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Comment by aviv | Hacker News Reader

Lyft is a good example for startups that are 2nd or 3rd place (or worse) behind a competing market leader. Perseverance can pay off tremendously. You never know what the market forces will dictate, when your competitor will be tied in some massive scandal, when the #1 market leader will get bought out and have their primary product shut down a short while later, etc.

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Avis rent a car used to embrace that attitude: https://visual.ly/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/avis-1.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QjhMFKRvyqo/SODNmsNEHCI/AAAAAAAAAk...

Did it work out for them?

They're number 3 now. Enterprise was the surprise, taking the number one spot

They could scratch everything save "The Line at Our Counter is Shorter." That sounds powerful enough.

I'm surprised there aren't rental car counters that are just a bunch of automated kiosks, like they have for flight check-ins. It seems like there's rarely anything that actually requires a human at the desk when I've already booked the car rental a while ago.

Enterprise at LAX has kiosks but every time I try to use one I end up having to go to the counter anyway. Possibly due to using a business travel agent but I'm not sure.

I think Hertz has a VIP feature for frequent renters where they can just walk right to the car.

Isn't the human there to try to sell you insurances you don't need?

Their job is to say "uh the computer isn't working" if you show up looking like a lowlife

That is exactly what I had at Hertz at Newark Airport the other day (when I booked via Expedia instead of Hertz direct which would have led to the more convenient “just get in a car and go” experience). I’d rather deal with a human though.

Snapple did that too. I remember their commercials in the '90s celebrating that they were #3 and that made them awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLv__8u7KJQ

http://adage.com/article/news/snapple-shoots-3/18175/

Lyft was the first company to do ridesharing. Uber was actually second or third to the market, also behind Sidecar if I remember correctly. Uber's biggest problems were the problems it caused itself through stupidity, but the new CEO appears to be making a difference in terms of changing the perception of Uber.

Lyft was second, Sidecar was first.

Didn’t they desperately try to get acquired when things looked dire?

Very true. Who would have predicted Apple overtaking Microsoft?

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