Alex Southern leads Business Development initiatives for Midcoast, a Detroit-based creative studio, and in 2011 founded GrowDetroit, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping foster Detroit’s emerging entrepreneurial and startup community. He has been involved in the Internet space for a decade, working with startups and established businesses on their marketing and operational strategies. He was a Marketing Executive at Visalus Sciences, a technology-driven nutrition startup that markets supplements, energy drinks, and weight management products. The company’s Body by Vi Challenge has donated nearly one million meals to children and families in need. Previously, he served as Associate Editor of DBusiness, a leading business publication, where he reported on emerging Detroit startups and technology-based companies.
cities
Detroit Is Already a City of Drones
Marc Andreessen—cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital firms—recently penned an article for Politico entitled “Turn Detroit into Drone Valley.” In short, the focus of the article centered around the desire to develop innovation clusters in cities across the globe. It’s a recurrent theme throughout organizations like Techonomy: how to foster a spirit of innovation and embrace technological innovation, all while building upon the legacy strengths of a specific city or region.
cities
Rising Costs: Is Uber’s Market-Demand Pricing Ethical?
As San Francisco's recent transit strike winds down, contract negotiations will carry on over the next month between Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and the employee unions. For on-demand car services such as Uber, who have gained a significant foothold in the Bay Area, strikes of this nature present a unique opportunity to capitalize on the increased demand for affordable transit. With approximately 400,000 people using the service on a daily basis, the economic impact of a transit strike within the city is significant. Yet Uber's business practices of engaging in a market-demand pricing strategy could, by their own admission, result in "surge pricing"—a premium price placed on rides during high-demand periods.
apps
New Yorkers Can Now Hail Yellow Cabs with an App
New York City’s yellow taxi riders can now legally hail a cab with a smartphone app. Tuesday evening, San Francisco-based Uber announced that its cab hailing services were approved for use throughout the city, a move that positions Uber as the first and only cab-hailing app currently approved for use in New York. This follows a recent dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the livery car industry in New York, which opened the doors for app makers to offer electronic hailing of taxicabs throughout the city, a service Uber initially began testing last fall.
Automotive
From the Model T to P2P: How Automotive Innovation is Changing Detroit (Again)
San Francisco's Uber has turned the limo and cab industry upside down by offering a car service that books rides on demand from smartphones. Users can request vehicles and complete transactions entirely through a mobile app. This method creates efficiencies that don't exist in traditional limo/cab offerings: upon request for a vehicle, the app sends the picture, name, and direct contact number of your driver to your smartphone. GPS enables real-time tracking as the driver approaches your pickup location, and upon reaching your destination, payment is automatically processed (gratuity included) through the app. In short, Uber has radically streamlined the customer experience for both driver and passenger.
