DRIFE – Driving the Web3 Way

DRIFE - Driving the Web3 Way

Participants:

• JP (CMO of AdLunam)

• Firdosh Sheikh (CEO & Co-Founder of DRIFE)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, welcome, welcome to this episode of Diving Into Crypto. This is JP from AdLunam Inc. bringing you everything about Web3. This show is about the movers, the shakers, the candlestick watchers, and everybody that's making Web3 as wonderful as it is today. Who are we, and what's the show about? We have a special guest who's flying in all the way from, I currently understand she's in Dubai, But more importantly, she's joining us here on the show because she's got a breakthrough company called DRIFE. We're gonna talk a lot about that on the show today. Before we begin, once again, I'd like to remind everybody, to please use those emojis, blow up that button, Choose the blue color heart emoji in honor of our guest who's on the show today and a little about who we are at AdLunam, that's bringing you the show. AdLunam is a trailblazer in the Web3 investment space, functioning as the world's leading Gamified and NFT integrated web3 investment platform. The company's platform provides seedpad access, hands on advisory, and NFT integration, enabling users to transform the community growth.

In short, AdLunam is the all in one web3 eco investment ecosystem empowering early stage startups from tokenomics to community growth. When you're in on Thursdays, you're listening to Diving into Crypto, but if you're in on Tuesdays, you'll be listening to our sister show, The Future of NFTs, hosted by a co-founder, Nadja Bester. A few hygiene announcements, please remember, if you have heard a gem from the speaker today or on the show or you know, you have something that that has really touched you, feel free to use those emojis, those icons to let us know that you enjoyed what you've heard. And then, of course, without a doubt, tweet about it and let the world know that you've heard something fantastic on the show today. One last thing. I'd like to remind our speaker to please set your phone onto the do not disturb option. So in case a call comes in, we are not disturbed from the show. For the rest of us in the room, in case we get cut off due to some technical glitches from the gods of tech, come back to AdLunam Inc. and you'll find yourself a new link to jump back in.

Right? So at the end of the show, yes, that's the last part. Thank you for reminding me. My team just reminded me. At the end of the show, we're gonna have, a small segment for question and answers. So keep those questions ready for our guests today, or you could tweet them and my team will pick that up as the show goes along. Now, that being said, please Put your, emojis together and welcome, Firdosh, who is the CEO of DRIFE. DRIFE is a decentralized ride hailing platform powered by Blockchain with the intent of empowering value creators within our ecosystem, And that includes drivers, riders, and community developers, basically everybody who's in the room. DRIFE plans to disrupt the existing business model and remove corporate intermediaries involved in transactions.

Effectively, this is Uber on Web3, but more. Right? So before we do that, let's welcome Firdosh. Firdosh, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you so much for the invite, and thank you so much for a very beautiful introduction.

As, you know, in the introduction, it was mentioned, DRIFE is a Decentralized Uber on chain. And that's what we call ourselves for the sake of simplicity, Uber on blockchain. But to start with who I am, where I come from, I come from India, a very small town in India. I come from a core finance background, and my journey of building DRIFE is a very personal journey, which is very much linked to my own personal life of being someone who was always afraid of public transport. And that's how I got to know about Uber in India ever since they launched in India. I'm a super user for Uber in India, Careem in Dubai. And that's the only way I commuted. And as a rider, I always was aware of problems that I face.

But it was when I got closer to the problem statement, it just made me realize that there's something so much gong happening in this industry, and I want to change that. And I went crazy about this whole idea of building something that could Improvise the likelihood of drivers, which in turns also make our life as a rider better where, you know, We always speak about this, that a happy driver equals to a happier rider, and that's what we aim to, deliver as well as DRIFE that we give the value creators back what they deserve. Yep. That's pretty much about myself of, you know, me being crazy about building something like this.

Well well, that's fantastic, and I wanna dive more into what you've just shared with us and how your business model disrupts the existing system because we know the big players. You know, you know, as you've mentioned, Uber in India. I understand also that Ola operates in spaces like this and then across the different states, you have, maybe smaller, you know, ride apps that that come into the way. And then if said you're you use Careem. You'd be using, you know, Lyft in the US. You'd be using Grab in Singapore and, you know, different ones across various spaces. But before we get into the entire business model, Firdosh, you know, I'm certain our listeners today wanna understand. Right? You know, what was that moment that you thought that web3 is the space to be for me? What was that moment when that switch flipped?

See, I as I come from finance background, I worked with a hedge fund before I started my journey on building. I always knew about Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency. I was part of a team who was doing research to see how we can trade Bitcoin at that time, and what are the legality of it. And so I knew about it for a very long time. Now for me, dipti was not something because of which I build DRIFE. In my journey of building DRIFE, when I was looking at the problem statement of, you know, centralization in its core and how it is impacting both driver and rider. And the bigger problem is about someone being the controlling authority who controls everything and anything in the ecosystem. And that's when I came across why Bitcoin was also created.

