In August and September of 2022, I conceived Tricer as a carsharing solution, a model in which people rent vehicles for short periods and pay for hours of use and kilometers driven. I envisioned a system that would allow users to rent vehicles at any time, without bureaucracy or human contact. Furthermore, Tricer would act as a marketplace for small car rental companies, helping them grow in a market dominated by giants such as Localiza and Movida.

The idea seemed promising. Global and Brazilian trends indicate that people are increasingly interested in paying for the use of a vehicle instead of owning it. This is particularly relevant in Brazil, where the cheapest vehicle costs more than BRL 68,000. Companies like Zipcar and Turbi are already operating in this segment abroad and in Brazil, respectively.

However, after contacting about forty rental companies and attending four meetings, I realized that the quality of customers is a constant concern. Car rental companies provide high-value vehicles and face risks of damage or default, which can directly impact their revenue. Thus, I understood that if I want to attract the maximum number of rental companies to Tricer, it is crucial that our main benefit is ensuring quality renters.

Another advantage of offering this benefit is the growing competitive barrier that is established as Tricer attracts more users and the volume of rentals made through the platform increases. Through machine learning, we can develop algorithms that identify the behavior of renters, differentiating the best from the worst. The greater the number of users, the more accurate our ability to ensure quality renters, consolidating the relationship with partner rental companies and attracting new ones. In this context, competitors entering the market later will face a disadvantage, as they will not have access to the data and sophisticated algorithms implemented on our platform, thus solidifying our competitive position in the market.

A few days after defining this new perspective for the B2B side of Tricer, I had a meeting with Áureo and Idael, owner and manager of Maer Locadora, our first partner. During approximately three hours of conversation, Áureo convinced me to abandon the charging model based on rental hours and kilometers driven. He argued that this model is not advantageous for rental companies since they all operate within business hours, and the risk associated with renting for a few hours is practically the same as for an entire day, although the financial return is significantly lower. Now Tricer is integrated into a traditional rental model, with a style quite similar to Rent Cars, but maintaining the original premise of zero bureaucracy.

My goal is to create a billion-dollar potential company, which requires significant differentiators compared to Rent Cars and large rental companies. I am still developing a robust value proposition for the B2C side of Tricer, to achieve viral growth and conquer a leading position in the Latin American rental market. Over the next two days (03/17 and 03/17), I will solve this issue and start the product development for launch in April.