Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Vikram, thanks so much for joining us.
Vikram Singh, Flexcar
Thanks for having me, Keith. It's a pleasure to be here.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
I'm excited to talk to you because we're going to talk about Flexcar, which is, you know, when I think as a consumer owning, leasing or whatever arrangement you have for your car, it's very involved. But Flexcar is disrupting this whole model with a whole new approach. So let's unpack that what is Flexcar?
Vikram Singh, Flexcar
You know, it is, it is a super flexible cost subscription model. That gives you all the benefits of having a car without any of the hassles that goes with having a car as you just mentioned, you can keep it as long as you want, and you can return it whenever you want. You can swap it out for a different model, if you want we offer them we offer multiple different models, you can choose to drive a minivan, X months of the year, you can choose you can swap it out for an SUV in the winter, if that's what you want to do, and it's completely hassle free. In other words, you're never gonna have to do an oil change. If you get into an accident, we take care of it. If if there's a flat, we help you there, if the tire needs to be changed, we take care of that. So it is really giving you all the benefits of having a car for the long run, without any of the hassles that go with having a car. And without the commitment that goes with a two or three-year lease or a five year loan that is Flexcar.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
And it sounds dreamy. Because owning a car is so involved with the insurance and the maintenance. And the maintenance part is just as the car gets older, it gets more and more expensive. And this is an arrangement that is flexible, like the name of the company Flexcar where this could be your car for every year, multiple years or for a short duration of time. So if someone's coming home from college, and you need a car for the summer, I mean, there's multiple use cases here.
Vikram Singh, Flexcar
There is multiple use cases. Listen, if you're going off on a vacation for two weeks, return the car, why pay for those two weeks? Why carry the burden of having a car when you're not using it? But yeah, my daughter is going to college. Later this year, when she comes back in the summer, I'm going to get her Flexcar for those three months, right? So I don't keep a car parked in my garage all year, just for three months of use. If you happen to be a snowbird, who goes from a cold place like Boston to Florida in the winter, when this is available in Florida, you will be able to land there and get a car for three or four months. And then give it back when you leave. Right so and then there are other people, Keith, who were keeping the car for the long run, right. So this is not a three or four month thing for them. You know, we're not really a solution for two or three day kind of rental. There are plenty of traditional car rental companies like Avis, that that's that solve that kind of use case, we are going after and trying to solve for the long term car ownership market. So in the cities we're in, we have multiple customers who have kept the car for six months, nine months, well over a year in Atlanta at this point. And this is their car, right? They swap it out for a different model when they're done and want to try something different, or there's a different use case. I have family in town and I need a seven seater. Am I now going to buy a seven seater and drive it all year because I needed for those two weeks. With Flexcar, you don't need to do that. You drive the car you want to drive. And for those two weeks come swap it out for a minivan. So the use cases are numerous. We have customers keeping the cars for the long run, and loving the product so far.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
So let's talk about Flexcar today as far as the company like what's the current stage size in terms of number of employees or whatever else you could share?
Vikram Singh, Flexcar
Yeah, listen, we're in three cities in Atlanta, Nashville and Boston. We are serving customers here the business continues to do well. Our plan is to be in multiple other cities this year. And next year, at the moment, we have about 50 employees in Boston. We're hiring aggressively many of these, these positions are posted with VentureFizz. So thank you for your help with that. We just moved into a brand new, really nice office in the seaport district here in Boston. And so it's about 50 employees at the moment, we have at least 30 positions open with you. We're going to continuously add more positions. And you know, we continue to grow and hire pretty great talent here in the Boston area.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Now in terms of the hiring, though, is that across all different functional areas,
Vikram Singh, Flexcar
All different engineering, product marketing, operations, you name it, if there is a group, we are hiring for that group, right, and yeah, there's lots of great positions.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
So what's it like working at Flexcar, like what's the culture like?
Vikram Singh, Flexcar
You know, you do a lot of these kids and I'm assuming that most people will say we are hardworking, we are kind to each other. We're passionate. And by the way, that is true of Flexcar as well. But really the culture we are building is one that puts the customer front and center. Right? And this is reflected in our core product offering, right? We work back from the customer and said, What does the customer really want in in long term car ownership, and that's how we built the model. And that is the kind of culture we are building here, one that puts the customer front and center. Also, on the other end of that, as employees, we expect every employee to show a high level of level of ownership. We want everyone to feel like they own this company and make decisions as if, as they would if this was their own company. Right. So the really the culture, as I said, is focused on always focused on the customer. And, and showing high levels of ownership as employees so we can serve the customer. Well. The good news is, we've hired some pretty good talent, right with the exec team, especially. I'm proud of the entire team we have here, but the exec team really stands out. Our CTO freedom Dungloe comes from Wayfair. from Amazon, we help senior kinds of technical roles. Chief Marketing Officer, Corey Lewis comes from Boston Beer and lovepop. Our Head of Customer Support. Tom spittle, comes from Wayfarer, where he ran all of customer support worldwide for Wayfair. So the talent is great. But then coming back to culture, this is culture that we know we can scale. And anyone we bring in is coming in with that mindset of always putting the customer from the center and showing high levels of ownership. But then also, listen, we are working hard, we are having a lot of fun. We all feel thrilled that we are changing a whole industry and providing a solution that does not exist at the moment. And it's a great place to be.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
So the job market out there is very active, there are lots of opportunities for people to explore. So why is now the ideal time to join Flexcar?
Vikram Singh, Flexcar
We are solving a problem that has not been solved before, right? If you look at long term car ownership, nothing has changed in the last 100 years, people take a five year loan paid off, sell the car start all over again. In the meantime, they maintain they buy insurance and all the other hassles that come with car ownership, or you do a two or three year lease, you're stuck with that car for two or three years, and then you do it all over again. So we are changing a whole industry. We are serving real customer needs over here. And but we haven't solved it. All right. And so this is such a great time to come in on the ground floor and help us build this thing. So when we are in 50 100 cities, you would feel like wow, I got in early and I helped kind of point the company in the right direction not I came up with how we would do this, not just take orders and kind of do what needs to be done. Right. So I feel like for anyone who's got that entrepreneurial spirit, this is the time to come in and get your hands dirty and help us build this thing from the ground up. It's a Listen, I love it. The people the energy on the floor is amazing. We've had great people. So I'd say this is a great time to be at Flexcar.
Keith Cline, VentureFizz
Well, this is a beautiful idea that as a consumer, I think it's a no-brainer. So this is an opportunity to join a company that is in the earlier stages of disrupting a massive, massive industry. So go to their company page on VentureFizz to check out all their job listings, go to venturefizz.com/flexcar and you'll see all their listings there. Vikram thanks so much for taking the time to walk us through all the great things happening at the company.
Vikram Singh, Flexcar
Keith thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
