Bus start-up gets a boost from Trump inauguration
Skedaddle is one of the unlikely beneficiaries due to planned Women’s March on Washington
Afew days after Donald Trump won the presidential election, the founders of Skedaddle, a bus start-up, began seeing some unusual activity.
Their tiny company, which makes an app that lets individuals collectively commission private bus rides, was suddenly hit by a surge in bookings. Some of the bookings originated from places where Skedaddle has done little business before, including Wichita, Kansas; Madison, Wisconsin; and Macon, Georgia. All of the reservations were for travellers to arrive the same day, January 21, at the same destination: Washington.
There was another twist. Many of those booking the bus trips were women.
The Skedaddle founders realised that the prospective riders were all going to Washington to be part of the Women’s March on Washington. That is an event being held tomorrow, the day after Trump’s inauguration, where people plan to gather to send a message about upholding their civil rights.
“We’re bringing people to D.C. from as far away as Kansas,” said Adam Nestler, one of the founders of Skedaddle, which is based in Boston and New York City. The company said that today and tomorrow, it will transport more than 11,000 people to the Women’s March, or about 5 per cent of the 200,000 people expected to attend. That is the largest ever two-day period of business for the 19-person company.
Packed weekend
The spike in bookings makes Skedaddle one of the unlikely beneficiaries of the presidential inauguration. Across Washington, hotels and restaurants are set to be packed over the weekend, and other companies are also trumpeting what they expect to be a rise in their business. Airbnb, the online room rental service, said it has more than 15,100 guests booked in Washington for inauguration weekend. And Uber said it has been working to ensure that its ride-hailing services work smoothly in the city during inauguration week.
Other bus start-ups are also tapping into the inauguration demand. Skedaddle’s main rival is Rally, which was started in 2010 to transport people to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, a political gathering hosted by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Rally, which provided bus transportation to specific events but now lets people make their own routes, said it is bringing 50,000 people to the Women’s March, as well as buses of Trump supporters to the inauguration. Unrecognised tech start-ups have been lifted by presidential inaugurations before. In 2009, for President Barack Obama’s first inauguration, Airbnb was largely unknown and the practice of paying to sleep in a stranger’s home was relatively uncommon. But most Washington hotels were sold out and word of Airbnb spread quickly among people desperate for a place to stay. Airbnb now operates in more than 34,000 cities worldwide and is valued at $30 billion.
Skedaddle may see some similar inauguration benefits. The company was founded in 2015 by Nestler, his brother Craig, Brad Werntz and Louis Harwood, who had met through a combination of school and previous work at start-ups. None of the founders is older than 29, and this is the first company any of them has started.
Skedaddle makes money by securing a discounted rate from the transportation providers for bringing in a higher volume of customers. The average price of a ride on Skedaddle is $45 to $50. As a route fills with more people, the company’s margins grow. Skedaddle has raised more than $3 million from investors.
While Skedaddle aims to someday replace established bus services like Greyhound and Peter Pan, much of its early business has focused on getting people out of cities for trips like weekend getaways. “Today Skedaddle appeals to self-selecting groups, like music lovers and skiers,” said Paige Craig, an investor in Skedaddle who was also an early investor in Lyft. “That inherently social aspect of the company is a big advantage.”
Skedaddle is politically agnostic and would have transported Trump supporters to the inauguration, but none of the company’s employees voted for Trump and Nestler said his company is proud to support the marchers.