Our Concept and Strategy

We’re building a first of its kind “community network” that will make ridesharing an intrinsic part of everyone’s day. Our users will map their existing local trips and we’ll use their overlapping trips to suggest shared rides. We call it true ridesharing and it has seven dimensions (see on this page).

We first pay our users $0.20 per mile driven, and they pay us $0.25 per mile ridden. Then to induce shared rides, we’ll pay this $0.20 per mile for every occupant. Small inducements will go far, since our users will benefit by simply going about their day.

Powered by Roam™ AI, our highly automated Roam™ app will keep trip drivers on their schedules and routes, and keep riders in their back seats. Everyone will save money, save time and save our climate, while strengthening their connections to neighbors, coworkers, schoolmates, parishioners, and shoppers. 

Network effects will fuel higher car occupancy and more spontaneous trips. As we offer more payment and fare rates, trips we earlier invested in will turn profitable. And due to the cost savings achieved - up to 75% for those who mostly drive and 90% for those who only ride - we’ll extend our service locally and expand it globally.

Our Experience and Team

We’ve each “lived” in our problem space for a long time. Vivek has spent 20 years applying tech to strengthening communities. Jan, Felix and Marin have almost 18 years combined as founders of RRive, a highly innovative carpooling startup in Germany. And Holden and Estefanny have each invested their expertise for almost 2 years to give our venture a strong identity that’s grounded in a global reality.

  • Vivek drove almost 800 Uber trips as Roam™ research (2014 through 2019)

  • RRive app has 45,000+ driven miles and 9,000+ miles of rides (2023 and 2024) https://rrive.com/

  • Our 2025 waitlist has 600+ people ready to download the Roam™ app

We’re based in Silicon Valley, our engineering team is in Germany, and our research and data analytics activity is in Brazil. We all share a common mission and vision, and are determined to apply our deep and complementary skills. Join us as we navigate the road ahead, and create a future driven by you.

Seven Dimensions

  • Our proximity to each other has value. We plan to leverage it for the benefit of everyone in your community. We think most startups place too much weight on gaining critical mass at the early stages. Their market breadth, at the expense of depth, becomes their enemy. By ensuring our users are near to each other, proximity will be our friend from day one.

  • Most of us visit multiple locations a day, each being one of our communities, and each shared with others who also come and go. So our routes and destinations determine who we connect with, and when. Over time you’ll quickly form your own “community network” based on your unique set of physical locations and connections. So it’s very different from your social (Facebook) and your professional networks (LinkedIn).

  • Everyone values getting to wherever they need to be. This is evidenced by the high transportation costs we all incur daily. We think most startups fail to provide strong incentives that compel their users to become customers. But these high costs actually create these incentives, and they will enable us to make it much easier and more affordable for you to be wherever you need to be.

  • Our mobile platform will be automated, intelligent, and built for everyday use. It will support an intuitive, user-friendly app that makes carpooling seamless, from matching and navigation to payments and communication. We think most startups view their products as distribution channels. But for us, the mobile experience is the product. We’ll make it simple, reliable, and delightful, so that sharing rides becomes second nature.

  • Our GTM strategy affords a steep learning curve through our deep engagement with a small number of early users. And we’ll support it by responding to their inputs through rapid, iterative product development. We think most startups bite off more than they can chew. In our case, we constrain the boundaries of our service areas, define our target customer segments, and sequence how and when we engage each segment.

  • Marketplaces like eBay have proven their value. But many investors have been burned by their investments in marketplace business models, and so shy away from them. We think most startups fail to recognize the complexities of such models. In our case, we both recognize them and address them, head on and early on. And just like eBay did, we will create a “less than two-sided marketplace”.

  • True Ridesharing is a safe, affordable, and trusted ride, offered by someone in your community who’s heading in your direction. It's totally different from Uber or Lyft who require you to hire an anonymous driver and car. They're ride selling. Because all our users will share every trip, it will reduce your cost, strengthen your community, and save our climate.