I never understood why drivers need a middle-man Uber/Lyft. Just set up an open source server on the cloud, build an app, and allow people to hire each other. The driver then gets say a 95% payout, with the rest being used to pay for the technology. Amazon could implode Uber in a week. Rates can also be auctioned, since there is more room to negotiate. But proximity almost always wins.
CCs and banks are also absurd. It there is no cash, why do I need a bank as an intermediary? Just use a bockchain between parties. People have to free themselves from corporations as intermediaries if they want true freedom.
Nitro... you oughta have this thread deleted bro.... somebody is gonna do this and make gillions. Did you ever see the movie "Nightshift" with Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton? "I'm an idea man... feed the tuna mayonnaise". Well Nitro..... I am, ............and this this one is off the rails. Delete the entire thread ASAP and PM me..... I only want 1 %.... I only need a small island..... Friggin genius.... for real. I am totally serious... somebody is gonna run with this. Delete delete delete.
Who is going to pay for that server's bandwidth, maintenance and administration? Who is going to develop the app, maintain it, patch it for security holes, promote it, etc? Where does the legal liability fall when you have people renting personal cars out whose personal insurance does not cover the additional risks associated with renting vehicles to others? If you are going to use a vehicle for commercial purposes, you need a commercial insurance policy to protect yourself and whoever borrows it from you. Not that you couldn't overcome these issues with some creativity, but to dismiss the middle-man as being completely useless is also not a realistic assessment.
Thanks. I hope someone does. My goal in life isn't to be rich. If it were, I would be already rich instead of a poor sap. My goal is to make the world a better place to live in for all, along the way being intellectually challenged. I have 40 great (imo) ideas a day. In fact, it would be nice if I had less ideas. Solving one of these problems (Riemann Hypotheses/Hodge Conjecture) would be uncountable infinite more interesting to me than "getting rich". http://www.claymath.org/millennium-problems They are useless. There isn't a single thing that you listed that a eight man company couldn't do. One programmer, three sysadmin (three shifts), three support/front facing people (three shifts), one business person. Three very crazy highly technical people that can work 15-18 hour days/nights could even do it, two at a time. As to insurance, the business person will solve that. If you can sell people hot dogs from a hot dog stand on the beach, this is not considerably any more complicated to resolve. Technology solves lots of issues with immense efficiency of scale. The 5% easily compensates for salaries, cloud servers, and miscellaneous.
The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman and the Banker An American investment banker was taking a much-needed vacation in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. The boat had several large, fresh fish in it. The investment banker was impressed by the quality of the fish and asked the Mexican how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.” The banker then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican fisherman replied he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked “But what do you do with the rest of your time?” The Mexican fisherman replied, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos: I have a full and busy life, señor.” The investment banker scoffed, “I am an Ivy League MBA, and I could help you. You could spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats until eventually you would have a whole fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to the middleman you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You could control the product, processing and distribution.” Then he added, “Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City where you would run your growing enterprise.” The Mexican fisherman asked, “But señor, how long will this all take?” To which the American replied, “15-20 years.” “But what then?” asked the Mexican. The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You could make millions.” “Millions, señor? Then what?” To which the investment banker replied, “Then you would retire. You could move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”
From my original message: "Not that you couldn't overcome these issues with some creativity, but to dismiss the middle-man as being completely useless is also not a realistic assessment." I am a programmer, a sysadmin, a proficient advertiser, entrepreneur, investor...not to brag, but I've been involved with several startups as well as established companies over the years. It's not difficult to start a tech company, but to keep it going and to win at it is another story. You think it's just about making a phone app and hosting a "cloud server" to handle everything else? Believe me, it's a bit more complicated than that. Most people opt for the media blitz + investment bank gross overvaluation + ipo then sell their shares before the stock price tanks and say it didn't work out. Let's call it pulling a zynga, or a twitter. I can tell you're a millennial because you have big ideas, are aware of some buzzwords and trendy notions, yet proceed with the expectation that someone else will make them happen for you. If your assessment of what it takes to operate something like uber/lyft is a skeleton crew willing to work for peanuts - why aren't you and your bros working on this right now? Back in the land of reality, 5% of your hopes and dreams doesn't pay for anything.
I'll give ya that.... I work with a few Millennials and damn.... none of them seem to want to do anything on their own. I have no idea if Nitro is a Millennial or the Greatest Generation. But this is a good idea. And.....I have no idea how it could be monetized.... but it would work. Liability issues? Base it in Gibraltar. How do torrent sites make money? Ads? Who knows... but they must pay people somehow. The website itself would only be just that.... a website.... not responsible for its content. This argument has held up successfully in U.S. Federal Appeals Courts. Could someone sue ET because they bought a stock based on a Zandy post? I hope not. Any idea can be shot down with a million negatives. If I posted a rough draft of Ebay in '95.... people would find 8 billion things that could go wrong with it. Ditto Uber when they were conceived. I mean seriously. Say there was no Uber... and someone posted the idea here.... it would be so shot full of holes..... and yet its allegedly worth 63 Billion. "Ride at your own risk dot com". If Dexter picks you up and you wind up in a dumpster.... well, .... tough cookies. You saved a few bucks on the way out.