The whole financial ecosystem was suffering, still suffers from centralization. And that's a very code that Bitcoin wanted to change that, you know, Yeah. The money belongs to you. You should have full control over how I spend the money, who I send the money. Then a very basic, you know, with which the whole idea of Bitcoin came into existence. And then I was able to resonate the whole idea of why Bitcoin was done for the financial industry, resonated with my idea of why I wanted to build something which can solve issues for driver and rider. And then you if you go and start reading about blockchain as a concept of Bitcoin, every other book that you go read, because I come from finance and I was also a nerd, I started reading more about this industry. Everybody kept mentioning about imagine Uber on blockchain.

And that's what caught my attention. Like, why are people talking about Uber on blockchain? And what it can do? I want to look at that to see if there's a there's a solution out there for my problem statement because, as I said, I come from a Core finance background, I had no technical knowledge, and that very statement brought me closer to blockchain and the concept. Like, okay. Now I think there is something out there with this concept because there's all already a proof of concept in the form of Bitcoin. The Same thing can apply to other industries as well. So, yeah, that was my moment when I read about emerging Uber on blockchain.

Awesome. Okay. It seems like to be a deeply motivated story. And then but I'm certain there's also something I'm certain there's also something that was able to you know, when you have that spark with you, and you said you've come from a finance background, How did you get your wonderful team together, you know, when you decided to go ahead with this? Well, what was that story like?

See, for me, when I thought, like and it it's not like that I wanted to build something out of this. I always say this that I'm an Accidental founder. I never aspired to be one, but the whole idea of DRIFE became so personal to me at one point that I was, like, I didn't care about the job I had or the background I had, and I just need I want to build this because I knew that if I won't do this today, Someone else will do it tomorrow for sure, and I didn't want you to regret not having enough courage to go and, you know, start working around this idea. Like, I just had this idea, like, I want to build this, and but I didn't knew how to do that. So the first thing I started looking for is people, when I speak to them who also understand what I'm trying to build, and they don't feel that okay. Obviously, they should feel that I'm crazy enough that I want to go ahead and Compete with something which is too big enough already, but could also resonate with the whole idea of why we need a platform. Like, why I want to build something. So that was the like, when I started pitching this to, like, one of my colleague back then who became my cofounder, 1st cofounder, Surya, and I pitched him the idea.

And it was not a pitching in a way where I said, like, let's build this. I only pitched him the problem statement, and he's like, why don't you build this? And that's how we became co-founders about building the product together. And slowly and gradually, we started meeting more people who were able to relate to the problem who came together and are still with me working on building this platform is can you relate to the idea of why I want to do DRIFE. Because at that point, when I started building, I didn't have money to pay new people, but I just wanted people who could believe in the idea of why I want to do this. And are you crazy enough to walk along with me was the only thing that I had, and I'm glad to have a team that I have today who feel very passionate about the idea. They still believe, in the same vision that I had, like, long back when I started with the idea. And even today, we, It's not me alone who's carrying the vision, but the whole team who's carrying the vision along between now.

Oh, that's brilliant. And that's you know, in every entrepreneur's journey, I'm certain that that's the one point that they really wanna hit where you, you know, you have not just your team. You literally have, a family of people that that support the idea. They're moving with the same goal, moving with the same orientation. You feel the same way, the same passion about what's being built. Yeah. Right? So, Hats off to you and your team for being able to get that together. Brilliant.

Thank you.

Okay. Super. So moving to moving a little more into the business. Right? I mean, we understand that it is, you know, A business model that is understandable, that it's common. People understand how Lyft works, Uber works. But this there's we only see what's on the surface. Right?

And DRIFE has come in in a way to disrupt that system. Now without, you know, you don't have to dive into your secret sauce, though we'd love you to, Right. But in what way, is DRIFE making that difference to the other stakeholders in this entire system? We're talking about, of course, the drivers and then, of course, the users and then DRIFE himself.

Correct. See, Then I got closer to the problem statement of that. This is not the problem about rivaling companies charging huge commission from driver or user pay more fare or different fare at different point in the time. I realized the core problem exists because someone had a profit motive in the field that is being paid by the rider. And that's why all the manipulation happens that, you know, Right. Become charged in different prices. Search pricing is a very common example of how price manipulation happen. Commission that drivers are paying is a basic example.

All of this happened because there is a profit motive involved in the fare. And that's what we wanted to do in the first case, remove our profit motive from the fare. Because if I don't have a profit motive involved in the fare that a rider is paying and if I can enable the system where driver get to 100% of the fare that the rider is paying, I will be able to build a transparent And a fair ecosystem for the ride hailing space, which is such a far sighted dream for this industry as a whole. So that's what we did at DRIFE. We work on a zero commission model where driver get to 100% of the fare that you pay. That doesn't mean we don't have, like we don't make money on this for charity. We work on a very basic subscription model where driver pays subscription fees to get access to the platform. But after that every ride they do, the money they get.

