I couldn't afford to buy rental properties at 25. So I started renting out cars instead.
Entrepreneur Saimah Chaudhry shares her journey of building a successful car rental business after realizing she could not afford real estate investments at age 25. By leveraging underutilized assets and scaling her fleet, she eventually transitioned into the electric vehicle rental market.
Why it matters
This story illustrates the rise of the 'asset-sharing' economy and how individuals are finding alternative pathways to entrepreneurship outside of traditional real estate.
Saimah Chaudhry started her business by renting her Smartcar Courtesy of Saimah Chaudhry Saimah Chaudhry listed her Smartcar on a rental service on a whim. She grew her fleet to more than 50 vehicles and was making hundreds of thousands annually. Five years ago, she launched a rental platform focused on electric vehicles. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Saimah Chaudhry , cofounder and chief operating officer of Zevo . It has been edited for length and clarity. Back in 2015, I was working for a SaaS company that I'd founded. It mostly served clients in the restaurant industry, where my parents and grandparents were both entrepreneurs. One day, I was meeting with an out-of-town client who was staying in Manhattan Beach. He mentioned he'd rented the BMW he was driving from Relay Ride (which later became the car rental app Turo).
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