Heride: Empowering women through rideshares in Atlanta, Athens

ATLANTA - You'll see another company plastered on signage the next time you head to the rideshare section at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. "Heride" is just what it sounds like: A rideshare app with only women driving other women around Atlanta and Athens. 

The goal is to make other women feel safe. 

"I used to drive for the other companies. I used to try to go pro for basketball and driving rideshare worked best for my schedule," founder, Jillian Anderson said.

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That meant lots of late-night rides, conversations about safety concerns and reasons why women would cancel rides until they received a woman driver.

"And then they'd tell me about whatever bad experience that got them to that point," Anderson said. "The things women want, or need are sometimes overlooked. They think we're too emotional and that's why we're saying the things we're saying."

One in every six American women has been a rape victim, according to the Rape and Incest National Network (RAINN). Rideshare companies say less than 1% of their rides result in sexual assault and abuse, but with *billions of trips, that still means thousands of people have reported sexual violence while using a rideshare app.

All those conversations got Anderson thinking.

"I was listening to a podcast called ‘How Did I Make This,’" she said. "I was like ‘Wait, I can do this too.’"

Four years since its inception, Anderson now wants other women to know how she created the platform.

"I called my friends, they said it’s a super good idea and I trademarked the name the next day," Anderson said. "I had a company who created the app for me. The name is Apps Script. They developed it."

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With more than 250 drivers, rides are most efficient with prescheduled rides, although you can call a ride in real time. Anderson hopes to hire another 700 more who are willing to make ten rides a week. 

Anderson is already eyeing other cities. Minneapolis, for example, just mandated rideshare companies to pay their drivers minimum wage. Uber and Lyft have chosen to leave the city because of it, but Heride's founder says that's created a greater need for her app. 

She says anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit should consider focusing on a niche market.

"Women are consumers. Women spend the most money of the genders," Anderson said.