Update on Zipcar's Forthcoming iPhone App

Zipcar showed off a new iPhone app last month at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference that got me salivating (I'm a Zipcar member): it offers GPS help finding cars that are available, and can even honk the car's horn to help you locate it in a parking lot. See the video demo below...

Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith told me today that he has already been testing the beta version on his iPhone, with a few of the company's cars here in Boston. "We're finishing the app now, and then we have to do a complete new software download to our whole car network, so that iPhones will have the ability to honk the horn and unlock the car for you," Griffith said. The app will be free. Griffith estimates that it'll be available in about four weeks. Future versions of the Zipcar app, he added, might give Zipcar members discounts on music, or deals on iPhone navigation apps or other travel-related apps.

New HQ for Greylock Partners: Sand Hill Road...Menlo Park... Calif.

Just got off the phone with Bill Helman of Greylock Partners, who shed some light on the story everyone is talking (and Tweeting) about this morning: Greylock is moving its home office from Waltham to Menlo Park.

Sticking around in Waltham will be two partners: Helman and Bill Kaiser. (They also get occasional visits from Greylock chairman Henry McCance.)

Helman said the decision was made by the partners over the past month. "We looked at the data, looked at our returns, and looked at competitive data, to the extent that you can get it," he said. "Then, of course, we get paid to make judgments, so there's a judgment that gets made on top of that. We asked, is this cyclical or secular -- and we came down on the side that this is more of a secular shift than a cyclical one."

"This doesn't mean that Boston is a zero," he continued. "Boston is a terrific location, and there will continue to be success here. But the big change was moving the back office [to California, and deciding to add new partners there.] I have an emotional attachment to Boston. I live in Cambridge. I love Harvard, and I love MIT. But we have a responsibility to our limited partners."

Greylock only has a handful of current portfolio companies in the Boston area right now. They include Zipcar, Reveal Imaging, Concert Pharmaceuticals, AVEO, and Ounce Labs. I called Roger Tung, chief executive of Concert, this morning, and he hadn't yet heard about the news, though he'd had lunch with Helman (who serves on his board) a few weeks ago.

"They told me they're getting new space on Sand Hill Road, but I just assumed they were moving offices there," Tung said.

Helman said the plan was not to discuss the change until July, when Greylock holds its LP meeting. But apparently rumors were circulating around the grapevine that Greylock was closing its Waltham office and laying everyone off, so Helman needed to set the record straight. (The new space in Menlo Park will be big enough to add a few more partners -- and Greylock is unusual right now in that very few VC firms are growing.)

He said that Greylock raised its most recent fund in 2005 ($500 million), but hasn't been out trying to raise a new one -- though they're talking about when might be the right time.

Helman portrayed this geographical shift as something that has been taking place over the last eight or ten years for the firm, as the Greylock partnership and portfolio has expanded in the Bay Area. "Fifteen years ago, we were 75 percent Boston and 25 percent Silicon Valley," he said, "but more recently we've become much more focused on Silicon Valley." Portfolio companies out there include Facebook, LinkedIn, Cuil, and Revision3.

"Everybody has been asking me, do you think Boston is terrible and there's no opportunity here," Helman said. "That's not what we think. The issue is one of relativity. We get paid to deliver relative value add. For us, this is about the relative best geography."

My take: this is not such a big change for Greylock, where they've been focused predominantly on West Coast opportunities for a while... but the fact that the firm will be adding partners in the Valley and not in Massachusetts is a net negative for the entrepreneurial scene here.

Your thoughts?

(Update: Here's the official Greylock release on the move... and some data and reaction from Bijan Sabet at Spark Capital.)

Revving up: Zipcar's car sharing rivals

Today's Globe column looks at Zipcar's new rivals: U-Haul, Hertz, and Enterprise.

Below, a chart comparing the current offerings from Hertz, U-Haul, and Zipcar. U-Haul says in the next few weeks it'll be expanding its U Car Share program to include more vehicles in more locations, but the basic parameters will remain the same.

	Zipcar	U-Haul’s U Car Share	Hertz Hourly Rentals
Membership Fee	$25 application fee; $50 annual membership fee	$25 application fee; $50 annual membership fee	None
Hourly rental rate	$9 per hour for cars like the Toyota Matrix or Scion xB.	$10 per hour. Only car currently available is the PT Cruiser.	$12 per hour for compact sedan on weekdays; $15 Fri-Sun
Notes	Offers cars like BMWs and Volvos at premium rates.	Cars currently only rentable during hours when U-Haul offices are open.	Only one Boston location, at 30 Park Plaza.

(* All hourly rates include gas; Zipcar and U-Haul include
insurance, but Hertz charges extra.)

And here's the video, with Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith.

Zipcar and Flexcar merge

Cambridge-based Zipcar is merging with Seattle-based Flexcar. Scott Griffith, CEO of Zipcar, will stay on as CEO -- and they'll keep the Zipcar name.

From the San Francisco Chronicle::

In addition to San Francisco and Washington, Zipcar operates in New York, Boston, Chicago, Vancouver, Toronto and London. Flexcar locations include Seattle, Portland, Ore., Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. Both companies also provide car sharing on dozens of college campuses.

There's also a story in the Globe that notes that the new Zipcar will have 5000 cars in its fleet.

Also a short item in the Boston Business Journal.

Zipcar chases college students

From yesterday's Wall Street Journal: Zipcar goes to college. Darren Everson writes:

Traditional rental-car companies largely avoid the student market because of concerns about liability. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the crash rate per mile driven for 16-19-year-olds is four times that of drivers 20 and older. Companies seek to mitigate risk through surcharges and higher minimum age requirements. Hertz's minimum age is 21 in all states except Michigan and New York, where it's 18; Hertz renters under the age of 25 are also subject to an age differential charge. Avis Budget has a minimum age of 21 in most locations and has a $110 per day surcharge in New York state for renters 18 to 24.

The car-sharing companies, by contrast, are aiming to manage their risk by requiring that 18-to-20-year-old applicants have two years' driving experience and a clean record, and that they be a student at a participating school. There are no additional fees or deposits, although Flexcar also requires parental consent and a copy of the student's current auto-insurance policy showing the policy's limits. Flexcar requires that 18-20-year-olds have $300,000 of additional liability coverage. But otherwise, insurance works the same way for 18-year-old car sharers as it does for older ones: In an accident, the car-sharing company's insurance covers the cost except for a $500 deductible, which applies if the member is at fault.

The car-sharing companies believe they can tap into the younger market safely because of their business model, which allows them to screen customers by their driving record, and because of the clientele. "The reason we see a difference is because we're a membership-driven system," says Scott Griffith, president and chief executive of Zipcar.

Zipcar's main competitor on campus is Flexcar.