulous by the time market did come around in 2011.
Markets always win.
Sept 2, 2009:
nytimes.com/2009/09/03/tec…
Markets always win.
Sept 2, 2009:
nytimes.com/2009/09/03/tec…
