Hugh Molotsi

One of the biggest challenges for parents raising young children is transporting their kids to school and after-school activities.  For working couples, school gets out inconveniently in the middle of the afternoon.  The challenge is further compounded if their kids are active in sports that have several practices and meets during the week. Here are three startups that are tackling this problem by creating “Uber for Kids” offerings.   1.      Shuddle – Shuddle touts the safety of their system they call “ShuddleSafe”.   They hire drivers who will use their own cars.   Drivers have undergone extensive screening and background checks.   They also offer the ability for parents to track the ride while it’s in progress.   A ride costs a minimum of $15.   They also offer carpooling for $8 per family per ride.   (The service is currently offered in the San Francisco Bay Area).   2.      Boost ...

When Steve Bennett became Intuit’s CEO back in 2000, one of his first change initiatives was to make the company more operationally rigorous.   Improving efficiency involved reorganizing and managing out several leaders of underperforming groups.   Later, Steve would have skip-level meetings with employees from these groups.   He would ask them about decisions they had made or ways they were working that didn’t seem to make sense.   Often the answer was “We agree that doesn’t make sense!   It was the guy you just fired who made us do it!” Steve didn’t like how convenient it was to scapegoat bad decisions on the people who were no longer around.   So he was inspired to teach the concept of “True North” – the ultimate guide to making good decisions. True North for Intuit was articulated as: “Deliver best we can be results in the current period for employees, customers, and shareholders, while building the foundation for a stronger future.” ...