When you do that and you don't have a profit motive, you become more paying and transparent to both driver and rider. And that's how you build an ecosystem where the value creator, which is driver and rider, they’re not just sharing value among themselves, But the reward also stays within the community between driver and driver.

Right. So you're completely eliminating the product profit motive that comes there. The driver, of course, who's really the hero of this entire equation. Right? Without whom none of the system works.

Correct.

You know, you have enough people. Right? You have enough people, but you always have, for example, an alternative. You wanna hit your lift with somebody. You know? You can take a metro. You can take a bus. You're right. But putting the power into the hands of the drivers, of course, you know, a system that continually encourages a supply side, that comes in from actually the person delivering something.

Yep.

Right. So that's, of course, empowering and, you know, unique in that sense. So when it comes to the utility of blockchain, because you're using this particular system to create transparency. How does that work for somebody who may not understand blockchain? Like, diving slightly deeper into Yeah. This particular aspect.

See, from the ride journey aspect of how DRIFE works, it's very similar From the content of the UI of it, like, you know, ASU Book or Uber, any other platform. Although the experience is a little different Where we are trying to decentralize the whole matchmaking, where you as a rider can choose how much you're willing to pay, which driver you want to travel with. Also with drivers, we allow them to decide for themselves how much they're willing to ask for a ride, Accept and reject the ride based on all the details that we show to the driver. So there's just more of a transparency in the 1st layer that we build for both driver and rider where we show them that this is the minimum fare you should be paying for the ride. But if you want to incentivize the driver for a ride, you can do that. You can choose your driver, choose your fare. So the choice lies with the user. So, you know, instead of how Uber and other company allocate a driver to you and say, like, okay.

This is a driver. He's gonna come and pick you up. We allowed you to make that choice for you. So your preference can be anything. Like, I would prefer a highly rated driver if I'm traveling late at night. However, if I'm not in a hurry, I will prefer someone who's charging me less. This is a very personal preference, which is not present yet in the system. Nobody allows you to do that.

And that's why sometimes we get frustrated when we are in hurry and we get a cab which is 10 minutes away. Nobody asked me if I'm in a hurry. So that's a very basic of a choice that we're bringing back, your freedom to choose for yourself. But all of this happens using smart contracts. So the very first thing that is how much you should be paying for the rider, Fair estimate is done on chain where we use smart contracts to do the fair calculation and show you how much you should Pay making sure that we don't manipulate the system. There is no additional multiplier that's been added by the system, and you pay for what you're getting. So you can always go and verify how much I paid for what I paid, which you cannot do ever with any other system. You can never go and ask, like, why there was a surprise? Tell me why.

You can never know that. But here, we give you absolute all the rights to verify your own fare. You as a rider always know how much a driver makes from this, journey, but the whole ride journey is something that gets recorded on for both rider and driver, I mean, general public at last to verify your friend rides. There's the utmost transparency and fairness in place. Before the ride starts, we do the fare estimates on chain. And as soon as the right dates based on the actual parameters, like how much Actual distance and actual time was taken, we do the final fare calculation. There's a whole audit trail of the rides that gets, recorded on chain, but as well as the fair calculation is done on chain.

Okay. So you're giving, of course, not just the driver the benefit. You're also giving the rider the option to choose from. You know, the type of rider that they would like to go with. You've described a couple of situations in which there is. You know, so this obviously seems something that puts a lot more power into the hands of even the commuter. Right? Even the rider.

Yeah.

Super. I mean, what made you think of that?

See, for me, you know, because I only compute using high yielding platforms. So as I said, like, Uber in India and Korea. Sometime I feel that what I need, nobody cares about that. It's a platform for deciding absolutely everything for me. I am only allowed to decide where I'm getting picked up from and where I'm going. Absolutely every other decision on my behalf has been taken by the company. They decide which driver I travel with. They decide how far which driver the ride should be allocated to, and sometimes we get into this vicious circle where we get a cab, then the driver is Far away, he will cancel on the ride.

Sometimes the driver is very close, and I am not ready, so I will cancel the ride. So to save a user from that vicious circle Where there's a mismatch between what is driver's expectation, what is my expectation, because both of them are human, And both of their human needs are not taken into consideration when there's a match that is have taken care by, The ride hailing company. And that's why I thought, like, you know, human preference is missing from this ecosystem. I cannot decide for myself. Neither do the driver decide for themselves. So a lot of time cancellation happen, and this all started with my own life in Bangalore that every time you book a ride, It will take you minimum of 3 to 4 attempts to actually board a cab because first time you book a cab, the driver will ask You where are you going? How much you're paying? Is it cash? Can you pay in cash? Then they cancel the ride on you. Yeah. Because those are the information that is very crucial to the right journey that has never been told to them.

