Matthew Iommi and Justin Rath

As Co-CEOs of Fetii, entrepreneurs Matthew Iommi and Justin Rath have been working together for nearly a decade, harnessing their entrepreneurial and business skills to succeed in the tech industry and to share their passion with their customers. 

Matthew Iommi is a British-American tech entrepreneur. He is an alumnus of Texas A&M University where he graduated with degrees in business and economics. At a young age Iommi started building various small businesses and was always intrigued with entrepreneurship. 

In high school, Iommi was known to advise his friends on how to build their Roth IRAs and taught them the importance of fundamental investing. During his time at A&M, he co-founded PBS which gave power supply to natural disaster victims and was recognized by the Texas A&M Economic Society for his achievements in social help.

Justin Rath is an Indian-American tech entrepreneur and business magnate with a track record of multiple successful exits. Rath started his first business at the age of 16 and sold his first company by the age of 19. The serial entrepreneur has since leveraged his earnings from various acquisitions to fund, oversee, and build private companies. He is the entrepreneur behind EZTutor, a peer-to-peer tutoring platform (acquired in 2019), and GreatLike Media, a development agency.

In 2020 Matthew Iommi and Justin Rath formed Fetii Inc., a revolutionary shared mobility company that provides on-demand group ridesharing and commuting solutions for groups and businesses in order to reduce emissions and decrease congestion. Fetii has set itself apart from any transportation company out there.

What is Fetii?

Right now in the U.S. over 75% of commuters choose to drive to work alone in their car. This translates into nearly 115 million vehicles transporting exactly one person each, a statistic that is increasing as the workforce continues to grow.

As cities deal with a growing population, rising emissions and increasing congestion, one thing is certain, the future of transportation is shared mobility. The proliferation of individual rides is too energy intensive and leads to intolerable levels of congestion, fundamental issues that many shared mobility companies such as Uber or Lyft fail to properly address in their business models. Fetii is a shared mobility company that provides on-demand group ridesharing and commuting solutions for groups and businesses in order to reduce emissions and decrease congestion.

Despite what many may think, traditional rideshare solutions are adding to the problem of congestion in urban cities. According to a new study published in journal Science Advances, Uber and Lyft increase traffic congestion in the cities they occupy by up to 10%. Fetii aims to solve this problem by providing a more efficient rideshare solution that removes unnecessary vehicles off the streets.

Using a network of 15-passenger transit vans, Fetii services two segments (Fetii Group and Fetii Business):

Fetii Group. Fetii’s offering connects their network with groups who need to get from Point A to Point B. Their mode of transportation, a 15-passenger transit van, enables groups of up to 14 to be transported in a single vehicle with the press of a button. Fetii’s IOS and Android application allows for groups to hail a Fetii Vehicle when and where they need it, providing a practical and quality-rich user-experience. Key benefits to Fetii’s group offering include:

• An individual can request a Fetii Vehicle using a user-friendly application at the time of need. The convenience of on-demand removes the necessity of pre-planning which is frequently subjected to unforeseen circumstances.

Groups of up to 14 can request an on-demand vehicle that gives them the ability to be transported together, providing a superior experience to riders when compared to the alternative of splitting up the group in multiple vehicles.

Utilizing Fetii’s QR check-in system and per-person fee, riders don’t bear the responsibility of paying for the entire fare when riding with other individuals.

The Fetii Group offering allows for riders to play their part in the decrease of carbon emissions and contribute to the reduction of traffic congestion by eliminating unnecessary vehicles from their trip.

Fetii Business. Fetii’s business offering connects their network with businesses and organizations who need transportation services for employees, clients, customers, etc. Due to Fetii’s ability to provide drivers with multiple streams of income, they are able to undercut any competitor providing similar services by over 60%. Fetii’s ability to undercut competitors at such a rate not only opens the door to businesses and organizations that already utilize a commuter service, but also opens the door to new companies who otherwise would not have been able to afford the service at the previous market prices. Key benefits to Fetii’s business offering include:

• The convenience of utilizing a 15-passenger vehicle without the costs of ownership. Such costs typically incurred by businesses include asset depreciation, insurance, management and driver payroll, and fuel.

