Great Minds

In my day job, I spend a lot of time reading about all sorts of business ventures and companies.  While I don't directly support our emerging companies group, based in the Silicon Valley office, the group is a vital part of our overall Corporate practice, which I do support.  There are moments, similar to the one last week when I discovered our team had assisted Instagram in its merger with Facebook, when I'm left with a very deep appreciation both for the inventiveness of others as well as the commitment to success.

My most recent moment of appreciation came partially as a result of a personal obsession.  This week, it came to my attention that there is a San Francisco-based start-up company known as Cherry.  Cherry provides on-demand car wash services.  There is an iPhone app (and is a soon-to-be-released Android app as well) that you use to check-in at your location.  This spurs coordination on Cherry's end to send out a car wash associate, and that person brings all supplies and completes a full car wash wherever it is your car has been parked.  There is a text sent to you when the team member is approaching, and there is a text sent to you when the job is completed.  This service sounds amazing to me because I am constantly distracted by smudges and bugs stuck to my car.  I'm also rarely able to really take the time to do a good job on correcting those things anymore, so I'll end up driving through an automatic car wash, drive away having done no work myself, participated in the waste of a ton of water but also with remaining smudges and then eventual water spots.  So, the combination of my focus on a clean car and frustration due to lack of time caused my ears to perk up at the discovery of Cherry.  

The cost of this service is about $29.99, and so far, it's only available in a handful of cities in the Bay Area.  The inspiration for this creation?  The founder arrived home from a business trip and had a dirty car.  He googled the closest car washes to go and run his car through, but when he went to the two listed as closest in proximity, they were no longer in business.  He reflected on the fact that he could have used that time he was driving around to find a car wash to spend with his family.  And this is when it occurred to him that a lot of others probably had any number of things they'd rather be doing rather than driving to the car wash or washing their own car.  While all of this may seem excessive, the company also remains focused on being eco-friendly, so environmental lovers can get off guilt-free.

Perhaps someone in Wheeling will soon get fed up with the futile conundrum of dirty cars but not enough time to properly clean them and jump on the Cherry bandwagon.  A long shot, I know, but it's worth hoping.