So there's a forceful allocation of ride, then there's a forceful allocation on ride for me also. So I said that when there are 2 different parties involved in this transition, let them make their own choices. That way, you reduce the number of cancellation. They both have a willful acceptance in place. Let them make that willful acceptance for themselves. So That's why I felt like the human choice of what I want is missing, and we want to bring that. It is very basic of, you know, taking you back before the ride hailing company, existed where we used to go on road, talk to the taxi drivers, and negotiate with them in person and get into a contract. And that's what we say.

Like, we wanna bring that to the application now.

Fantastic. So this is this is a lot less like Simply Uber on blockchain. It's a lot more like, you know, an Airbnb on blockchain for people using it.

We can say that. And we're basically building a marketplace for both driver and rider to choose for themselves, because, At the end of the day, a platform should be able to make that, create a place for people where they can interact with each other and choose what suits them the best and not force you to be allocated with someone.

Super. Right. No. No. And I think that, you know, that's also, it's an interesting point because in in the evolution of these taxi apps, you know, you're beginning to see more and more people wanting to have a personal preference with the driver. They would rather, you know, go with this driver that they have a good experience with, they'd like to utilize the person again and again, especially if they're on the same route or, you know, have a sort of fixed time. They feel a lot more comfortable, you know, you having that ability to do that.

Yeah.

Right. So and that's a trend you're observing across also, I mean, since, with DRIFE?

See, at this point we don't have this in place where you can save a preferred driver for yourself and request a ride from that specific driver. We have a feature which is, you know, in the pipeline that we will have then can save a preferred driver. And next time I want to request a ride from my preferred driver, I'll be able to do that. I completely agree that people once I have, like, a better rapport, you know, with the driver, I would want to see if I can travel with the same driver. And that's a feature I have thought about very long that in my own journey of, you know, building that I want to have this feature. Because at one point, if I'm traveling with 1 driver, I do just have to count the table. And I'm fine. I have, like, more confidence on this driver, and I would want to travel with this driver.

We have that in our pipeline where you can Save a preferred driver and request your ride from that specific driver.

Okay. I mean, so great. I mean, that's a feature. You've heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. This is a feature that you can look forward to using your DRIFE app, down the line. Right? And, you know, if you put in the request and saw that, Firdosh and her team are gonna be working on that in the next update that comes up. Yeah. Fingers crossed.

Alright. Super. Okay. Firdosh, I know that you obviously, reward the driver. There's something more for the commuter as well. But I know that DRIFE has got something of a ride and earn program, which is sort of unique. Yeah. Can you tell us why this came about and the difference that exists with DRIFE compared to what some of the others are offering?

See, in my journey of building DRIFE, I always knew that this is a very capital intensive industry. A lot of people who have built different platform have burned a lot of money to get Users and retention costs are very high. Now how do you bring loyalty in this field? Because people are indifferent between 2 different application that they use, and they only care about the price, who's charging less, because most of the time, you end up getting the same kind of car or same driver driving 2 different, with 2 different platform. And that's when I said that because we don't have a profit motive, why don't we build a referral program for both driver and rider and a cross referral program where you can refer each other and earn every time they take a ride. So that way, if I refer you to the drive application, every time you take ride, I make money. Now this way, I am Motivated to, build a bigger network for me. Tell more and more people about DRIFE and also tell them to use DRIFE because every time they take a ride, you make money. But more beautiful part of this is when a driver refer rider because drivers tend to travel with the most active users in the platform, in the industry as a whole.

So whenever they meet a new rider with, like, Uber or other platform, they convert them to a site, and say, like, why don't you use your type? Here's my referral code. Download the application. And next time they take a ride, this driver make 1% of the fare that the rider pay. And it's a lifetime earning that you open for yourself. So the bigger the network you have, the biggest source of faster than income you open for yourself. It's basically like, you know, network building, and everybody's motivated to be a bigger network for themselves. Like, we have drivers who have alone, like, record 5, 100, 600 riders for themselves. And that way, you don't

open a passive source of income, but also community strong who always keeps telling each other, like, you know, use DRIFE. I've been with drivers, a few times where they said, like, you know, please keep using DRIFE because I keep all the money that you pay, which in itself is such a big motivation for me as a user when somebody's telling me this. So that was the whole idea when we build a whole retro model around. Right? It's like it's a very capital intensive industry. We don't want to work the same way like others did. We want to build a more community or, you know, a network effect community based platform and not like any other centralized platform.

You know, so it's very heartening what you just said in terms of when the driver himself is, you know, recommending it to, his customers because it's more benefit for them. Okay. And I think often we ignore the you know? Right. I'm I'm glad that you've put your that DRIFE has put this up there because that’s one of the key segments we often ignore. I mean, for those of us that, you know, may ride a bus or take a take a metro, even when we fly. Right?

