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EE32 - Gavan Walsh - iCabbi - The Business FAILED then we went from €60k Revenue to €10million.

EE32 - Gavan Walsh - iCabbi - The Business FAILED then we went from €60k Revenue to €10million.

The Hidden Hustle Podcast vor 2 Monaten

0:00

31:46

From €60,000 in Revenue to €10 Million: The Incredible Story
Behind iCabbi

In part 1 of this episode, we sit down with Gavan Walsh to learn
about the business he founded iCabbi.

In part 2, we discuss life after the iCabbi sale from setting up
an investment company and now getting back into the tech start up
game.

It started in Portugal, with Gavan not being able to find a taxi
and wishing something was available on his new iPhone to order
one.

That was when the idea for iCabbi clicked: what if you could see
live taxis on your phone?

Gavan tells us how that idea grew into one of the biggest B2B
taxi software providers in the world.

But it nearly failed before it got started.

The original B2C model struggled. The technology was too slow,
the market wasn’t ready and the business ran out of money more
than once.

Something had to change.

iCabbi stopped focusing on the consumer app and started building
dispatch software for taxi companies instead.

One customer became another. Ireland led to the US. And revenue
grew from just €60,000 in 2012 to around €10 million by
2018.

The journey was anything but straightforward raising money,
running out of it, technology failing, family holidays
interrupted, expansion into the US and even attempted sales that
fell through.

Eventually, Gavan sold a majority stake in iCabbi to Renault a
life-changing moment that made years of sacrifice feel
worthwhile.

We discuss:

* The holiday in Portugal where the idea for iCabbi was
born.

* Why iCabbi’s original B2C model failed.

* Running out of money and fighting to keep the business
alive.

* The pivot from a consumer taxi app to dispatch software.

* Winning their first customers in Cork and Dublin.

* Growing revenue from €60,000 in 2012 to around €10 million in
2018.

* The unexpected phone call that brought iCabbi to America.

* Why entering the US market was far more complicated than
expected.

* How Uber changed the taxi industry by challenging its
traditional rules.

* Building iCabbi into one of the world’s biggest software
providers to taxi companies.

* Why reliability became one of iCabbi’s biggest competitive
advantages.

* The reality of being permanently on call while building a
technology company.

* Raising money, running out of money and dealing with constant
setbacks.

* Family holidays interrupted by problems back at the
business.

* The attempted sales that fell through before the eventual
deal.

* What it felt like when the life-changing sale finally
happened.

* Why the business you start with is often very different from
the business that ultimately succeeds.

A brilliant conversation about pivoting, persistence and the
reality of building a business when success is far from
guaranteed.