• Businesses and organizations add value to their workplace experience and employee quality of life by providing a convenient and quality commuting solution. A Fetii Vehicle removes the inconvenience of waiting in traffic and allows for productivity during the workplace commute.

• Businesses and organizations add value to clients and customers by utilizing Fetii’s network for shuttling needs. Hotels can utilize Fetii to transport guests to airports, theme parks, downtown, and any other desired destination. The same applies to apartment complexes, theme parks, event venues, and more.

• Fetii’s business offering allows for business and organizations to play their part in the decrease of carbon emissions and contribute to the reduction of traffic congestion.

How it Began

Following the sale of EZ Tutor, Iommi and Rath wanted to use their resources and experience to tackle a problem that was fundamental to the way we live. Having spent time in Dallas, Austin, College Station, and Los Angeles it was apparent to them that there was a congestion issue evolving and worsening in U.S. cities. So, when they came across Austin Spitzenberger who was the owner of BDB Transport, a small group transportation startup for sale, they paid close attention to see if this was an opportunity worth acquiring. 

The company was operating in College Station (where Iommi attended Texas A&M University), doing $6,000 MRR per vehicle, and had become profitable in the one year it had been in operation. Two observations they saw when analyzing their business model was their efficient solution to removing cars off the streets, and their per-person model to create great margins for themselves and their driver. By using a 15-passenger transit van to transport groups from Point A to Point B, groups no longer had to use multiple vehicles and could instead take one, taking unnecessary vehicles off the road and decreasing congestion and emissions. The business also had significantly more margins than typical rideshare companies due to the fact that one driver was now transporting 4-7x the number of passengers (and thus 4-7x the revenue) as a typical rideshare driver. 

Iommi and Rath acquired BDB Transport outright and began immediately learning the operations side and growing the company. They saw substantial growth and in February, one month after they had purchased the company, the duo acquired Rockin J’s Shuttle. Rockin J’s was the market leader in the College Station area for 6+ years but began to see substantial revenue loss as a result of Justin and Matthew winning over their customers with their marketing and business expertise. With them now having control over the group transportation market in College Station, they had the flexibility and control to grow the company while building and implementing new technology processes. 

After numerous trials (both successes and failures) Iommi and Rath had a successful application that allowed users to request a 15-passenger transit van on-demand within minutes and utilize a QR UPC system to allow a seamless per-person check-in process. Additionally, they had a driver application to allow drivers to service users and a back-end management system to oversee operations.

The company was running using employees as drivers but in order to scale quickly and provide cost-efficient service to users whenever they required, Iommi and Rath knew they had to build a network of independent contractors available day and night to service users. In order to create this self-sustainable network of contractor drivers, these drivers had to have numerous income opportunities available to them. With that in mind, they made two categories of rides available to their drivers; groups and businesses. 

Group is their market in which their transit vans transport groups of up to 14, thus eliminating unnecessary vehicles off the road. Their go-to-market strategy revolved around targeting universities and offering sponsorship in which groups and individuals gain free access to the vehicles for a limited time. The strategy proved to be effective and prompted viral growth in a short amount of time. With evening and night group demand growing exponentially, they looked to increase day-time utilization. 

Their answer came with Business, a market in which businesses could utilize their transit vans for their shuttling and commuting needs. Because of the independent contractor model and binary demand model of groups and businesses, they were able to offer transportation services to businesses at prices lower than any competitor. They found that there were thousands of hotels, apartment complexes, and businesses that had a need for employee/customer transportation and they were positioned to undercut any other option in the market. In College Station they quickly signed Stillwater Capital to a long-term contract in which their transit vans serviced their apartment complex tenants Monday-Friday to and from the university. Those same vehicles and drivers also service groups in the evenings and nights. 

Their unique business proved successful at the small scale and had successfully revolutionized the way groups moved in College Station. With product/market fit evident and go-to-market strategy successfully executed and replicable, they felt the company was ready to enter a larger market. Iommi and Rath changed the company name to Fetii.

The Future of Fetii

Fetii has been talked about in media outlets since its creation, and more and more investors have taken notice of the unique ridesharing and group transportation app. To date, Fetii has attracted thousands of customers and aims to expand its operations in 2021.