Iranian American Entrepreneur, Ario Keshani, Launches Split, a Ride-Sharing service in Washington, D.C.
October 29, 2015, Washington, DC — Harvard graduate and young Iranian American entrepreneur Ario Keshani recently launched Split, a new and dynamic way of getting around Washington, D.C. Split is a ride-sharing service, essentially a carpool that’s more convenient than public transportation and much cheaper than a taxi. Similar to other taxi services, the consumer downloads the app and sends their location to be picked up. However, on the way to the destination, the app finds other customers that are headed in the same direction.
Although Ario has spent a fair amount of his career working in transportation, he started off working in consulting. Realizing he wanted to work in a field in which his work would achieve immediate and concrete outcomes, he left consulting and founded a food delivery service called Sous-chef Meals, aimed at delivering ready to cook meals for busy professionals.
In 2012, Ario began work at Transdev, a French company that developed super-shuttles, and also owns various taxi and rental companies. During his years at Transdev, he watched startups like Uber and Lyft make massive changes in the field of transportation. With a few partners, he began to ask questions like “How do we build something where we are proactive and jump ahead of the curve? Would there be a way to create a shared service that would be completely dynamic and trustworthy?”
Ario and his team began partnering with investors and researching the complex algorithm that would enable the ride-share to work. Realizing the timeline to create such a startup would be long, they decided to reach out to similar teams. A year ago, they merged with another startup in Finland which had already been working on the algorithm for 2-3 years. Gaining valuable new partners, Split was able to successfully launch their service in May, 2015.
Support fellow Iranian American entrepreneur, Ario Keshani. If you’re in the Washington, D.C. area, download the app and enjoy meeting new people in the new ride-share service.
