I was flagged, no point in editing.
Let’s see if we can’t get this conversation back on track.
Jekalo’s Lagos Carpooling App Is Exactly What I Wish Someone Would Have Built Three Years Ago
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Nice piece. Perhaps I’m just too cynical for my own good, but the first time I came across Jekalo, it seemed like a glorified publicly editable spreadsheet of people’s routes with no intelligence - I can’t search and find that ride going from Yaba to Maryland even though it’s in line with my route which I entered as Jibowu to Anthony.
Maybe I’m over thinking this, maybe I’m not. No doubt, ride sharing and whatever technology infrastructure put in place to foster it in Lagos would be Godsend. Hopefully Jekalo would eventually be that guy that isn’t trying to solve a real problem with a high school crud app.
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I think it faulty that the date beside each ride is the date on which it was actually offered. Whereas, it’s likely that most of these routes are pretty regular for the people who offered them.
I imagine that an option for specifying if a ride is recurring and on what days would go some length in addressing this issue.
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Thanks @Hafiz for your feedback, this feature is now in place
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Thanks @xolubi as the cluster of ride offer increases the radius used in the search we’ll be more precise…Lol, on the high school thing, The team comprises of people with experience who are passionate about innovation around the challenges we face in our daily commute as much as I do.
Thank you for your support and helping us with the translation 
so some folks don’t pronounce(JEH KAH LOR) as JAY KAY LOO… as regards the unsolicited emails,we sincerely apologize, the sender info should have been that of our partner introducing us as we don’t have any of those emails,subsequent mails will definitely go to users who have opted-in to our mailing list.
Wish I have followed you back then though my thought as well as always been around contribution to solving our transportation challenges but I wonder what the reaction would have been back then, if by 2015 I see reactions like “really?,ridesharing in Lagos/Nigeria” which is a valid concern, that is why trust and safety has been our major focus among others things like convenience, low cost and decent transportation
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Absolutely impressive. Once again, the traditional & perennial bashers (not sure what they’ve ever built or run) are having a blast. SMH.
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Google is a “rip-off” of Yahoo!
Chrome is a “rip-off” of Internet Explorer
Android is a “rip-off” of iOS
And so frigging what?
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I like how you listed these things without stating what each new iteration did differently.
For me, this issue is closed.
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Seen lots of people throw around this copycat issue, like every entrepreneurs should walk before they fly. Most people forgot what really counts for jekalo whether it copies ride.com or not, is how well it is executed over here.
Besides we all know its better to be called the blah blah blah of Nigeria than having no parallel at all. Investors and almost everyone else needs this to be able to benchmark your idea with startups with similar ideas that have scaled in more mature markets. Heck they will ask for your comparables, that makes them feel secure.
Jekalo’s early adopters don’t care whether it’s copied or not, all they care about is how they experience it. Pointing out they’re some sort of copycat is a misnomer, because they are trying to solve a “local problem”, so if solving a problem is called copying, then so be it.
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I also would have loved to build a ride sharing app.
Heck, I predict there would be more of such apps as Jekalo gains traction
@Motoni_Bolarinwa I do not have a facebook profile, are you guys considering other sign up options? I thought I saw something about signing up with LinkedIn.
Also, I read something on UX fixes, the author advised against using both sign in and sign up side by side as it leads to confusion.
Yes, we are. This will be available as soon as the other forms of verification becomes available
Thanks, It is usability that inspired it as well, both links are practically doing the same thing for now
Because the platform is still in beta-test phase, and the team has the understand and manage the system well in one city before deploying the technology to another city.
This is quite innovative. It is high time the public-transportation sector got disrupted. I’m always amazed by how under-utilised the vehicles on our roads are. Imagine seeing cars which could have conveyed at least 4 passengers each carrying just one person - the driver. Imagine the effect this will have on the transport section when the millions of cars on our roads begin to carry just one extra passenger each.
Now we can make and save money, save fuel, save the environment and help our fellow humans.
A big thumbs-up to the team.
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I guess Jekalo needs to hire or consult an experienced legal adviser soonest! They are lots of liability in their line of business.
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LOL @Tolu. I’ve learnt not to get offended by unsolicited emails or spams, especially those that are within my areas of interest. I simply unsubscribe from the rest if necessary 
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Sending unsolicited email is just wrong.
However, I suppose one of the main objectives of an MVP is learning. If I were Jekalo, I would be asking people on this forum that said they were unsubscribing from the service why they were doing so, etc (well guided questions).
Maybe, it would provide valuable knowledge to understanding and optimizing for your customers.
It is always good to test all your assumptions. This platform seems to provide the opportunity to do so.
For me, I think the Social Media Account verification is not sufficient because there are many fake and pseudo accounts on Social Media.
I suggest that JEKALO should use Valid Drivers License as a means of verification and also they should enter into a partnership with FRSC so that all Licenses can be verified by them.
NB: All Drivers should have a Valid Drivers License.
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