When it comes to traveling home for the holidays, or even just a weekend, the Facebook group “Cal Poly Ridepool” has become the destination for students in search of a route home.
The student start-up, Ryde, is on a mission to simplify the often complicated process. Recent graduate Johnny Morris came up with the idea in November 2021 when he saw a
need for a more organized way to connect drivers and passengers.
“It was really annoying having to browse for both drivers and riders and looking for people going in the opposite direction that I was going,” Morris said.
Morris then partnered with co-founders Computer Science graduate student Emily Gavrilenko and Computer Science junior Josh Wong.
The business recently released its service in a mobile app format to include unique features such as instant notifications and personalized matching of drivers to riders.
“Something that is really important to us is the actual matching with people,” Morris said. “Instead of browsing through a bunch of Facebook posts you can actually just search or browse and actually find people that are going the same direction as you instead of having to browse through hundreds of irrelevant posts.”
Currently, the service is available to Cal Poly students with a school email, but the team looks to expand the service to other universities in the future.