Yeah.

When's the last time we paid attention to the security guard or somebody who's standing at a counter or somebody who even drives the car in the airport From point a to point b. We don't see enough of the world or enough of these people to often to be able to, you know, Reward them in some way or show our gratitude in some way, most importantly.

Correct.

Right? And this seems to be a very, very good way to Do that to empower them to give them, as you're saying, another source of income. So yep.

Yeah. Wow.

Yeah.

Super. Okay. How has the journey been then so far?

And, it's been a very, very interesting journey. But, we were I I'll say I'm very grateful for the, kind of the traction that we have got specifically from driver community and the kind of, support that we have got from drivers, we advise you when they refer riders. They tell riders about DRIFE as a platform. So that's very interesting. They have you know, From day 1, what we hired right as an application to how much we have improvised based on the feedbacks that we have gotten from both driver and rider, we've been able to implement that, Make the application better and better. So, yeah, it was quite a journey.

I can imagine. And, like, you know, you're saying that you started 25, and you've gone to 35,000 in that span of time. That's absolutely phenomenal growth. You know, certainly, that’s not something that could have been easy. So building that brand from the bottom up must have really, really taken a lot of work. Right? Yeah. What was that journey like?

See, because, as I said, like, you know, DRIFE was always very driver centric, and I wanted to like, a lot of time people say, like, okay, you only focus on driver. But I go with this whole motto, and a lot of rider resonate with us, with time that a happy driver is equal to a happier rider. And that's what we, you know, with time saw in the whole journey of building DRIFE where people try to understand, like, why I hate DRIFE as a why I should even use a platform? Does even, like, you know, having a choice of choosing a driver matter to me or choosing my own fare matters to me? But slowly, gradually, we were able to see that difference where people were, like, so glad and happy about making those choices for themselves. Like, oh, I can do that, and I see the difference when I do make my own choice of choosing a driver. Driver did not cancel on me. Driver called me and said that, you know, don't cancel the ride. I'm coming and picking you up. Those are the kind of testimonies that we have gotten from our customers, which is very rewarding for us.

And, you know, I guess even if for me, it was always very big, simple that even if we can impact 1 driver's life, I guess the purpose is, you know, reached that point I want to achieve. That is beneficial impact one life. So we always talk about this changing lives one ride at a time. So we'll consider it on 1 ride at a time and make sure that we change something in this industry. And, it's not that we want to go aggressive about growing so fast. We took a sweet time to examine Bangalore and India to achieve the whole brand value, test a lot of theses that we've had because I still remember in early days of driving an idea before it got launched, everybody told me Uber and Blockchain For a very long time, has stayed as white paper. No white paper turned into a real world product. And when we actually launched, it was so much pressure to prove that something like this can exist in the 1st place and can work.

So, do just dwell more a little on that part, where did where did you feel the pressure was coming from? Was it from, you know, your investors? Was it, proving that the concept would work. Was it from the drivers? I mean, what paint that picture for us.

Right is very important. Because when you are building something in the web3 space, you have a crypto angle, you get a lot of pressure that, bring in crypto. If you don't have a crypto as a payment, you're not a web company. It's a very, very basic, you know, that we have in this place. Like, okay. You don't have crypto Payments and how your web3 come down. Like, okay. So all of that always, you know, put pressure on you.

Like, when are you bringing your token to the application? But I always knew that there is a time when we do certain things, and I was always focused on phase by phase implementation, be it on the web3 side. Then you always have this question come from the web2 side. Like, why do we need a web3 version or this? So it's a mix of both the world questioning you about certain things. Like, web2 world obviously question you, like, why do we need a web3 version of Uber? Why do we need that? And we're 3 guys like, why don't you bring crypto to the application? So all of those, you know, how do you navigate that? It's a very important thing, and don't get consumed by it. Like, okay. Because everybody's there's so much noise about it. Like, do this, do this, do this. Will you do that just because there's so much noise about it, or will you keep doing till you ask for your own timeline and your own road map of how you want to establish yourself as a brand

So, yeah, that's a big question that you have to find within yourself.

Interesting. The you know? So the journey, of course, is one that's been a rocky road. And, yes, of Fun yeah. Pun intended. I have to call credit for that. But it does seem to have been a herculean task to be you know, to have gotten the way I have gotten. Curious also to understand. When it comes up, you know, when you are going up against, Giants that have built this space, you know, broken ice, maybe even some government agencies or quasi government agencies that have existed or that do exist for these taxi services.

You know, is there some pressure from that side as well from those from those entities as well, or, you know, are they, Fine with, a collaborative approach.

See, I believe every industry go through changes. Okay? And it's a time for mobility industry also to go through change. It's been a decade of what we have already been using. And, it needs change. It needs more upgrade, I will say. And right as an upgrade to your ride hailing experience, and that's what we are building. Now I never said that, and we don't even believe that we are here to, compete with someone. We are trying to build our own space of how a decentralized mobility as a whole can exist.

