????在此期間，我們將業(yè)務(wù)擴展到許多大學(xué)城。Zipcar的目標消費群是不需要開車上班的人，大學(xué)自然成了理想之選。早期，麻省理工大學(xué)和哈佛大學(xué)（Harvard）都給我們提供了停車場，還我們進行推廣。由于許多人不再開自己的車，而是共用Zipcar的汽車，也就不再需要停車場，于是我們也消除了這些大學(xué)在校園內(nèi)加建停車場的必要。2003年，完成一輪700萬美元融資后，公司已經(jīng)具備了盈利能力。這一年，我父親去世，我16歲的女兒成為一名超級模特。【卡梅隆?拉塞爾，現(xiàn)年25歲，為卡爾文?克萊恩（Calvin Klein）、普拉達（Prada）、香奈兒（Chanel）和其他許多設(shè)計師擔(dān)任模特。】當時，我非常消沉，覺得自己想做的都已經(jīng)做到了。于是在2003年，我辭掉了CEO職位。在公司董事會任職兩年后，徹底離開Zipcar。現(xiàn)在，我還持有這家公司的部分股份。

????離開Zipcar后，我申請了哈佛大學(xué)的勒布獎學(xué)金，深造了一年，學(xué)習(xí)了城市規(guī)劃、交通和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)等各方面的知識。2007年，我成立了一家車輛共乘公司Coloco.com，但這家公司的理念太過超前。美國人尚無法接受車輛共乘的概念。這種理念總有一天會在美國普及，但并不是現(xiàn)在。

????交通方面，法國的做法比美國更加超前。法國率先推出自行車共享出行，我曾就大規(guī)模單向電動車共享出行咨詢過巴黎市政府。去年12月，巴黎市政府投入了1,800輛這種汽車，我也想?yún)⑴c其中。

????于是，2011年6月，我在法國成立了Buzzcar公司，支持車主將汽車出租給朋友和鄰居。公司成立至今已有15個月時間，在法國共有12,000名會員和1,500輛汽車。我的聯(lián)合投資方是法國一家大型私營運輸公司Mobivia。

????擁有一個愿景，并能說服人們投資自己創(chuàng)辦的事業(yè)，而只有你自己能親眼見證這份事業(yè)一步步的發(fā)展，這總是讓我非常興奮，不論要經(jīng)歷多少艱難痛苦的日子。我曾開玩笑說，交通是我們?nèi)粘Ｉ畹闹行摹５瑫r，我也堅信這一點。我們上班和回家的出行體驗會讓我們對未來的展望更加多彩。交通占家庭預(yù)算的18%，全球二氧化碳排放30%來自交通部門。看到我所成立的公司能夠產(chǎn)生社會效益，便是對我最大的回報。

我的建議

????充分利用其別人的閑置能力。我與麻省理工大學(xué)建立了合作伙伴關(guān)系，校方向其35,000名教職人員和學(xué)生發(fā)送電子郵件，鼓勵他們加入Zipcar。學(xué)校這么做不需要任何成本，但從營銷角度來講，我需要投入大筆資金才能取得同樣的效果。

????Along the way, we opened in a number of university towns. Zipcar is targeted at people who don't need a car to get to work, and universities are a natural fit. Early on, MIT and Harvard gave us parking spaces and helped market the company. We eliminated the need for each of them to build a parking garage on their campus because of the large number of people who shared Zipcar instead of driving and parking their own vehicles.

????When I finished raising a $7 million round of financing in 2003, we were on the road to profitability. I also had a father who was dying, and a daughter who was becoming a supermodel at age 16. (Cameron Russell, now 25, models for Calvin Klein, Prada, Chanel, and many other designers.) I was a complete wreck, and decided I'd done everything I wanted to do. I stepped down as CEO in 2003, stayed on the board for two years, then left. I still hold some shares in the company.

????After Zipcar, I did a Loeb fellowship at Harvard for a year and learned a lot about urban planning, transportation, and the Internet. I started a ride-sharing company called Goloco.com in 2007, but was too early with it.America's not ready for ride sharing. It will be one day, but not now.

????France is a step ahead of the U.S. in transportation practice. It had been leading with shared transportation in bikes, and I'd been consulting with the city of Paris on transportation with one-way electric-car sharing on a large scale. It launched 1,800 such cars in Paris in December last year, and I wanted to be in the mix.

????So in June 2011, I started Buzzcar in France, which allows you to rent your own car to friends and neighbors. The company is 15 months in now, with 12,000 members and 1,500 cars throughout France. My co-investor is a large, privately held French transportation company named Mobivia.

????It's exciting to have a vision, to persuade people to invest in what you're building, and a privilege to see it play out, despite many a miserable and hard day. I joke, yet believe, that transportation is at the center of our daily lives. Our outlook is colored by what it was like to get to work and home. Transportation contributes to 18% of the household budget and 30% of the world's CO2 emissions. It's extremely rewarding to see the social benefits that have come from the companies I have founded.

My advice

????Leverage other people 's excess capacity. I made a partnership with MIT in which they sent an e-mail to their 35,000 staff and students about joining Zipcar. It cost them next to nothing to do and, from a marketing standpoint, would have cost me a lot to buy.