Are taxi drivers, men or women, entrepreneurs?
For me, they certainly are. After the last 8 years immersed in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, I’m absolutely sure of it. For years I’ve had a neighbour who drives a taxi, and a few years ago my brother-in-law also took the plunge into this sector and is doing all right, but the one I’m a huge fan of is Rixar Garcia, alias Taxioviedo. He is, without a doubt, a true entrepreneur and the envy of his colleagues in the trade.
Entrepreneurs aren’t only the people who set up a tech startup aiming to be the next Facebook. Many entrepreneurs have a really hard time raising their first €100,000 to launch their startup, and that much and more is what a taxi driver has to raise to get a taxi licence…
The thing is, taxi drivers don’t ask a business angel or ENISA for that €100,000; they have to take out a mortgage, dip into their savings, put up guarantees and leave their granny as collateral to raise that sum.
But why am I such a fan of Rixar?
I got to know him through social media back in 2009, because the legend ran a crowdfunding campaign to tour the United States and visit FourSquare’s offices after becoming the first ambassador of this amazing American startup. He raised no less than €18,000.
After that campaign I started following him on Twitter, on his @taxioviedo account – without a doubt a visionary, or rather an early adopter, on Twitter too, where he clearly saw the opportunity to win customers.
If you happened to write the word Oviedo in your timeline – for example, “I’m off to a medical conference in Oviedo tomorrow” – within 2 minutes Rixar would pop up in your timeline to offer you his services.
He has only 12,000 followers (twice as many as me), certainly a significant figure, which he has earned by doing things well on social media: contributing, engaging with people, offering discounts to his followers…
And not just Twitter: he also took to uploading videos to YouTube to share his experience and what he had learnt on social networks such as Twitter and FourSquare. What a star, and how generous.
His website is incredibly well crafted, with links to all his social networks.
A booking calendar, so you know whether he’s free or not.
He offers sightseeing routes around Asturias, his beloved homeland.
You can share a taxi to save on your journeys.
And best of all, he thinks up and carries out CSR initiatives.
If you’d like to get to know him better, here he is giving a talk at the Fundación Telefónica at the “Heroes del Social Media” (Social Media Heroes) event. You’ll hear his story, from when he first got behind the wheel of a taxi in 2002, looking to innovate from day one, until he discovered blogs and social networks.
As you can see, if you’re proactive and do things differently, you’ll achieve great results.
While some taxi drivers are waiting at the rank, he never stops, adding content to his website, his blog and his social networks. He even has his own app on iOS and Android, accepts payment in Bitcoin, offers Wi-Fi in his taxi and a printer to print your boarding passes… in short, he’s off the charts 😉
He’s now part of every class I give on entrepreneurship in master’s programmes, universities and workshops, where I hold him up as an example.
Here he is in his taxi. First he had a car that ran on gas to pollute less, and now he drives a Toyota Prius.
You’re the best, RIXAR!!! And now you – are you going to change the way you do things in your everyday business?
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