"Doing Good Business By 'Doing Good'"

While consulting after the tech bubble burst, Scott Griffith, ’90, “almost stumbled into Zipcar,” now the world’s largest car sharing service. “I thought it was a huge idea and felt that it was a fantastic intersection of a couple of passions I had –
transportation, information services – and it required a lot of understanding of technology and what was happening with wireless and internet,” he said.

Griffith spoke at the tenth annual Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Conference at Gleacher Center on November 14. Sponsored by the student-led Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital & Private Equity Group and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship, the day-long event drew hundreds of students to six panel sessions and keynote addresses from Ken DeAngelis, founder and general partner of Austin Ventures and Ron Packard, ’89, CEO and founder of K12 Inc.

Griffith shared his experience and insight as chairman and CEO in the growth stage of the successful, innovative company during a fireside chat with Steven Kaplan, Neubauer Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance. “It was a tiny company, but I thought it was a really huge idea,” Griffith said. “It was a natural fit for me.”

The first thing Griffith did when he became CEO was to adjust Zipcar’s brand strategy. “The company’s DNA in 2001-02 was built around green and sustainable lifestyle, which was the right message, but wrong time,” he said. “Instead we focused much more on lifestyle – freedom and living a smart urban life. It really delivered the same value proposition but with really different positioning around life in the city without having to own a car and making access to one as easy as getting cash from an ATM.”

The new branding emphasized cost, convenience, and freedom, positioning Zipcar more like an urban coffee shop or dry cleaner, Griffith said. “If you can’t walk to one of our cars in less than 10 minutes, it’s highly unlikely you’re going to join the service.”

When Griffith joined Zipcar in 2003, the company generated $2 million in revenue with about 4,000 users and 13 other employees, he said. Today, Zipcar’s annual revenue is $120 million with 250,000 users and 250 employees, Griffith said.

A key facet of the company culture and a guiding principle in its growth is the idea that what Zipcar does is very special – “shiny,” if you will, he said. “Our company is somewhat unique because the very nature of what we’re doing actually does good for the community,” Griffith said. “I believe we should attract people who continue to see Zipcar as a shiny object on the table. If you can’t see the shiny part of it, you probably shouldn’t join the company.”

One of the company’s five core values is to “be a Zipster,” or a user of the service, he said. “Set policy, deliver the product, and deliver a service just like you were driving our cars everyday,” Griffith said. “We’re developing a culture that is very member-focused with this orientation that, ‘We’re going to do good by doing good.’ This has really been a powerful idea behind the company and has attracted many very strong managers and executives at a very early stage.”

The key takeaways from Griffith’s conversation with Kaplan were making sure budding entrepreneurs understand the value proposition for their customers and making sure they have passion for their product or service, said Patricia Pomar, a student in the Weekend MBA program “The main message was finding that passion and making sure you really understand what it’s going to take to start your own company,” Pomar said. “If you have that passion, you can get through the ups and downs.”

Phil Rockrohr