Tell us the story of how and why you started your company.
James one of our co-founder's was a part-time Uber driver in Chicago since 2013 while he was working at a digital advertising agency. James was eating at his favorite restaurant and the owner discovered that he drove for Uber and asked him to put some restaurant menu's in the back of his car for passengers. Later that day, one of James' passengers asked they could find a good place to eat because they were visiting from New York City. James recommended the restaurant as he always did, but this time he had menu's in the back to show passenger's what the food looked like, the passengers decided to go to the restaurant based on the menus.
James saw how advertising in the backseat of rideshare vehicles had the ability to influence a passenger's decisions in the buying stage of the purchasing funnel. He formed a team and a minimum viable product leveraging their TripIntent technology, which insures that advertiser's are able to display relevant and timely ads to passengers, and passengers get to see offers that are unique and relevant to their immediate trip.
What’s your most recent success or milestone hit?
Vugo has thousands of drivers signed up, and recently created a functionality to allow Uber drivers to accept tips electronically. This has allowed us to reach driver download rates of 100+ new drivers per day. We know have thousands of drivers signed up and are on pace to reach over 5,000 drivers by the end of September.
Where do you see your startup in 1 year?
We want to be the largest in-vehicle advertising network in the United States within one year. Presently, that space is held by Verifone/NBC with 20,000 screens nationwide. There are over 20,000 Drivers in Los Angeles alone.
