Today our guest is Nicolas Brusson, Co-Founder and CEO at BlaBlaCar, the world’s leading intercity ridesharing service. We’ll be discussing carpooling in the pandemic / post-pandemic world, lessons in international growth especially of BlaBlaCar’s bus service in markets like Mexico, India, Russia, and Brazil, the road to becoming the intercity transportation super app, and building a culture of entrepreneurship and legacy through the BlaBlaCar mafia.

1:08 Effect of the pandemic on transport and travel. The economic power of collective intelligence.
6:57 Trust broker building community and maximizing connections between passengers and drivers.
10:05 Intercity transport. Connecting bus carriers to the platform. Scaling across Russia, Eastern Europe, Mexico, India, and Brazil.
15:11 Ridesharing competitors in bus and carpooling. Becoming the Expedia or Booking.com of buses.
20:06 Going international: the transformation of BlaBlaCar as it expands to 22 countries. 80% of usage is now outside of France…60% is outside of Europe. On the road to profitability and an IPO?
25:12 Lessons in growth. Offline-to-online transformation of transportation infrastructure.
30:37 Intercity transportation super-app.
33:50 BlaBlaCar in the US?
37:50 The BlaBlaCar mafia and building a culture of entrepreneurship. When you leave, do something great, build a legacy…

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The French Tech News is a newsletter, podcast, and video media highlighting important stories, in English, in the world of France’s startups, its entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders. Hosted by Chris O'Brien and Ethan Pierse.

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