Tony Tasdelen, Co-founder of Eligo
Eligo Cars
Tony Tasdelen, a 20-year-old Canadian entrepreneur turned his passion into business when he launched Eligo Cars in 2020 amidst a global pandemic.
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, July 7, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ — Tony Tasdelen, a 20-year-old Canadian entrepreneur turned his passion into a business when he launched Eligo Cars in 2020 amidst a global pandemic. We met with him to discuss this new and exciting business, and how he became an entrepreneur at such a young age.
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Tony Tasdelen. I’m a first-generation Canadian. My parents moved to Toronto from Turkey when I was 9. I’m currently studying Digital Entrepreneurship Management at the University of Toronto. I’ve been passionate about cars since I was little, and I was always interested in entrepreneurship. These two passions led me to co-found Eligo Cars.
How did your interest in entrepreneurship begin?
I think it was something that passed onto me from my father. He had started businesses in his youth and that was something that I always looked up to. Growing up, he was a role model for me. I was inspired by his work ethic. I’d see him leaving the house in the morning wearing his suit and I wanted to be like him. I had a suit that my mom got me for a wedding when I was 5 and I would insist on wearing that to kindergarten every day. When I got a little bit older, I started having discussions with my father about what businesses I could start. He would always lend me an ear and give me advice if I needed it, but he also wanted to be hands-off and let me figure things out on my own. I ended up starting several different businesses over the years, the first one when I was 14. Some ended up being successful and some were not, but it was all an incredible learning experience that led me to where I am today.
Can you tell us a little bit about Eligo Cars?
Eligo Cars is a car-sharing platform that connects car owners and renters. It’s like Airbnb for cars. We provide an income opportunity for car owners and it’s a great way to access a car without having to own and maintain one.
How did this idea come to life?
My parents helped me purchase my first car at the age of 16. Like most kids that age, I had a very limited budget but dreamed of owning a nice car. My dream car at the time was a BMW. I started thinking about ways to make enough money to get this car. I decided to start renting out my current car. After my little car rental business started taking off, I was able to afford a BMW 4 series. But I didn’t stop there. I put up the BMW for rent and in a few months, I was making enough money to finance a Porsche Macan. Then I had my eyes on an Audi S5 and so on. It all started escalating like a domino effect. I ended up owning 5 fully booked cars by the age of 17! I thought, if I can do this at the age of 17, everyone can. I decided to create Eligo Cars and give every car owner this opportunity.
Wow, that’s an incredible story. How is Eligo Cars different from regular car rental companies?
Eligo Cars is a marketplace. We don’t have a fleet of cars that we rent out. We provide users with the opportunity to rent out their car to make extra income or rent a car from a local car owner for a much lower cost than what they can get at a car rental company. The cool thing about this is we get a ton of custom and unique cars on our platform that you wouldn’t find at a regular car rental company or would have to pay a lot of money for at an exotic rental place.
Another thing that sets us apart is, car-sharing has the ability to dramatically reduce the number of cars on the road by reducing the need for car ownership. We don’t only save people the cost of maintenance and storage, we also reduce the environmental impact of cars. There are way too many cars that are unused and just sit in parking garages.
That’s very interesting. The environmental impact of car-sharing may not be something that’s known by a lot of people. Do you also have electric cars on your platform?
Yes! We love electric cars. Since they tend to be a little more expensive, not everyone has access to an electric vehicle (EV). But when given the opportunity to drive one, many prefer them. You don’t see a lot of EVs at traditional rental companies, and they are extremely popular on Eligo Cars. My dream is to one day have all-electric and hybrid cars on the platform. I think that goal is easily achievable with the progress we’re making.
How are cars on your platform protected against damages?
Our insurance partner, Northbridge Insurance covers all vehicles on the platform during the rental period. This is at no additional cost to the car owner. So, car owners can have peace of mind knowing that if something does happen their car will be covered.
How has the pandemic affected your business? What was it like to launch a business during this difficult time?
We had been working on the idea of Eligo Cars for several years prior to launch. It has a lot of moving parts and unique challenges. Even without the pandemic thrown into the mix, we hit many roadblocks. Finding the right insurance partner was one of the biggest challenges as we are the first Canadian company to come up with this idea. When you have something that’s never been done, everything has to be custom. Once we had that and were able to hire the right people onto our team, things started moving a lot faster. But just as we were getting ready
Zeynep Erkek, Marketing Director
Eligo Cars
+1 905-580-5986
zeynep@eligocars.com
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