Friday, November 03, 2017

Jewish Owned Ride Sharing Startup On ‘Shark Tank’

When the now 25 year-old Isaac Deutsch came to Zoli Honig in January 2015 with an idea for a free, electric, car-sharing service, Honig, now 29, told his friend, “You’re nuts! It’s not going to work.”

But within one year the pair had launched WaiveCar, a service which allows users to locate a nearby electric car via an app and drive it for up to two hours for free, thanks to the paid advertisements on the car. Only one month later, they received an email from the executive producer of the hit ABC investment reality show “Shark Tank.” Honig and Deutsch appeared on the sixth episode of the season this past Sunday night.

"Shark tank" is a reality Television show where budding entrepreneurs get the chance to bring their dreams to fruition. They present their ideas to the sharks in the tank -- five titans of industry who made their own dreams a reality and turned their ideas into lucrative empires. The contestants try to convince any one of the sharks to invest money in their idea. When more than one of the sharks decide they want a piece of the action, a bidding war can erupt, driving up the price of the investment

In an interview this week with the Forward, Honig remarked how his parents were initially as reticent as some of the sharks. “My parents are, I guess you’d say, from an older generation, and when I got into startups they didn’t quite get what I did,” he says. One of Honig’s earliest businesses was a frozen yogurt store, and he later created and sold the education technology company Chalkable. But with Waivecar’s success has come gradual parental approval. “They were very proud, and very impressed that their college dropout son was so well-spoken,” Honig laughs.

The episode of “Shark Tank” was taped over a year ago, and Honig and Deutsch have continued to strike deals ever since, including a campaign with Buzzfeed and a recent deal with Hyundai Motor America which will provide 150 electric cars and advertising for 12 months.

Honig says WaiveCar will start by expanding its Los Angeles presence. “New York is on our short-list,” he adds.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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