Abid Chaudhry and I discuss the fall of Shuddle, the Bay Area-based “Uber for kids” startup that closed its doors today after raising $12.2 million. What does this suggest for high-value vertical on-demand services? Can they differentiate enough to separate themselves from the race to the bottom pricing for transportation going on between Uber and Lyft? Will Uber and Lyft need to combine more services with driving to deliver “solutions” for specific categories of services that require more than a car to make the experience worthwhile to customers?
We also discussed Chariot for Women, the women-only ride service launching soon. (Correction: We missed named it throughout the discussion. It is “Chariot for Women” and not “Coach for Women.”)
