SAN FRANCISCO — Having beaten my checked bag to the luggage carousel, I fired up my iPhone and did something illegal. Using an app called SideCar, I summoned a complete stranger to come pick me up from the airport.
Earlier in October, a California regulatory agency ordered SideCar to cease connecting passengers with ordinary drivers looking to make a few extra bucks by playing chauffeur. The company ignored the order, and the day before my arrival raised $10 million from Google’s venture capital arm and another investment firm. It took 18 minutes for my driver, Eddie, to show up at the airport. I hopped into his black Acura sedan, and we sped north toward the city.
Comments
Mr. Kirsner's cavalier attitude about the laws broken and regulations ignored by start-ups like Sidecar and AirBnB is disappointing but typical of blinkered Valley cheerleaders whose tiresome refrain is 'innovation trumps all.'
A business whose model includes breaking laws can hardly be described as sustainable, and is filled with risk for their investors, not to mention their customers (anyone remember them)? When the regulatory bodies in locales where AirBnB (for example) does business figure out how to enforce their no-rent rules, I expect AirBnB investors to bail and bail fast, eviscerating the company.
Paul Carr had an excellent piece about this in PandoDaily last week - Mr. Kirsner, and anyone else who believes that stodgy old market regulations should move aside for 'disruptive' innovation - should have a read.