Five months after launching in Seattle, FlightCar is setting up shop in Portland.
The peer-to-peer car-sharing service will launch operations at Portland International Airport on Tuesday, offering a way for travelers to park their car for free while allowing others to rent out those same vehicles for a fee.
The idea is to help people make money off their idle car, rather than paying airport parking fees. Car owners are paid based on the year, make, and model of their vehicle, in addition to overall demand.
Renters, meanwhile, are charged on a per-day basis and can drive up to 100 miles before paying a per-mile fee. Liability and property coverage is included for each rental, and those with major driving violations in the past three years are prevented from renting.
FlightCar, a graduate of both Y Combinator and The Brandery accelerators, was founded by 20-year-old Kevin Petrovic and 19-year-old Rujul Zaparde. We enjoyed hearing from Petrovic at the GeekWire Summit last year, where the co-founder explained what it’s been like to be in charge of a fast-growing company.
“It’s been a learning process the entire way,” he said. “I haven’t ran a startup before this, and I haven’t had a lot of experience with the regulatory, city, airport, and government challenges that we encounter.”
Given its business model, and not unlike other “peer-to-peer economy” companies like Uber and Airbnb, FlightCar has dealt with its fair share of legal battles. Petrovic said his team has worked “hand-in-hand” with the Port of Portland to ensure that FlightCar will operate legally at PDX.
FlightCar, based in San Francisco, has raised almost $20 million to date and is already operating in 11 other cities. Petrovic noted that the Seattle location is the company’s fastest-growing market ever and is already the largest outside of FlightCar’s original three markets of Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Learn more about FlightCar here.
