Entrepreneurs ‘hail’ new app

Last Monday, Imperial Entrepreneurs invited the people behind Hailo –The Black Cab App, to its weekly event, Startup Mondays. Russell Hall, one of the co-founders of Hailo spoke to us about their success story and what makes Hailo so popular, to a point that even celebrities and serial entrepreneurs such as James Caan are tweeting about its brilliance! Russell explained how getting Hailo to where it is today was not easy, nor was it a smooth sailing process. They had to get rid of a tech team that were not delivering and had to pitch their ideas to and convince numerous investors that their app was going to work. They had tremendous belief and confidence in their idea and strived to make it a success.

Hailo is a rapidly expanding mobile app that enables you to hail a black cab through your smartphone and pay for it via credit or debit card, or cash with no extra charges or booking fees. A brilliant yet simple idea, that brings more business to London taxi drivers and eliminates the need for passengers to frantically hail taxis!

The app was envisioned by three London taxi drivers, Russell, Terry and Gary as well as three Internet entrepreneurs. They managed to raise $20 million from various investors and backers including Niklas Zennström, the co-founder of Skype. Other investors include Accel Partners and Wellington Partners, who have funded high profile companies such as Facebook and Spotify. You know you have something good if such people are backing your product.

Having initially been introduced in London, the app has now made its way to Dublin, Toronto and most recently Boston with plans to expand stateside in Chicago and New York. The app is tailored to a certain city based on its regulations and people in order to enjoy the most success. In London itself, 20 per cent of the black cab drivers are registered with Hailo, a figure that is likely to grow.

The key to this success has been the fact that they place the same amount of care and emphasis on their drivers as they do on their customers. They have a great communication system to help drivers

The app was envisioned by three London taxi drivers, Russell, Terry and Gary as well as three Internet entrepreneurs

understand and use the app and also listen to their feedback to constantly adapt, change and solve problems that may arise. Taxi drivers are drawn to Hailo because of the great driver experience that they find to be more sociable and profitable.

Besides this, the app has also been designed and developed by leading designers formerly working at companies such as Google. It even has a feature that allows passengers to rate their drivers ensuring the best service is always provided.

What attracts the customers to the app is its simplicity and ease of use; you are never more than two taps away from getting a taxi. It eliminates theneed to carry cash around for taxis. As Russell explained, when you have no cash in hand, you either cannot take a taxi or are forced to go to an ATM to withdraw. Hailo prevents this and makes everyday activities such as shopping much easier. Hailo also prides itself on the fact that it charges the customer only the taxi fare, and this gives them a major advantage over competitors such as Addison Lee, where booking fees apply.

Hailo has received extremely positive reviews from app users, with an average 5 star rating from over 1000 reviews. With such great features and excellent feedback from customers who use the app there is no saying how far this app will go and how big it will become. Future plans include introducing the app Far East in Tokyo, where the taxi business is massive and so is the use of technology and smartphones. It is certainly exciting times for those at Hailo.

For those of you who are uncertain as to what Startup Mondays are, they are a series of weekly socials hosted by Imperial Entrepreneurs, in which entrepreneurs are invited to give talks about their companies to students. The attendees have the opportunity to hear how businesses such as Hailo, were set up, organised and run to become a widely downloaded and used application. Those in attendance are also given a chance to further socialise and network with the entrepreneurs behind London’s hottest startups at the Eastside Bar. With Hailo, we were lucky enough to have the drinks sponsored by our speakers. We can’t always guarantee that though!

Imperial Entrepreneurs’ next Startup Monday event on the 29th of October will involve Hayley Quinn, a dating coach, who will give advice on how to be more confident and memorable when meeting people in different places such as at networking events. If the Hailo event was anything to go by, this one is guaranteed to be a success!