The Grand Experiment that was the Making of GoGoGrandparent

Most people know that GoGoGrandparent was Betty (my grandma’s) idea. This is the story of what came after she had it.

Setting the Stage

My cofounder David Lung and I had just come off the heels of a not-so-successful idea. Part of the problem with our prior venture was we had tried to make something that people didn’t really want to use.

Well most people. There was one company that was interested in purchasing our tech to help them with an internal problem. The use case didn’t have a wide ranging application and we were both completely burnt out, but David kept us alive by converting our work into an application they could use and bought us a few more months of runway. If it hadn’t been for that, our story would have stopped there. It’s amazing what a few months can do.

And we took that time very seriously! Rather than spending it all building the tech behind Grandma’s idea, we decided that it’d be more useful to first test out whether or not people would really want to use it.

The problem was that grandma loved me. Though normally this is awesome, for the sake of an experiment it meant she couldn’t be trusted! She could theoretically use it just because her grandson made it for her. Not necessarily because she really wanted to.

The Experiment

To get around this problem I had to do something awful. I had to lie to Grandma. We decided to make up a company called ‘Grand’ and pretend like it was the exact idea she had suggested the week prior, to see if she would use it.

And we were disappointed to find that she wasn’t very excited at all.

The conversation went kinda like this:

“Grandma, remember a couple weeks ago when you had that idea about a number you could call to get an Uber?”

“Hmm? Oh, yes, why?”

“My friend Josh Fitzgerald up in Santa Monica just launched this thing he is calling ‘Grand’ — it’s a number you can call to get an on demand ride.”

“Oh, that’s interesting honey.”

“Yeah, it was free to sign up so I registered you. All you have to do is call (310) 400–5082 and they’ll get a car for you.”

“Oh, okay, thanks.”

“Do you… do you want to write it down?”

“Oh, uh, sure.”

I saved it into her phone under the name ‘Grand’ and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Introducing Josh Fitzgerald

Two weeks went by and I was so frustrated! If I asked her about it or brought it up again, it may have tipped her off that I was up to something and spoil the experiment. But she had completely forgotten about Josh Fitzgerald and Grand!

I needed a way to remind her, something that couldn’t come from me, but could come from the fake Josh Fitzgerald.

So, we went to a CVS and bought a big $6 card that said “HOORAY! Woo-hoo! OH YEAH”

Because my grandma would know my handwriting, David wrote the card:

“Dear Betty,

Your grandson signed you up for Grand, and I wanted to introduce myself and our service. Grand lets you enjoy the power of technology without the headache. Give me a call and I’ll have a car at your door in five minutes, groceries in your fridge in two hours, a gardener in your lawn in a day, and so much more. I’m available from 7am — 9pm every single day of the week and you’ll always be able to get a hold of me when you call. We typically charge a 20% service fee, but your 1st call is free. Thank you so much for reading this letter, I’ll leave you with this question: ‘Is there anything I can do for you today?’

Talk to you soon,

Josh at Grand

(310) 400–5082

My quote of the day today: ‘ Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty and persistence.’ — Colin Powell

Let me know how I can succeed for you today!

Josh

(310) 400–5082”

After reading this you probably have questions. The biggest one may likely be ‘Why in the world did you include a quote of the day?’

Well curious reader, the primary goal of this card was to get Grandma to call Grand.

But the secondary goal, was to get her to bring up Grand in conversation so that I had an excuse to ‘remember’ it later and bring it up in conversation with her at least once whenever I wanted.

I figured that any interested family member could be expected to do that at least once if the service was real so I didn’t feel like we were violating the rules of the experiment.

To that end, I knew that for the three years while I was living with her, my grandma — God bless her — would cut out the Quote of the Day from the Daily Breeze and give it to me every single morning while I ate my breakfast. And not just the quote of the day: I’d get the Historical Fact of the Day, the Mantra of the Day, the Word of the Day, anything she thought I might think was interesting. So I included a quote about success because I knew she’d know I was struggling with trying to find a project that worked and hoped that she’d think the success quote would be encouraging to me.

We mailed the card on Friday, December 11th, 2015 and waited eight days with no phone calls.

Sunday Dinner

While I was living in LA I’d see Grandma every Sunday for dinner (we’ve since moved to Mountain View, but I still see her every couple weeks). The next weekend I went down to see her and to my surprise, there beside my meal was The Card!

