From time to time I read a great article (defined by me to be innovative and creative) and feel the need to share it. For those of you who are aware of Uber this article may be of interest to you. For those of you who do not know of Uber you should know that they have been disrupting the taxi industry in a big way. They built a platform for people who need a ride and for people who can provide the ride they need. The cost is more than that of a taxi but the experience is apparently incomparable as the owners of the car get rated for the service they provide meaning you are able to get a “private driver” as you need it without paying the full time wage of a driver. As a result of not only their popularity but also their expansion they are now looking at helping 100,000 entrepreneurs get onto their platform in countries around the world (see “Financing 100,000 Entrepreneurs“).
To me, the amazing thing about what the article describes is that Uber is looking for ways to help its clients do more (
like Bridge Capital). Not only are they thinking up solutions but they are actively taking the cause on behalf of their clients to get car manufacturers and banks involved in extending better priced credit to those that need to purchase a vehicle and use it on the Uber platform. Uber is acting as the catalyst for conversations between parties that rarely happen for businesses that would be considered small or medium size.
Can you imagine if this happened in other industries? Can you imagine companies taking a proactive role in working with banks to figuring out ways to get more financing into the market that not only helps the borrower lower its cost of capital but also reduces the risk for the bank.
I wrote a blog post previously about how lower interest rates don’t really do much for a small business that can’t access money (see here). In reading the position taken by Uber I could be a believer in how this could be done in other industries for small businesses and really add some strength to our economic base.
“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” ― Albert Einstein
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