And, when we speak about government agencies, specifically officials that we are speaking with because you need a license, They're very, acceptable on the path of what we are building because this is something that drivers are asking for a very long time. They're like cases going across the globe. We keep hearing about different, you know, court cases that are, in different part of the globe where drivers are asking for this Different stuff like if we want to earn more, if we want to know details of that. And when we are showcasing that this is what we are bringing, actually government bodies are very supportive of what we are doing. In terms of competition, yeah, you keep seeing they are say giving some very high offers and all of those things. But now we are used to that To see whenever we start a campaign, we see someone else doing, like, a similar campaign, giving, like, a better pricing and all. But we know it's like a short term thing, and, we have now know how to navigate our ways, keeping true to our own goals of what we want to achieve and not getting bothered about what's happening with others. So, yeah, that's how we have navigated our own way in this jungle.

No. No. Fair enough. And, you know, I'm certain that there's no GPS that teaches you that. This is something you gotta learn on the fly.

That's true.

Yeah. To pave your own road to be able to do that. Right?

absolutely.

Alright. Well so more power to you guys over at, at DRIFE, ladies and gentlemen. Once again, use those emojis if you've heard of a gem. I've heard so many. There's, you know, there's so much to learn from this particular journey. You have to understand that, you know, you've you've got a team that's disrupting, the space in the industry that most of us just take for granted, we don't recognize. So that's certainly is a fantastic story of a very David and Goliath, you know, Sort of analogy happening here. To dial back a little, Firdosh, to what you're saying in terms of, When it comes to the riders, right, and both of them having, you know, the opportunity to just supplement business, to expand business.

At the same time, there is always a question when it comes to Web3 about security and, privacy. And this is a challenge with everybody in the industry. I know It's not a unique one, but I understand that the way, most companies that are in the space deal with it is starting to become very unique. So could you tell us a little about how DRIFE approaches that aspect when it comes to, you know, security and privacy?

Yeah. So there's 2 aspect to this. 1 is the human aspect, and the other is the data aspect. Okay. I'll talk about the human aspects. Like, specifically, the concern comes around why you are getting onboarded into the platform. How do the onboarding happen? How a driver can become a DRIFE driver? It's a very basic where we take care of compliance very seriously. Where any, driver that onwards to the DRIFE platform, We do a KYC on the driver, criminal check, and a background verification on a driver before we onboard the driver.

That's a very basic check that we have implemented across before we onboarded driver. And also, we have, like, security measures throughout the ride journey. Like, you know, share your ride, emergency support for a driver and rider. If you get in touch with us during a ride or if anything goes wrong, we have a support team take care of, you know, any driver guided related query, across. That's a very human aspect of it. We're coming on the security aspect, which is more like data. Like, you know, people are booking rides. The rides are going on chain.

What if someone gets information? So there are certain specific, data points that we know has to say stay anonymous, and we keep them anonymous. Say, like, which ride you come to put in, what fare, and, not putting public locations, hashing the locations, which is important because it will get easier for people to then track and, find out who's traveling from there. So those are the information, specifically location related information that encrypt, doing the right journey, making sure that what needs to say private stay private. And there are certain things that could stay public. So you need to have this differentiation between what stays public, what stays private, because we live in this world, where people have, you know, different intentions, and you need to, as a company, be sure about, even though, like, you're a web three company, we live in a world full of humans, with different intention, and we need to preserve as much as we can. So we also took care of those aspects by building the whole architect.

Okay. So yeah. So it does go pretty deep, and I think that you know, from what you've explained, you've covered most of the bases where, if privacy and security is concerned, you know, but, at the same time, is that something that gives your sleepless nights. Do you think that, hey. You know what? There is, how do I protect this even further?

See, with time, I make peace. I used to have this for a very long time, like, because there are people traveling at night. And specifically, like, I'll give you an example every time, even today when I'm traveling at night, coming from an airport. My mom, she's like and I have this habit, okay, that I'll fall asleep in the gaps. And my mom was always worried, like, please don't sleep. Please don't sleep. And someone from my family will keep Calling you to make sure I did not fall asleep because there's a, there's a concern, and, that's something I'm telling you, you do absolutely anything.

If something has to go wrong around, you know, I being a woman, I'm telling you this, you try absolutely anything. If something has to go wrong, it will go wrong. No technology in this world at this point where we are living can save you from that. What we can do is put things, put measures in place, train drivers, Make sure we do basic check-in all of that to make sure that if something goes wrong, I'll be there to take care of the situation. But you cannot mitigate something. You know? So, with, I know that's a problem. It's a genuine problem, but now I don't have I keep thinking about it time and again. Like, how do they improvise more on the human safety aspect of it? But Right.

