All Over Albany

Future-sailors.com

Who:
Sam Wechsler

Project:
Future-sailors.com -- a ride-sharing network

What is Future Sailors? (www.future-sailors.com):
Future Sailors is a Web Application that allows people to easily search for and find rides with fellow travelers. It is a network of people and is intended to provide quick and affordable trips to anyone in the United States through people communicating and working together. It is similar to some existing "ride shares," but it is different in that it is designed to be quick (find your ride or create an account in less than 1 minute). At the moment Future Sailors is being Beta Tested and modified weekly at future-sailors.com.

The beginnings:
During the last 2 years of college I did not have a car, so I had to rely on buses to go home during breaks. The buses would show up 20 minutes early or 20 minutes late regularly; sometimes they would not show up at all. After several mishaps, phone calls, emails, and lots of anger I had something unfortunate happen to me, The Bus Ride from Hell.

The Bus Ride from Hell and why I have the drive to do this:
It was 7 PM, a pleasant evening in Knoxville Tennessee, about a year ago today when my cousin dropped me off at the bus terminal. I bought a $130 one-way ticket to my parent's home near Philadelphia. Upon getting on the bus there was one seat left, which I took. It quickly became apparent that the bus company (the one that rhymes with "shmayhound"), had overbooked the bus. We rolled into a small North Carolina town around midnight. The bus driver told the people waiting at the bus stop that they could not get on. He got into an argument with a would-be passenger, ending with the guy telling the bus driver to "GO F#CK HIMSELF!" After a few minutes the driver reluctantly let some of the passengers sit and stand in the aisle in the back of the bus. I was sitting two seats behind the bus driver and heard him say through his radio that there were 54 passengers on the bus. The bus rolls into Richmond, Virginia at 6 AM for the first layover to Washington D.C. The 6:30 AM connecting bus is overbooked,  we have to wait for the 9:30 AM bus (you should have seen how pissed off people were!). This happens again in Washington D.C. Some people have been on the bus since Texas mind you. When all is said and done I am at my parent's home at 6 PM, a 23 hour trip in total, one that should have been 17 hours by bus; one that takes 10 hours by car.
When I got home I was tired and angry; I thought "There has got to be a better way to travel."
After some thinking I came up with the idea for Future Sailors.
I am doing this for all those pissed off people.
I am very passionate in growing Future Sailors Inc. and have taught myself HTML, PHP, MySQL, and jQuery programming languages over the past year to create the initial site: www.future-sailors.com

Why it should be funded:
To some people $1,500 might not sound like a lot, but for Future Sailors this money is critical. I have started businesses and websites before and realize that there are fixed costs associated with both. Forecasting 3 years ahead, fixed costs will be:
$400 to Incorporate with New York State and advertise in newspapers
$10 to buy the website's domain and $360 for 3 years to host on Yahoo Domains
$100 to create a bank account for the corporation and get a paypal account
$500 for Attorney and Accountant fees
Total: $1,370
$1,500 would help tremendously with fixed costs.
Future Sailors Inc. should be funded $1,500 because the business  strategy is to launch and expand, starting in the Capitol Region, and what better way to advertise than promoting it on All Over Albany. At the same time All Over Albany could get credit and recognition for funding a great, new website.

About Myself:
In the past I have started small businesses, the most successful was selling glow sticks during the 4th of July in high school. This past summer I started Wacky Waffles LLC which sold fresh home-made waffles at the Waterford Harbor Farmer's Market this past fall. I learned some good lessons from this experience. The first lesson is to be passionate in what you are doing. Waffles were not my passion, which I quickly learned. What I am passionate in is building machines and computer programs, using my creativity to solve people's problems.

Why the name "Future Sailors?":
The name "Future Sailors" was inspired by the British comedy "The Mighty Boosh." One episode features the two main characters performing a song called "Future Sailors."