Dawson MN Press
Ride-sharing pioneer Sidecar to shut down ride, delivery service
Dec 30, 2018Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Boston and Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Uber dominates the space in part because of its massive funding,” said analyst Jan Dawson of Jack Daw Research. “They are able to outspend everyone and expand very quickly. Uber can afford to subsidize markets in their early days.”
In the past year, Sidecar overhauled its business model. In February, it added same-day deliveries of food, flowers and purchases and teamed up with Yelp’s Eat24 food-delivery company. In May, it joined forces with startup Meadow to deliver medical marijuana. In August Sidecar said the entire company would focus on deliveries of goods rather than people. However, that business model put it in competition with companies like Postmates.
Harry Campbell, a Los Angeles driver and author of The Rideshare Guy blog, said he was not surprised by the shutdown. While Sidecar was first with many innovative features that benefited drivers, he said passengers found it confusing when compared with Uber’s “just press a button” model.
“Sidecar didn’t have the passenger base to be even a viable part-time option for drivers outside of San Francisco” where Sidecar had its strongest presence, Campbell said. “Drivers would sign up and might get a ride every hour or two. They’d leave the app on and never get the clicks.”
That led to a dearth of customers and a downward spiral of not many drivers.
“This is really a scale business,” Dawson said. “When you’re in third place, it’s hard to make the economics work and get the critical mass you need of both riders and drivers.”
Uber and Lyft are now replicating many features that Sidecar initiated, Campbell said, including letting passengers going the same way split rides, letting drivers input their destinations, and letting passengers specify favorite drivers.
Sunil’s Medium post enumerated still more firsts for Sidecar: a marketplace model where drivers set their own price and turn-by-turn directions, for instance.
A tech entrepreneur, Paul founded e-mail filtering company Brightmail and co-founded Web service Freeloader. He also invested in other startups as an angel investor and a venture capitalist.
To keep in touch with Sidecar’s audience, Paul typically picked up Sidecar passengers on his way to or from work.
“Our vision is to reinvent transportation and we’ve achieved that with ridesharing and deliveries,” he wrote on Medium. “It is, however, a bittersweet victory.”
Sidecar said it has 38 employees and declined to comment about whether any would be laid off.
“It’s a sad day for drivers and passengers, because competition is always a good thing,” Campbell said. “Having one less option is not the best.”
Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com... http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Ride-sharing-pioneer-Sidecar-to-shut-down-ride-6726144.php
U21 Derby: Lavery on target as Wednesday's youngsters claim derby spoils against the Blades
Apr 22, 2018Lavery missed the chance to make it three when his penalty went well wide of George Willis' goal.
Wednesday, fielding Cameron Dawson in goal, started brightly and the visitors - who included trialists Daniel Akinwumni, a right-back from Reading, and Leicester centre-half Connor Anderson - struggled to establish a foothold in the game. The bright David Brooks had an early chance for United but with Alex O'Hanlon looking lively, Wednesday started to threaten.
Stobbs flashed a free-kick into the side-netting after Louis Reed had fouled Lavery, and Nathan Lowe drilled a shot wide of Willis' post. And the pressure told after just 18 minutes when Wednesday went ahead, Percival delivering from deep and Lavery heading home unmarked.
United looked to hit back immediately and almost levelled when Joel Coustrain's effort hit the crossbar, and Diego De Girolamo's follow up effort was disallowed for a foul on Dawson.
Dawson then made a good save to deny Jamie McDonagh, but it was Wednesday who went further ahead when Stobbs finished well, first-time, from O'Hanlon's cross after Akinwumni had been caught in possession.
Fellow trialist Anderson was replaced at half time, by Julian Banton, and the substitute was penalised for the softest of penalties on Lavery minutes into the second half. The Northern ireland youth international picked himself up to take the spot kick, but put it wide as Willis dived the wrong way.
Wednesday's Connor O'Grady was booked for a foul on McDonagh, and La... http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-united/u21-derby-lavery-on-target-as-wednesday-s-youngsters-claim-derby-spoils-against-the-blades-1-7870698
Dawson College's Warren G. Flowers Gallery
Mar 11, 2018The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Dawson Centre for Peace Education and Sustainable Dawson. Info: oforgues@dawsoncollege.qc.ca or www.penelopestewart.ca
... http://www.thesuburban.com/calendar/arts_and_entertainment/dawson-college-s-warren-g-flowers-gallery/event_a025dfe6-d403-11e5-ba3d-efc68e4bed31.html