It's not that I don't sleep, now because of that. I know I have a team who's in 24 hour support to take care of things if there's any emergency that happens. To build more and more robust system, but, yeah, that's how it is. Like, you know, listen until they're able to have this whole autonomous industry where we have driverless cars for us to feel more safe. At night, I still I personally also, like, feel that, you know, every time I travel at night, at the moment, you have this heartbeat that keeps increasing all the time. And I want to live in a world where I don't know I don't feel that. I also want to be in that world. But, it's gonna take it some time.

It's more about literacy than anything else, I believe.

Fair enough. Yes. And it is, of course, an, it's a constantly evolving problem, which requires responsibility.

Exactly.

Fair enough. Okay. I wanna touch upon, you know, some of the Things that you, you know, you just you just shared with us at, at this point. You told us about, you know, a driver that that recommended, That that was more than happy that he and was recommending it to a to a number of people. You've told us a little insight about, in your own case where you could fall asleep, you know, on the way in a cab, and that's a cause of concern as well. But I'm certain that you, you know, you you're gonna have this whole bag of stories when it came to DRIFE, when it came to testing it out Yeah. And so on.

And I'd like for you to share with us, you know, some of the ones that you learned from and maybe some of the ones that, you know, you pride yourself on.

I guess, when it Comes to, like, learning from a lot of different stories. It's like, initially, I guess, we had this, like, why driver asked cash for the ride. Okay? Why do they cancel on the ride? And it's, like, it's not cash. Right? Even if when you're giving 100% of the fare and all of that. And with time you realize there are real time expenses that driver has to pay. There's a, you know and because, Think of a livelihood of a driver. They are not someone who will live on, like,they get a monthly salary and then with that salary, they have their whole life sorted. They earn today.

They spend today. That's how their life works, most of them. And that's when we realized because initially, we used to like, okay. Even if we are giving 100%, we get cancellations. Why does that happen? And, you know, it's we keep blaming the party is involved for that. And then I was like, no. It is not about be sending them money. It is about feeling that the money that I earn belongs to me and is coming to my bank directly, or I'm getting that money.

And that's when we build driver wallet, and that's a very unique thing that we took, like, 6 months to build. Like, as soon as the payment is done, we have driver wallets and drive application. You click on withdraw and, like, within 30 seconds the money reflects in your bank account. We wanted them to feel that that the money that is lying in their dry product is as good as the money in their bank account and is available to them on a click of a button so that the whole journey of understanding the cancellations, Even if you have a 100% deduction, no deduction, still, like, building a wallet for them to give them that sense that my money is with me is such an important factor to how they feel, because, someone who's been, like, not paid attention to very long, You need to give them something. They can't believe it in the 1st place that and they don't trust you because there's a trust that is broken in this industry specifically for driver. Good. And you need to rebuild that, and that's gonna take its own time. So that's something that was a very important learning for us.

What I take pride in is obviously every time some you meet a drive driver, you travel with drive, everybody tells me, like, We don't understand why DRIFE drivers are happy. And we take pride in that, like, you know, the drivers are happy for a very basic reason because they’re getting everything that they deserve. They take so much pride. And every time I hear this from someone of getting into that experience where this driver is happy. He's not cranky. He's not irritated. He's gonna be nice with you. All of that happened just because he's getting what he deserves.

It's such a proud moment for me. Every time someone tells me I feel so proud, that we build this and we have this more impact that we are looking at this market.

Well, I'm glad that you shared that, you know, that's your model because a lot of us aren't aware of how the systems with some of the other companies work. Right? So, one of the things that I do is if I take an Uber, I'm always asking the driver how does the system work? And I've shared that was shared with some, some of this insight that they shared with me went like this, is that whatever you pay them, on the app only gets cleared by the end of the week.

Correct. Correct.

Right? Yeah. With the exception of maybe tips that gets to them, you know, a bit Faster. But they have an account clearance that happens only at the end of the week. So they never know, yeah, they never know, how much they're gonna earn. But if you point that out that his, a person's, you know, day to day expenses is taken care of because they've got cash in hand, Then then truly, yes, this is this is something that's working for them Yeah. With them in mind.

Exactly.

And that is, you know, where do you see at this point of time, you've done something unique in in the web3 space. Right? But where do you see this evolving where do you see this industry going, you know, from the sector of the industry that you're in?

See, for me, I guess, what we're trying to achieve at DRIFE, it's something that mobility industry as a whole suffer from. And the bigger picture is to build a decentralized mobility ecosystem as a whole. Because centralization is a core of the problem that exists not just in mobility industry, but in many other industry. But because my focus remains with the ride space and mobility industry in large. I would like to see and I am sure we'll see more and more decent application winning deal with food delivery, couriers, anything that move will slowly and gradually decentralization that the value creators will extract the maximum value without a centralized party taking away The maximum away from them. So that's what I believe we will see. And as we are, like, speaking about, you know, At this point, there's so much that has been built in the, deep in space, and a lot of them are trying to build infrastructures at this point. But those infrastructure will be actually be used to build decentralized mobility based application.

