Sharethebus set to flap its wings in the US market, joins Y Combinator


Montreal’s Sharethebus is announcing its participation in Silicon Valley accelerator, Y Combinator.

One year after completing the FounderFuel accelerator program in Montreal, CEO Kyle Boulay and the team are in San Francisco for a period of time to learn from Sam Altman, Paul Graham, Alexis Ohanian and more.

“I think anytime you get into something that’s challenging to get into, it feels good,” Boulay told MTLinTech. “For us, importantly, it was the right next step for our business. We wanted to expand our network down in San Francisco and it seemed like the right next step.”

The CEO mentioned that since its inception, Sharethebus has eyed the US market as a high priority. “There’s a lot of opportunity in the States and that’s where we’ll be focusing over the next little while,” he said.

Y Combinator gives $120,000 in funding to a large number of startups every year (most recently 107). The program lasts three months.

Boulay also said the company was looking for a hands-off program during their second go-around in an accelerator.

“FounderFuel is pretty hands-on and there’s a lot of required attendance and workshops that are really useful. But if we were to do a second accelerator, we were looking for something to give us the space to do what we wanted to do, a program where we could reach out for assistance when we felt we needed it. The Y Combinator model really does that,” said Boulay.

As well, “It doesn’t hurt that the people you’re asking for help from are some of the smartest people in the world who have been extremely successful,” said the CEO.

Sharethebus makes it easy for groups, event organizers and venues to book charter buses. Using the company’s software, event organizers for music festivals, sporting venues and more can coordinate thousands of visitors traveling from different locations. Organizers can either pay for a whole bus (or multiple buses) or sell tickets to individual passengers.

Boulay calls it a full-stack technology solution that solves all the pain points of booking and filling a charter bus between the trip organizer, the bus company, and the travellers.

espite over $15 billion being spent on charter buses last year, most of those coaches are idle for the majority of their time, according to Sharethebus. Sharethebus said it’s involved in every step of the process, to ensure the experience amazing for the person booking the bus, the bus riders, the bus drive and the bus company.

Real Ventures cofounder Alan MacIntosh said the startup is “taking on what is a massive opportunity,” and will “hugely benefit from the Y Combinator experience and network.”

In 12 months of operations, the company has moved over 50,000 people across 1000 bus trips, and served more than 200 North American cities. Since launch, the company said it’s maintained 20 per cent month-over-month growth, and worked in collaboration with large event partners, including music festivals, colleges, student associations, and conferences.
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