Co-founder and CEO Andrew Campbell says the backlash received after launching of GoCatch proves upsetting the establishment is not always a bad thing.
GoCatch connects taxi drivers and those looking for a lift, allowing customers to see taxi locations on a live updating map, book a taxi and communicate with the driver.
Campbell says despite the stress, the publicity from the NSW Taxi Council‘s defensive reaction actually helped get publicity and raise awareness of the app.
“We had to formulate a response,” says Campbell, “which is not easy to do, when you’re fleshing it out in soundbites.”
In fact, the public spat helped gain publicity, and drove interest in the app; and of course, as a result, the number of downloads. GoCatch has so far been downloaded by 9,000 taxi drivers; a significant number, considering the total of 70,000 taxi drivers in Australia.
“The way we did that was through the passion of the founders,” jokes Campbell.
“We generated uptake by directly targeting thousands and thousands of taxi drivers. We spent a lot of time in rain, hail, and shine, getting out there and speaking with people.”
The GoCatch team have taken out a stack of awards; everything from Tech23’s Innovation Excellence award through to the Microsoft APAC Startup award. Campbell says making sure you meet the criteria might seem simple, but it’s critical.
“Rather than think that particular award doesn’t apply, we take the approach of; how can we make it apply?”
“Awards are a great way for startups to validate their idea. There are multiple benefits, from prize money to mentoring.”
Raising investment
GoCatch have raised investment from a number of sources. They were awarded $205,000 in matched funding through NSW Trade & Investment’s Collaborative Solutions Program. It required them to form a consortium; as a result they now have partnerships with companies including Paypal, Google, the NSW Taxi Association and Blackberry.
They also secured $250,000 in investment last year, following a successful pitch at Innovation Bay, says Campbell: “Innovation Bay is a really open forum with great people involved. It’s not overly structured”
What’s it like taking investors’ money? Campbell says there is an “immense” pressure because “you’re taking money and promising that they’ll get it back, not just their investment but more.”
“You need to go through a lot of soul searching (before taking on investors). We looked at what we were doing closely.”
Even when you have a successful startup it can be hard.
“We knew from the start this was a good idea. You still try and de-risk, proving the idea and proving the model.”
Getting media coverage
The team got some good publicity right from the very start. Campbell attributes this to a few things; they “solved a problem that was easy to understand” and were “first to market”.
Getting a PR person to provide some advice also helped. They hired Dana Dobbie, who helped develop a media release and pitch the app to journalists.
It’s now at the point where word of mouth seems to be generating downloads. Campbell says he receives emails all the time from cabbies around the world. Just this week, he heard from a driver in Pheonix, Arizona, asking when he’d be able to use the app.
“We’re getting 500 registrations a month at the moment. Job volumes are growing by 30%, month on month.”
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