Living in New York City can be stressful. You probably want to get away from the madding crowd every now and then, but most New Yorkers don’t have cars.
is the new startup hoping to solve that problem.
Tailbus allows you to keep down the cost of day trips from the city by using the web to source a crowd to go with you. Users log on to the website and create a trip, to say, the beach or a football game. The trip is then made public to all Tailbus users and when at least 29 people sign up, the bus is scheduled and the organizer travels free of charge.
Trips start at $39 and increase based on time and distance. Each bus includes a Tailbus employee and often, free drinks.
To book, the event planner answers a series of questions about the trip and the Tailbus team organizes everything else, including promoting the trip to ensure you get the 30 people to make it possible.
Founder Drew Moffitt thought of the idea after a friend rented a mansion outside D.C. for a New Year’s Eve party last year, but had a difficult time figuring out the logistics.
Moffitt (pictured left) launched the site in July and so far has run 35 trips carrying almost 1500 people. He plans to launch an app in 2016, which would include features like how to find your bus after the event.
Moffitt said trips to Metlife stadium in New Jersey for Giants and Jets football games have been the most popular so far. “The stadium is difficult to access by public transport,” Moffitt said. “We handle group transportation and ticketing and provide food and alcohol for the tailgating outside the ground.”
Not his first rodeo
Tailbus isn’t Moffitt’s first startup. In 2014 his iOS app Forever Not garnered a lot of media attention for allowing you to predict whether relationships would last or not. Linked through Facebook, the app would show you a picture of a couple, whether it was your friends or two celebrities, and users would swipe left for “forever” and right for “not." The app was anonymous and extremely popular, but not with Apple.
Just five weeks after the Valentine’s Day launch, Apple kicked the app off the store saying the relationship betting aspect of the app didn’t fit well with their brand.
Currently, Tailbus is offering a trip to see Brooklyn’s famous holiday decorations in Dyker Heights and an overnight trip to Atlantic City for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Images via Tailbus
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