Just got this mail from GoMyWay. These guys were doing a great job.

Very sad

I wish the government or any NGO would intervene if it's no late already.

Hi,

I hope you are doing well. It is with deep regret that I write this email to let you know that GoMyWay will be closing down. In this email, I'll let you know why we are closing as well as offer an alternative service. I hope you take a few minutes to read.

In 2015, I was hired as the CEO, via recommendation by my previous employers, to run GoMyWay. The plan by its Shareholders/Investors was to run a free service for a year or two, and focus on growing the user-base.

Over the last 2 years, the team put in time and effort to growing the business and building a trusted ridesharing community. We went from less than 1000 members in the first few months to 12,000+ members; 106,630 rides offered and rides shared across 16 states. However, it does take a lot of resources to run this business and the initial plan was no longer sustainable. The Shareholders/Investors came to a conclusion to shut down operations and close the business as there were no funds to invest further.

I want to specially thank you for your support. I believe GoMyWay had the best community and I can write a few pages about it. We had users who spread the word about us even when we had no referral codes to give in return. I remember when Yinka visited a member and he had mentioned how everyone in his office now uses GoMyWay through him. We had users who were always available to share amazing ideas with us. It's no surprise that the second highest acquisition channel was referrals/word of mouth.

It does break our hearts to end this wonderful community and we did try to keep it going, but the team has decided to keep the platform running till the end of October. From today, the signup page will no longer be accessible and customer support would also be winding down.

I'm so proud of everyone that worked on GoMyWay. The business was blessed to have the most dedicated and hardworking staff who put in more than their time into this. Some of our users have come in contact with our staff, so they know I am not exaggerating. Thank you Yinka, Favour, Segun, Ope, Ayo, Busayo, Doyin and all the contract staff and interns that worked with us. God bless you immensely.



Lastly, I felt it would be unfair to leave you and other users hanging with no alternative; so, if you are resident in Lagos and in need of an affordable ride to/from work, please check out the guys at Shuttlers who run an affordable shuttle service for professionals. If interested, fill out their form HERE

Thank you very much; and please feel free to reply this email if you would like to reach me. I will try to reply to as many as possible.



With Love,

Damilola

GoMyWay.com

Probably a fall-out as a result of poor business modeling I've always wondered aloud how they intend to make money out of it all.

Mrval20:
Just got this mail from GoMyWay. These guys were doing a great job.

Very sad

I wish the government or any NGO would intervene if it's no late already.

bigtt76:
Probably a fall-out as a result of poor business modeling I've always wondered aloud how they intend to make money out of it all.

Quite unfortunate. Guess the transition from a free to paid service didn't go as planned.

If they did that, then they got what they deserved What organization would offer a product to people for free and decide to start charging for such product/service? It just won't work.

Remember Whatsapp tried that with their $0.99 subscription per year thing which did not fly until they were sold to Facebook. Imagine what would happen if Facebook or Twitter decides to start charging her teeming users .....everyone would just disappear!

The best they could have done was start selling adverts to their users ...that's what is keeping the likes of Facebook and Twitter going today.

I really don't blame Jason Njoku (IrokoTV crooner) ranting yesterday on Social media that 50% all startups in Nigeria are Fake and they finally end up in flames ....we too like copy-copy and inflating the numbers to get investors scrambling for a pie. Its all Ra-Ra and it got to stop before foreign investors starts thinking we are fake

Mrval20:


Quite unfortunate. Guess the transition from a free to paid service didn't go as planned.

Quite unfortunate for Nigeria and it's startup space.

Apparently, GoMyWay didn't start out as a business, rather, as a charity organisation seeking to provide free services in an unsupportive business climate like Nigeria. And as we know, switching from a NGO/Charity space to a business is a tricky one, which is what got them burnt, coupled with Nigeria's unfavourable business climate.

Now that the company is down, I'd think that some lessons should have been learnt and documented for future businesses not to fall into. Repeating a similar error will eventually affect individuals and the society, but it can be prevented by conscious documentation of the lessons learnt and valid recommendations...Case study/Whitepaper? Whatever, just get something off this.