Carpooling business could expand to other schools

Students who are used to begging their families, bribing their friends or just sticking their thumbs out in traffic to find a ride home might find a new student-run carpooling Web site worth their while. 

Sophomores Jordan Crehan, Michael Brown and Anton Grazin recently co-founded an online carpooling business for the purpose of “connecting students with cars with students who need rides home,” according to their Web site, btownrides.com. 

In the future, the group hopes to expand the Web site to other universities and has already begun doing so at Purdue.

The site, which debuted in February, was inspired by Grazin’s trip to South Bend over Thanksgiving break.

“I was leaving home from campus a little late for Thanksgiving break and my parents were a little apprehensive about me riding by myself, so a friend suggested that I look for people to ride with on OneStart,” Grazin said, who is majoring in finance and accounting. “The day after, I received more calls than I had seats, and I realized what a need there was for carpooling. I called my friends about my idea, and it’s grown from there.”

Btownrides.com is exclusive to IU students and professors, so an active IU e-mail account is necessary to sign up. The free service provides users with the option to find a ride, find an airport or post a ride. Grazin said the team invested $4,000 into making the Web site, which included hiring a friend to design it.

Crehan said that the site solves problems found with similar services like ShareShotgun.com, which was started by IU alumnus David Potter in January.

“First, we provide our service free and allow members to negotiate their own prices (with the driver), which allows members to truly find the cheapest means of transportation home,” said Crehan, a management major in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. “Also, we provide security, because all of our members must be affiliated with IU. We really tried to make our site as trustworthy as possible.”

Though the site has acquired more than 200 members to date, it is still in its infancy, making it difficult for the founders to get their name out. Crehan said that he and his team have been working hard to advertise and promote their product. They have spoken with radio stations, put out fliers around campus and plan to pass out lemonade this week to celebrate Little 500 and let people know about the Web site, he said. 

Current member and sophomore Rafael Costa said that he saw an ad for the Web site on campus and decided to look into it.

“I needed a ride home for spring break, but I didn’t want to pay for the high prices for the shuttle on campus,” Costa said. “When I signed up for the site I noticed that it was really user-friendly and easy to navigate. I found a ride home for about $10. I would definitely use it again.”

Grazin said the site is funded by online ads and donations by the students.
Now the founders hope to expand their business to more than just IU. The group is currently working with students at Purdue to create a sister franchise of their site. Brown said the deal, which is still being finalized, would give the IU founders 10 percent of the revenue made from the Purdue service.

“In the future we hope to generate a larger base and make our franchise worth more money,” said Brown, who is also a finance major. “We really just want to provide the cheapest service possible and let the students know we want them to be safe and trust our system.”