Thought Leaders in Internet of Things: Luke Schneider, CEO of Silvercar (Part 3)

Luke Schneider: The whole point behind this company and why it’s relevant specifically to the Internet of Things is that personal transportation is not your toaster talking to your coffee maker. This is actually you getting access to a vital utility you need as a human being on Earth in 2015. You need cars for different reasons. Sometimes, you need to get a car for a few hours. Sometimes you need it for six months to a year. Our point is simply how that gets delivered should be through technology and specifically through mobile devices. It also requires physical world operations models to deliver the customer experience the way you want to. Silvercar is really the first manifestation of that. We picked up one use case, which is airport car rental and built it completely vertically integrated from the ground up. We’re growing at 20% to 30% a month now and the real indication that this is something that people love is that our promoters for the last month have been at 90. The industry average is somewhere around 18 or 20. The bar is pretty low. What we’re learning is that these customers are extremely loyal.

Sramana Mitra: Which airports are you active at?

Luke Schneider: We’re in LAX, SFO, Phoenix, Denver, Miami, Dallas, and Austin.

Sramana Mitra: How big is the business?

Luke Schneider: I can’t disclose that. We just went through a Round B and raised another $14 million. We’re growing at about 35% in February over January.

Sramana Mitra: There are two trends that we have to discuss. One is the trend in transportation and two is the whole concept of Internet of Things and how those concepts are coming together in what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to make the car rental smoother, faster, and more efficient. Consumers can do it from the app. It works with the car’s software system. That’s the seamless consumer behavior that you’re trying to empower.

Luke Schneider: That’s definitely a big piece of it. To put it in the broader context, the simple truth is personal transportation is something that we, as a population, don’t do very efficiently. We buy 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of metal. We fill them with fossil fuels that belch out all kinds of contaminants and we’re forced to treat them as durable goods. You have to think about, “I’m a parent and I have two kids. I need a product that’s going to hit this but I don’t want it to look like that.” It’s this big optimization exercise, which for years has been the model. Between the government and the industry itself, we’ve made personal transportation as more of a trophy than a utility. It’s beginning to change. The world is urbanizing. By 2025, 75% of the world will live in the city. That means that the way we get around will necessarily change. That’s why things like car sharing are really good ideas. It’s also the reason why things like delivery are great ideas. You look at Uber. What they’ve done is fantastic.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Thought Leaders in Internet of Things: Luke Schneider, CEO of Silvercar
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