There are roughly 11 billion trips each year in the 50–350 mile range in the U.S. Nearly 90% of them are taken in personal vehicles—not because of people’s affinity for driving but due to the lack of an affordable, convenient alternative. Mass transportation, like bus and train travel, is a pretty poor experience in the US and route coverage is limited.
In Europe there are good public transportation options, or you could hop in a BlablaCar. I’ve been fascinated with why Blabla doesn’t exist in the US—there are many reasons from density to culture.
Hitch, a marketplace connecting riders and drivers for intercity rides, solves many of these problems in an elegant way. We love technology solutions addressing operational challenges to deliver a much-needed consumer experience.
Hitch operates a rideshare service for intercity transport: consumers who want to travel from Austin to Houston (a 3-hour drive and one of Hitch’s first routes) open the Hitch app, book a specific departure time, and show up to a neighborhood location or select door-to-door travel. It’s just like booking a ride with Uber, but much cheaper. Or like booking a seat on a bus—but with far more convenient pickup points and departure times, made possible by not relying on expensive, high-capacity assets.
Hitch has grown impressively from inception to today, with 400K members in Texas and Florida, and a projected run rate of 120K rides/year. For riders who take more than 2 rides, retention is over 90%(!).
We believe Hitch has the potential to reinvent this segment of transportation for the US in just the same way that Uber and Lyft changed intracity transportation. It provides a 10x better service at a similar price to alternatives, all booked from your phone—Uber and Lyft’s offering at the start was as simple as that. We’re thrilled to have a seat on this ride with Kush and the Hitch team!