r ide-share startup hopes to disrupt industry

By ALYSA GUFFEY editor-in-chief e meritus

d esi, a college-exclusive ride-share company, is currently in a closed beta test for limited members of the n otre d ame community — and the company began in the s outh d ining h all stirfry line.

s ophomore Liam r edmond first had the idea for d esi in high school when he noticed his friends having a difficult time ordering rides or feeling unsafe with random strangers driving them from place to place.

Then, he started talking to fellow sophomore Zach b rown in a line on campus that is known to be a great time for conversation.

“Liam was talking all about d esi and his idea in the stir-fry line and I said ‘That sounds great,’” b rown said. “And I thought we could work together because I have that web and app development background.” r edmond then brought in the third co-founder, film, television and th eatre major r ob c orrato, to the team as chief creative officer to coordinate media production, content creation and marketing for the company.

With the core trio assembled, redmond, brown and corrato doubled down in July 2022 to devote time to make their vision come alive.

Through a couple of successful Friday pitches at the Idea center, desi secured $4,000 in funding through three grants. The company will next source other funding this summer through friends, family or a pre-seed round for potential investors.

They plan to run the soft launch through the end of the semester, with more test users added each week, and to prepare for a full launch on the app store in the fall 2023 semester.

As of monday, desi had 176 approved riders and 48 approved drivers, with 20 drivers currently listed as active on the app. rides are free in the beta-testing stage. The only revenue drivers make now is in the form of optional tips. one driver reported back that he made $210 in just two nights of driving, corrato said. once desi goes full throttle, the service will be offered using a base price for pick-up plus a per-mile and per-minute factor. The team estimates an average ride will be $12, with the driver taking home 70% of the total. The pricing model sets the company apart from Uber, which uses dynamic pricing to rack up fares when demand surges.

“so it’ll scale up,” brown said. “but I imagine most of our rides are going to be within that fivemile radius thinking that south bend airport is probably the farthest people are going to be going.”

Safe and social rides

The desi founders believe they separate themselves from competitors Uber and Lyft through their closed ecosystem. All drivers and riders must be students within a college’s community.

“We really want to introduce this idea of profiles like Instagram where you can see common connections,” redmond said. “People can see ‘oh, they’ve got a buddy. It’s a great thing to talk about, and I feel safer if I know you know… a common friend.’” even the brand’s name plays off the idea of a college rideshare community that is more socially connected. It originated with the name devi but was switched to be a shortened version of the designated driver.

“We wanted to sell that designated driver kind of thing where it’s somebody that you trust coming to pick you up,” brown said.

And, the team said driving for desi is an easy way to make money late on the weekends, a time when on-campus jobs are hard to come by as social events peak for the week. They added that test drivers have confirmed it’s a good gig in the valuation stage. desi follows the same regulations for hiring drivers across the industry, including a background check, a motor vehicle record check and three years of driving experience. In addition, a personal interview is conducted by the team, redmond said.

“That really sets us apart,” redmond said. “We all looked at becoming drivers [on other apps] and were honestly scared at how easy it was to become drivers.”

If the team succeeds in the tri-campus market, they hope to expand to colleges across the country that have similar characteristics to notre dame.w

“It would be our main goal, of course, to get desi everywhere,” corrato said. “That would be phenomenal but we’re really targeting schools that are similar to notre dame in location, in size and type of students.”

Contact Alysa Guffey at aguffey@nd.edu

Appleby, the dean of the Keough school, Kay told The cut.

After the backlash began, Kay tweeted: “The note on my door was not about abortion. And the University knows this, but neither they, nor I can comment on what happened to prompt it. I’ll say no more about that. but I do, of course, fully support abortion rights and the policy implications of abortion bans are horrific,” according to Fox news.

University spokesperson dennis brown said that Kay’s signage and social media activity implied that she was offering medical advice on abortions.

“A reasonable person could understand Professor Kay to be giving medical advice (on becoming ‘unpregnant’ by taking abortion pill without knowing any details about an individual student’s health),” a University spokesperson wrote in a statement to The cut. “This seemed unwise from both the perspective of faculty members and students.” other messages reported to The cut include: “drop dead c**t,” and “eat a couple of handfuls of opossum sh*t.”

In the months following the Irish rover’s coverage, which was picked up by several other news outlets and conservative organizations, Kay received a preponderance of emails and messages attacking her for vocally supporting abortion rights.

In a string of tweets and opeds, Kay has repeatedly voiced her support for abortion rights with the qualification that her views do not represent the University.

Kay did not clarify whether she planned to pursue any specific legal action. she was not willing to speak on the record with The observer but offered a written statement.

“There is significant and extensive documentary and witness evidence of the meetings, communications and interactions pertaining to all that has transpired, and in time that will be clear,” she wrote in an email.

“This is not and has never been about me. It is about the safety and dignity of the brilliant women students on this campus, who deserve to thrive and flourish here. my commitment to them, and to our black, indigenous, LGbTQI+ and students of color is unshakeable, at the core of how I try to live my deep faith every day, and cannot be undermined by threats, abuse and harassment.”

University spokesperson sue ryan said in an email to The observer that notre dame “categorically denies” that the administration has “in any way limited her academic freedom or failed to address her security and other concerns.” ryan cited a list of measures taken to ensure Kay’s safety. ndPd provided Kay with a safety plan for her home and met to address safety concerns in the classroom, she wrote. The office of Information Technology, at the request of the office of the Provost “isolated any such emails so that they would not reach Professor Kay, but would be available to notre dame police for monitoring.”

“While no direct threats were identified, the police continue to monitor for any threats other than inappropriate and harassing emails,” ryan wrote in an email.

Kay has academic freedom to speak in her subject area, ryan wrote.

“Professor Kay’s area of expertise, which earned her appointment at notre dame, relates to global trade and, in particular, the north American Free Trade Agreement,” ryan wrote. “even now, her page on the department of sociology website lists her research expertise in a wide range of sociological topics — none involving reproductive rights. Like any citizen, all notre dame faculty are of course free to discuss their personal opinions so long as they distinguish those opinions from their position at the University, a policy that is common in higher education.”

The University declined to comment on whether or why Kay has sought legal representation.

News writer Liam Price contributed to this report.

Contact Maggie Eastland at meastlan@nd.edu

Contact Ryan Peters at rpeters5@nd.edu