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.
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.
True Ridesharing
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The Roam™ network operates based on shared communities. Instead of calling up a car from the other side of town, we’re matching members with others in the places they frequently go, like their home, work, school, gym, club, or place of worship. And by connecting two or more of them who are heading in the same direction, we save up to 75% for the member who drives, and up to 90% for the members who ride.
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A community network for ridesharing is also a community network for many other potential uses. We’ll begin by establishing a mapped network of trips that each of our members regularly takes. Roam™ AI will cross reference these patterns to find potential carpool matches and then share them to members.
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Like eBay, the Roam™ marketplace will be 2-sided, with the ability for any member to choose to be a trip driver on one day or a rider on the next day. By having members who drive and also ride, we’ll be able to operate efficiently with a lower saturation in each area.
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Starting small, gaining momentum in a few areas, and then expanding, the Roam™ marketplace will first build the supply (trip drivers) and then add the demand (riders). At first, trip drivers will be paid to go to all the places they already go – even before we have riders. This way, we’ll have patterned routes to match with riders when they join. As each area becomes saturated, more matches will occur faster. We’ll expand from there to connected areas and to other similar locations.
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The Roam™ app is True Ridesharing because it offers real “shared ride” benefits to save on cost and to save our climate in every ride. Uber and Lyft have used the term “ridesharing”, but their services are based on a hired car and driver – that’s ride selling. Our members are already going in the same direction, so with the Roam™ app, every ride is “+1” for the climate compared to a digital taxi service.