And that's what I see, I guess, for this year and next year, we see more infrastructure being made. And this is the 1st time we spoke about decentralized physical infrastructure. Real world projects have been spoken about, you know, in this year. And slowly, we'll see more and more DAGs being built, which are more real world application, Which are part of day to day life of the people, and I guess that's what dipti has to achieve, building applications that are part of the daily life of the people. When we do that, I guess that's when the mass adoption happen.

Super. That certainly looks like a future we all wanna step in.

Yeah.

Awesome sauce. Alright. Thank you for sharing that, Firdosh. You know, you've shared with us a lot about what DRIFE does, how it's empowering, you know, drivers, riders. The community has as a whole, the places in which it is working towards what, putting power into the hands of of people who are actually using it, actually doing the work, and, you know, and that's fantastic. And having that has obviously come from a source with you and your team. So I guess my last quest that I've got for you is, before we take some from the audience, is this. Right? What's your personal philosophy? Right? What keeps you going? What wakes you up in the morning? And don't say an alarm clock.

No. No. No. No. That. That. But I guess for me, I work every day To sleep as a happy human. I want to sleep happy.

Like, not just like I want to wake tomorrow, but I want to sleep happy. I go with that Philosophy, did I do enough today, which high like, even, like, a small impact that I can go sleep happy? And if I go to sleep, half day of the day, I'm gonna wake up next day with more enthusiasm. So it's about, like, little progress that you make every day. Little impact slowly, and gradually will turn to have a bigger impact. So, yeah, I don't look for waking up tomorrow, but I look sleeping as a happy human today.

Okay. Well, I'm certain it resonates A lot of us that, you know, you give up yourself, to do be able to do your best, and, you know, you can finally put your head down and rest For a good night's sleep.

Exactly.

Oh, super. Super. Super. Alright. Great. That being said, Firdosh, thank you so much for being on the show. I'm gonna now switch to some of the questions that have come in from the audience. The first one I can see here is from Obi.

What Obi asks is, what criteria do riders have for choosing drivers? You know, how does this contribute to a more personalized experience? It did touch on, how you've described it earlier, but I think that there is, maybe something more that you can add to it.

So what we take into consideration when you see the list driver, you see how far they are from your pickup location, what's their rating, what car they're driving, and how much fare that they are asking. So your preference can be the fare, how far they are, what rating they have, what car they have for you to choose. These are the basic combination that we look for. And based on that, we make your choice.

Okay. Okay. So you have a range of options you can choose from. And, you know, of course, the more drivers that you have on the system, the better the choices are for you. Fantastic. Great. The second one that I can see I Can't make out the name just now, but I'll come to that.

It says, how does DRIFE envision to create a self-sustaining ecosystem? You know, and how does it plan to grow from that?

See, when we talk about building something sustainable, it's the launch and you reach there slowly and gradually. At this point, the idea is to expand, Go to more places. That's what we are focusing on at this point. Once we reach there, then there, obviously, the next step is obviously to build a self-sustainable Ecosystem. And, the idea is eventually we want to have, like, CityVines DAO and the cities operated by a DAO. That's what we want to achieve. Eventually, where we have decentralized operations in place, but, that's a long term goal that we want to achieve.

Okay. Well, there you have it, TD. I'm certain that that answers your question. That's the one, you know, who it came from. The last question I'm seeing over here is right. If somebody wanted to have a part time job as a driver, how do they get started?

See, it depends upon which location you are in and what are the local regulations there. In India, when we're operating, you need to have a commercial license and a car with yourself to be a part time driver or a full time driver. Depend upon, you know, where you are based, and can you be a part time driver with a ride hailing company also depends upon the local regulations. I know, like, countries like Singapore, you can also drive your private car and work part time, which is not allowed in India. So depending upon which part you are, and if it is allowed there, you have your car. And if it is allowed, you can be a driver.

Okay. Super. So the point is you can sign up pretty easily.

Yep.

And I hope you had as much fun being on the show as I did. Yeah.

Thank you so much for having me. I hope I was able to answer all your questions and the audience question was really nice speaking today.

Super. Ladies and gentlemen, that was, the CEO and co-founder of DRIFE. You've heard about DRIFE. If you haven't, you can catch the show once again on Twitter Spaces. More importantly, you can also jump in, and find the link for it on Spotify. In addition to that, I'd also like to remind you that, our co-founders, Nadja Bester and Jason Fernandes, are speaking at the WFC in Dubai, yesterday and today, they're still there. If you wanna you know, if you're swinging by that location, swing by, say hi to them, and we're happy to set up a set up a meet as well. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being part of the show today.