In 2012, I returned from a summer in Peru where I interned at an impact private equity firm. When I returned, I took a trip to San Francisco and was staying at my sister’s place in the city. We were headed out to dinner and were about to call a cab. I was getting ready to put in the call and my sister said, “don’t worry, I got it. We have this new thing called Uber.”
I didn’t know what Uber was at this point. I think it had emerged during that summer. I watched my sister click a button on her phone and the taxi arrived a few minutes later. It was magic. I asked about it and she explained how private cars and people were being repurposed as taxis so anyone, anywhere could be a taxi.
My mind was blown. Not because of the idea, but because I had been doing “Uber” for the last three month in Peru without realizing it.
In Lima, every car could be a taxi. Put a yellow sticker on your car and start driving around and someone will flag you down. Discuss where you want to go, negotiate a price, and you are on your way. No regulations, no insurance, no business license, just a free enterprise. Sure, I was nervous getting into my first “taxi” because, who know, it could be a crazy person disguising themselves as a taxi and picking up random tourists and kidnapping them. This never happened.
Instead, it was a country and a city doing what they needed to do to make taxis work better for the drivers and the riders. It was innovation and it was the Uber model before Uber existed. Well before Uber, Peru and many places around the world had already thought of ridesharing. Uber just layered the technology.
This is not unusual. Innovation arises from inefficiency and hardship. Countries and people around the world have developed solutions to life’s problems in incredibly innovative ways. I encourage you to look around next time you step out of the home-base and observe how things are being done. Maybe there is an opportunity there…
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