A socially responsible start-up by a Cornell alumnus
www.zimride.com
About Zimride: As we all know we are in the midst of a major environmental crisis. Driving our personal vehicles contributes 20% of U.S. CO2 emissions, the single most significant source from individuals. Public awareness of environmental issues has never been higher, and more than ever individuals are facing this crisis and finding ways to make a difference. It is clear that grassroots movements and innovations are imperative to leading the way. As recent college graduates, we realized that we could utilize a technology that was already part of our lives to promote sustainability. By employing Facebook, a social networking platform used by 90 million people worldwide, we have engaged the latest technology to create a free ridesharing system that can be a significant part of the movement to forge a more sustainable world.
This new ability to establish trust in an online environment will allow ridesharing to become a fixture of mainstream transportation culture. Already, within the first 8 months of operation the Carpool application on Facebook has become the largest dedicated ride board in North America, with close to 300,000 users. These numbers are encouraging, but we have only scratched the surface.
For more information check out zimride.com, the carpool application on Facebook, and abc NEWS.
About John Zimmer: John Zimmer is a co-founder and COO at Zimride. He is passionate about community driven solutions to environmental problems. John left Lehman Brothers in early 2008, where he had spent two years to work full-time on Zimride. John’s education at Cornell helped him to see the world in a global fashion. Cornell’s community and education demonstrated that people working together to promote efficiency and innovation can truly bring about meaningful change.
John’s thoughts and advice for young entrepreneurs:
John Zimmer on innoTrek: “One thing that is really important to me is community. The exciting thing about this idea is that it’s creating a community of entrepreneurs. That value of interaction is hard to replace with anything class-related.”
John’s advice for future candidates for innoTrek: “Best thing to do is put yourself out of your comfort zone. Meeting someone that is just like you, is not as helpful as meeting people of different backgrounds/experiences. It’s almost counter-intuitive — but you have to find something that stretches you more. If it helps to go to a different [area of focus] roundtable, [work with a mentor in a different field than you'd normally be interested in], that could [really inspire creative innovation].”
Zimride’s founders – Logan Green and John Zimmer.
We are excited to have Zimride on board for innoTrek (formerly EntrepreneurTrek) 2009!
*** Zimride and the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management were innoTrek 2009 participants. ***
