Why Form backed Rodeo
Transforming the gig economy
Transforming the gig economy
What Rodeo does
Rodeo helps gig delivery drivers aggregate and analyse their earnings across different work providers, and then optimise their work accordingly. How much have I earned for a given time period? Which platform should I be spending time on? Which restaurants or parts of the city should I be focusing on? Rodeo helps drivers easily answer these questions.
The theses underpinning Form’s investment?
Continued demand for on-demand. Delivery of hot food, groceries, and pretty much all other goods, are projected to continue to grow as a share of all purchases — and we see this being a one way trend.
The gig model needs to mature. In the past, platforms have benefited from the grey area that has been the employment status of drivers, and at times drivers have seemed to lose out. For instance, some platforms have attempted to benefit from a level of driver-platform exclusivity, while avoiding the employee-employer relationship. This behaviour has declined, and will continue to do so as platforms look to shore up the non-employee status of their drivers.
Gig model 2.0 emerges. There will be a maturing of the gig model, whereby power asymmetries between drivers and platforms dwindle and drivers are increasingly seen as businesses in their own right. There is a clear space for new products and services focused on empowering riders and drivers — and these will have data at their heart. Like any other business, one of the biggest questions that third parties can help drivers answer is: how do I optimise my earnings?
Why we love Rodeo
The team — Will and Alfie know the gig delivery space inside out, having spent years in the space. Their energy is undeniable and they have a relentless bias to action that makes us believe they could build the next huge gig platform.
The mission — Both consumers and gig platforms get a great deal out of the gig model, but at times it has seemed drivers have lost out. Inevitably, as drivers are seen increasingly as standalone businesses, businesses like Rodeo will emerge that are built from the ground up to serve a gig driver’s interests. This is very much Rodeo’s mission — they’re always going to be on the drivers’ side.
The white space — As the gig market has matured, the market for driver focused products is only just opening up, which means Rodeo has a broad set of areas to expand into.