There’s a lot of anti-car rhetoric these days but lots of people are completely reliant on their vehicles, especially outside London, where public transport infrastructure is not as extensive.
We agree that where journeys can be done by foot, rideshare, bike and/or public transport, that should be the case. But sometimes you just need to get into a car.
We are big fans of reducing our carbon footprint and tackling climate change issues associated with private car use is high on our agenda!
Your first start-up was a digital pharmacy, how does this compare?
The challenge we’re trying to solve is the fragmented landscape for managing your car, which boils down to convenience, compliance, and safety. Our mission at Caura is largely similar to Echo’s in bringing people the things they need, in a way they want to consume it, faster and more simply than the existing process allows for.
The challenges we’ve encountered are the same - large incumbent organisations in a heavily regulated industry who move slowly and require you to do a lot of work to de-risk partnerships.
What about numbers? How many people are using this app? How big is the market for it?
We launched the app in September 2020 - we’re coming up to 10K users in less than two months. So far, the feedback has been great (hundreds of 5 star reviews on the App Store)
And the market is huge. There are 30 million drivers in the UK whose lives can be instantly made easier with Caura.
What’s next for Caura?
Once we are established and up and running in the UK, we want to take Caura to Europe and beyond. Caura has the potential to be a huge force for change in the automotive industry, especially with the emergence of new ownership/sharing models where people want to easily be able to use new cars more frequently in urban settings - where they are most likely to have to pay various charges (e.g. parking) and don’t want to get fines!
As every country has its own set of rules around car ownership, we are focusing on the UK for now.
How is this changing the way people live?
We are bringing three main benefits to drivers 1) CONVENIENCE - a couple of taps to make any payment for any car related service. 2) COMPLIANCE - always pay for the right thing at the right time. Never get a fine again and 3) ROAD SAFETY - MOTs are done on time to pick up on vehicle defects like broken lights, bald tyres, etc.
As this is your second startup, what lessons have you learned? What is your biggest regret?
I regret not going out on my own sooner. That said, my experience at Apple and Bain have been invaluable in my entrepreneurial journey.
My main lesson is to always start a business with the customer’s pain point and to build out from there.
How’s the company dealing with lockdown? Can you be productive working from home?
We’re a lean dynamic startup. We have a great team, and we moved to remote working two weeks before official lockdown. We are still in constant contact with each other on Slack, Figma, Miro, Trello, Jira etc and Zoom for daily standups, regular catch-ups and team meetings.
Times are uncertain, it’s a pretty crazy time to start a business. How do you unwind?
I just bought a house which I’m doing up. Painting can be surprisingly therapeutic.
