Commute easily with Commuteasy

Nifty BSE | NSE 30/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

Not everyone wants to cash in on the good times. There are those who want to make a difference. Like this one man who couldn't accept traffic jams, poor infrastructure and rising fuel prices as a part of his regular life and so he build India's first and largest not-for-profit carpooling community, commuteeasy. If you are driving alone to office everyday, burning at least two litres of fuel to travel 20 kilometres and somehow you manage to make it in time. For many middle class Indians in large cities, a tough day at work begins even before one hits the office. But some like avid car pooler, Vipul Kesara use this time to take the big plunge.
 
Vipul Kasera, Founder, Buzzword Technologies said, "I started working on a venture where you could try to match certain interests, also because social networking is an important aspect of this wherein you are spending so much time with your carpool members, you rather pool with someone who shares certain similar interests and in the age group where you would prefer them to be. So, commuteeasy essentially tries to do that. It is a mix of travel matching thing and an interest matching aspect to it."
 
That's how this 25 year old software engineer set up Bangalore's largest car pooling portal in 2006. It took a month for the site to get its first 1,000 subscribers. But, it was still far away from gaining critical mass. Six months later, an endorsement by the Bangalore traffic police helped boost subscriptions and car poolers queued up. Today commuteeasy boasts of being a 5,200 member community. Even so, there's no money in the business. But Kasera is confident.
 
Kasera said, "If you are providing a solution to a vast majority of people there are different ways you can monetise it and allow it to grow and sustain itself. But right now it is a free service; there might be different ways in which you can monetise it going forward."

Sure you can. Afterall car pooling saves travel costs by nearly 40% and individuals may or may not buy that but companies surely will.
 
In fact Buzzword Technologies, which is the company that owns commuteeasy, is already working on a pilot project to create an exclusive carpooling portal for the employees of software company NetApp, which wants to manage its logistics more efficiently. This is just one of the many potential corporate clients that Buzzword is in initial talks with. Even before the idea can be monetized, competition has stepped in. Many new carpooling sites like carpooling.in, mykoolpool.com, and carpoolconnect.com have emerged in past year. Buzzword Technologies argues that its model is different from the others because it's not just any car pooling service but a platform based on social networking.
 
Kasera said, "What it does is, it allows you to build a travel profile for yourself and allows people to try to find people who share their interest. Suppose you are a girl and are apprehensive about travelling with strangers, you want a girl only pool or people only in this particular age group."
 
Venture capitalists are buying the idea of a social networking platform or so, Kasera claims though no names of potential investors are available as yet. But, the response has made him take another bold step of launching his second portal lifeisoutside.com. lifeisoutside.com is intended to make Bangalore weekend travel easier. If this idea clicks the company that made Bangalore's weekdays better, it could soon make its weekends fun too!