Class 4: Class 4: New Emerging Models-New Firms,New Jobs,New Technology,and the Future of Work

Class 4: New Emerging Models-New Firms,New Jobs,New Technology,and the Future of Work > Interview with Jianming Zhou and Ryder Pearce, Co-Founders of Sherpashare >

• It works in the ride service business, and it provides services both to drivers and to other people companies interested in this business.
• We basically offer them to access- basically offer them an independent and neutral platform to access information, utility, and work opportunities to maximize their work.
• What led you to do it? The fundamental reason is we see there’s a fundamental conflict between on-demand services and the workers And the workers are typically working for multiple services, and they have growing challenges to manage their work, and understand that there are all other work options.
• So who do you define as your customers for your services? So typically it’s been ride share drivers is who we’ve started with.
• Those typically, Uber, Lyft, formerly Sidecar, and delivery companies as well although we’d like to expand to other independent drivers.
• Tell me more about how that works and why you’re positioning Sherpa share in this kind of middle category? What do each of the different stakeholders get from your Services Yeah so, as I said, like most workers actually working for multiple services, so because they are working for multiple services, they need tools to manage your earnings from different sources, check their personal expenses understand that their tax liability, and navigate increasingly more working options.
• Yeah, for example, so that the workers don’t have loyalty, as J.Z. Said, and so workers who need a place where they can manage their multiple work options and also communicate with each other and exchange information.
• If I’m a driver, what do I do? How do I get access to it? What will I learn by using your app? Yeah also it’s actually- have a mobile app.
• Now since [INAUDIBLE] focus on the drivers, so the biggest expense for them actually is mileage.
• We also have so-called heat map, which is across map, and show where the hot spot for the drivers in real time.
• So when we launched the chat in our existing app we found that, drivers- it was a strong need for drivers to communicate with each other, to ask questions, to give status updates.
• When does the game get out? And so last week, we launched a new app dedicated to basically allowing drivers to exchange information.
• When I came in this morning, I posted something saying, hey, we’re going to be in Boston talking about driver issues, anything you want to talk about? And we had several drivers right away respond, a couple the points where repeat- Uber should add tips for drivers, so that was one that drivers And tips.
• A few others, basically saying that drivers want to communicate more.
• So if companies can do more or if we can do more to help drivers communicate, it’s a strong lead. That’s very interesting that drivers are- they operate independently, separately, they’re all in their own vehicle, And so on.
• Yeah, there’s like two fundamental needs drivers need.
• Do you know if this creates any social networking where people drivers actually physically get together, and form communities or is it all online? Both, actually.
• Traditional employment of course, had lunch, break, the break room, the water cooler which doesn’t exist for the drivers.
• We do see in some cities where there are a lot of drivers, the drivers will coordinate.
• Drivers can organize whatever they want, whether that’s discussions or offline meet-ups.
• Well let’s talk more specifically about the drivers and how they are doing, financially.
• What are you hearing from drivers? What can you say about how they are doing financially now, and over time? Yeah the biggest thing we found at a fundamental level was a lot of these drivers are first time independent workers.
• Drivers didn’t have a good sense of what their actual net earnings was.
• Another issue we saw was that basically drivers didn’t know how to optimize, their work, and so there’s a couple things that we’ve helped them with.
• That’s in the range of- they might make a couple hundred dollars more, in addition to full time work What do you hear from the drivers themselves? What would they like SherpaShare to do? They will definitely like- always want to make more money.
• What’s your revenue model? How do you survive, and you have investors know as a startup organization, but you are a for profit business? So what’s the model for generating revenue? Yeah, so we are an intermediate layer between the on-demand services and workers.
• So we’re also a layer between workers and, other work related services, and worker and consumer, right.
• So marketing opportunities for companies, and pay for services, from drivers, for more premium kind of information and material.
• So an example of that would be what’s most valuable to drivers now is tracking mileage, because that’s a direct number they can look at and use for a tax direction, and so that’s something where a lot of other utility services charge for, and drivers are willing to pay for.
• The company side, they’ll see that there’s a network of drivers who have a certain level of experience in this space.
• Of course, they’re interested in both acquiring those drivers and then once they’ve acquired them, convincing them to work on a certain day.
• Yeah, so in some respects, you can be a recruiting agency, or help them to identify the pool of potential drivers for them.
• So that’s a really important service because that must be very difficult, what do you find is- how stable are these drivers? How long do they stay? Do they turn over a lot? What’s your experience telling you? There’s a natural turn for this industry.
• It’s a question of when is the next phase of their life where they’ll need supplemental income? So it could be students is a good example, where students will- on our way over here we had an Uber driver who was also a full time student, and a full time driver.
• He fits in his driving when he’s a student, but after he’s done, after he graduates, he’ll probably find a full time job and scale back on the driving.
• Then the other end is when people are older, and they have more free time, they’ll also become drivers as well.
• Concerns on some chat rooms and various online linking mechanisms that Uber doesn’t really care about the drivers.
• What are you hearing? Where are you positioned? Do you hear these kinds of things? Do you see them as credible? What’s your view of some of the critiques of this industry at the moment? I think some concerns are true in some degree, and we are kind of happy that we see some other groups supporting workers as well, and we are honored to be a very important channel for drivers to voice out their concerns.
• So currently we are only focused on the driver vertical only US bucket, but we want to expand to other verticals and other regions as well.
• The ultimate vision, I’m thinking, is it’s more like a- drivers say, I have eight hours for work.