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The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

113: Learn How to Build the Largest Car Company in The World with Robin Chase of Zipcar

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2016

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Zipcar first started it was nothing more than a green Volkswagen beetle named "Betsy." It was parked outside of Robin Chase's house and the key was hidden underneath a pillow on her porch. Inside the glove box was a piece of paper where you would write down the time you rented the car and the time you brought it back. That was it. These days, Zipcar is the largest car sharing service in the world, with more than 13,000 cars spread across almost every major city in the world. The first time Chase encountered her idea with Zipcar was when her co-founder came back from a vacation in Berlin. Among her many stories about her vacation, she told Chase about a peculiar business she had witnessed where she saw multiple people sharing a single car. Taken with the idea, Chase immediately began setting out to build a better version. "It's an idea that we didn't even invent. We just executed it way better than other people," Chase says. Zipcar launched within six months, with a founder who was a mother of three and had no technical experience. It was 1996, when the internet was still new and very different from what we know today. Nevertheless, Chase was determined to make her startup a reality. We had the pleasure to speak with Robin Chase about her incredible journey as an entrepreneur, a disruptor and a world-changer, and all the lessons she learned in her inspiring career. In this interview, you will learn: What it means to create a true minimum viable product to validate your idea Why the best ideas come from solving your own problems Advice on who to hire when you're a struggling startup What qualities you should be looking for when bringing in new people to your team The importance of user feedback and always listening to your customer & much more!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is episode number 113 with Robin Chase of the Founder Podcast.

0:07.1

What you need is thirst.

0:08.7

You need to be a thirsty human who is intent on learning.

0:12.8

It's a really fascinating exploration of human potential.

0:18.5

The Founder Podcast.

0:21.7

Even the greatest entrepreneurs had help.

0:24.6

If you want to learn from the most successful founders on the planet, you are in the right place.

0:30.3

Branson, Mark Cuban, Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss, Arianna Huffington, SETCO, Steve Case, Gary V, Sophia Amoroso, Barbara Corcoran, Damon John.

0:37.4

Learn from the greatest minds in business today with interviews hosted by Nathan Chan.

0:41.9

This is not your average entrepreneur podcast.

0:45.5

The Founder Podcast.

0:52.6

Hey guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Before we start today's episode, I just want to let you know

0:59.3

that our goal at founder is to help entrepreneurs succeed however we can by giving away high

1:04.9

quality content in the form of interviews, blog posts, podcasts, YouTube videos, you name it. We put out so much content to help you.

1:13.6

And another interesting project that we're working on right now is partnering with world-class

1:18.5

founders like Damon John, Alexa von Tobel, Greta Van Riel, and so many more to teach crucial skills

1:25.1

like negotiation, finance, e-commerce, and so much more.

1:30.3

So if you'd like to get access to these free trainings with founders like this, which is 100%

1:37.0

free, just go to founder.com forward slash free. Okay, so now let's talk about today's episode.

1:48.0

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the founder podcast. My name is Nathan Chan, and I'm coming to you live from hometown,

1:56.2

homegrown, born and raised, Melbourne, Australia. So what's happening in my world? I mentioned to this

2:05.2

you guys before in some previous episodes when I give you a little update, kind of documenting

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