The best ideas often emerge from difficult experiences. Fleet is one such idea.
What sparks great business ideas? Truly disruptive ideas often emerge from bad experiences. They are solutions to problems. In the case of Maurice Sheehy, his idea sprang to life following a horrendous time when booking a rental car.
Why couldn’t it be like Airbnb?
On a holiday to the Canaries a few years ago, Sheehy and his friends booked a house on Airbnb. They had also booked a rental car.
The Airbnb experience was smooth and seamless, he says. “However, when it came to the car booking, that was a nightmare. We were hours waiting for it to happen and then we were upsold stuff we didn’t need, and it cost us double what we had thought we should pay. When we got to the Airbnb, we noticed the owner’s car parked outside. It remained there all week. We talked about this and said wouldn’t it be great if we could have got a taxi to the house and then rented the owner’s car when we needed it? Why couldn’t our rental car experience be like our Airbnb experience? The car rental company left a very sour taste in my mouth, and that’s when the seed was sown for what is now Fleet.”
Sheehy, an entrepreneur from Wicklow, who owns the Pure Fitness gyms in Wicklow town and Arklow, describes his new business as the ‘Airbnb for cars’.
So, what’s the business model?
People who sign up for the service can rent other people’s cars and can list their cars as well.
The idea is simple – people can have their cars make money for them while they are not in use. Garages can also list any unsold cars they may be struggling to sell. These cars must be taxed and have an NCT.
The Fleet app
