At 6.30 am, 7 o’clock in the morning at 7 years old I was travelling to school by myself but having the worst commute because it always began with this long, cold and lonely walk to the subway. And, especially living in East New York, Brooklyn, where it was very dangerous in the 1990s and I never felt safe, that made an impression on me. Transportation was important to not only my livelihood but how I perceive the world. I remember what it was like to live in a transit desert. And I knew intuitively that not everyone lived the same way.

…places where people have remarkably limited access to public transportation. So that could be that they are living too far away from the subway or need to wait more than 15 or 20 minutes for the next bus. In these places, people can’t really rely on public transportation because it’s too infrequent or unreliable for them to commit to.

There’s still a lot of room for improvement here because people’s experience with public transit greatly affects their attitudes toward the topic of funding or investing in public transport. Consequently, the disparity between people’s experiences also reflects how public transport is underappreciated by more affluent groups who don’t have to rely on public transport, whereas those who are public transit-dependent tend to skew towards low-income and are generally less active and influential politically. So, while we all may be aware of the connection between mobility and job opportunities, our advocacy for public transit isn’t representative of its usage and importance to its core customer base.

We have a product that’s a mobile application that taps into a network of drivers, known as “dollar vans”, throughout New York City. This network is composed of hundreds of independent commercial drivers who own their own vehicles but basically operate along fixed routes around the city picking up and dropping off passengers for only two U.S. dollars. Through the Dollaride app you can find a driver, identify a route and hop in that vehicle to head to your end destination through that route. As I said not long ago in an interview for Stripe (editor’s note: a financial infrastructure platform for businesses): What we are doing is creating infrastructure for the informal transit world. We want to make transportation accessible to anyone, anywhere. Starting with the people who live in transit deserts. I’ve structured our business to be second to the driver earning a living wage. I wanted to really help the drivers be better business owners first and foremost.

We are one of very few companies worldwide that focus on bringing modern tools to underserved markets in the transportation or electromobility space. Worldwide, there are millions of drivers in small fleets who cannot afford to purchase or finance expensive, new electric vehicles. Moreover, our cities currently lack sufficient EV charging infrastructure. We believe there is a lot we must do to bring EVs and charging stations to underserved markets. It’s in the underserved markets where you have the biggest potential for financial growth and savings, as well as fewer competitors. It’s very important for Dollaride, and for society, that we support the underserved because I think our future actually depends on it.

In the past, we earned money by collecting 20% of each ride fee, as well as charging corporate clients for access to our software and mobility service, which essentially was a service contract. So those two revenue streams were how we earned money: transactional fees from rides and then service contracts or recurring subscriptions with clients. How we’ll earn money in the future will be through subscriptions with drivers and fleet owners, and from service contracts with corporate and government clients. The difference here is that in the future, we are not going to be collecting a fee per ride. We will focus on only earning money through B2B products and services.

The relevant program resources and focus on cities made URBAN-X a perfect fit for Dollaride. I was motivated by the access to a community, getting to know other climate tech and mobility founders, as well as the expert advisors and mentors in the program.

It included weekly check-in calls, where we were held accountable for goals, status updates and action items that helped accelerate our business. We gained access to experts-in-residence (editor’s note: URBAN-X team that advises the startups) who helped us develop strategy and execute projects related to fundraising, business development, and product design. It taught us to leverage and learn from the ecosystem of hardware and software mobility startups whose solutions affect the built environment. We did not develop a new product during the URBAN-X program. However, we still leverage URBAN-X as a resource for building our business.

My advice would be to seek the insight and experience of people around you who’ve gone through the challenges of what looks like uncertain times to you. I don’t think there’s really anything that I’m doing personally as a co-founder that hasn’t been done before in some way, or in some shape or form. Even if it’s in a different industry. I don’t let uncertainty frazzle me, because I always remember there are people around me who’ve overcome this specific challenge. I appreciate that if I can learn from them, then I can actually be more focused and resilient. Also, I read a lot of biographies and autobiographies, and I listen to lots of podcasts about famous founders. I’m interested in how rulers and leaders from history have gone through uncertain times. I also advise studying history, and focusing on the founders and people who have come before you and mastered their own challenges.