And I swear on all that is holy and good that grandma proceeded to read the quote of the day to me and that I had never before experienced such joy. But of course, I couldn’t show it:

“Oh that’s cool Grandma, do you think you’ll use it?”

“Well, I’ve been trying to think of an occasion but haven’t been able to think of anything yet!”

“Cool.”

The Nutcracker

One of the most successful, fastidious and talented members of my family is my cousin–in-law Ryan. He’s been studying ballet since before I can remember and has established an extremely successful career doing so.

A ballet career in December meant my grandma had tickets to see Ryan at the Nutcracker. The performance was in Long Beach and it was a week from the mailing of The Card.

A couple days after Grandma read the Quote of the Day to me my phone started playing the sound I had been dying for — the special ringtone I had given it in the event that the most important person on Earth called me — err, Josh Fitzgerald — Grandma was finally calling Grand.

In a voice that wouldn’t win an Academy Award I answered with:

“Hello Mrs. Luce, thanks for calling Grand. How can I help you?”

“Hi, is this Josh?”

“Yes! This is Josh Fitzgerald of Grand, how can I help you?”

“Oh, hi Josh, thanks for your card! I was just calling to see how much a ride might cost to the Long Beach Performing Arts Center.”

I gave her the quote, we ended the call and I had never felt such joy.

Maybe 20 minutes later I get a call from my Mom (who was in on the whole thing) saying “OH MY GOD JUSTIN SHE’S GOING TO DO IT! SHE’S GOING TO CALL GRAND TO GET TO THE NUTCRACKER!”

Grandma had committed.

The First Ride

Mom had it all planned out. On the day of the Nutcracker she was visiting from San Diego and I would be with her getting an early dinner. We’d meet Grandma and her friend Edie at the Performing Arts Center which would conveniently mean that I wouldn’t be with Grandma at the time she called.

She called Josh Fitzgerald and while she was on the phone with me, I used my Uber app to order a ride. It took a little longer than I was expecting because the first driver didn’t have such a good customer service rating so I canceled and tried again. Grandma was patient though, and we found Han. I read her the details on the same call and told her he’d be there in eight minutes.

As soon as I hung up with Grandma I called Han and conveyed that he was picking up my Grandma and her friend, that she was older and that he’d need to pull up right in front of her. I asked if that was okay or if he’d prefer I find another driver. Han said that it was no problem and their ride to the Performing Arts Center not only went smoothly — my Grandma was excited about it! She kept saying how nice everything about it had gone.

After the performance and saying goodbye to Ryan we had a bit of a problem. Grandma needed a ride back but she was with me. If she called, I’d pick up and it’d give the whole thing away. I wasn’t ready to do that yet because the last thing the experiment needed to accomplish was to see if she’d tell her friends about Grand but we weren’t there yet.

So at the moment she started dialing the number I pretended that my friend was calling and ran around the corner, waiting for her call.

And waiting.

Grandma had forgotten the number!

In a maneuver that risked everything, I pretended to be on the phone with my friend, wandered over to the group, asked Grandma what was wrong, quickly dialed the number for Grand and then ran away again.

Fortunately, she didn’t notice, and I did the same thing I had done with Han with her return driver Harold. He was also comfortable with the situation and so we said our goodbye’s and walked Grandma and Edie to the curb.

My Mom and I said goodbye before Harold came because we wanted to see how the pickup would go. Harold had to call me because the Performing Arts Center had a complicated entrance and I was happy to oblige him. When he got to my Grandma and Edie he stopped, walked around the car and opened the door for him!

Mom and I started jumping for joy.

Spilling the Beans

The next day Grandma told me she had told her friends at her Book Club all about Harold opening the door for her and Josh Fizgerald and Grand. We had been wanting to see if she’d spread the word — the final step of any good business idea — and that criteria was met. It was time to tell her.

That Sunday I told her I was Josh Fitzgerald and that Grand was her idea brought to life from a few weeks earlier. After a full minute of silence she started crying and said:

“Ohhhh this one’s a winner honey. This one is a winner.”

Lessons Learned

Grandma’s experiment taught us a lot. To this day we:

1) Send callers a welcome kit when they sign up (similar to The Card)

2) Provide free quotes and estimates to all who call in

3) Send callers business cards for their wallets with our number on them (so they don’t forget!)

4) Screen drivers to make sure their customer service rating is good, their car can accommodate any ambulatory equipment of their passengers and that they are comfortable taking our callers

5) Send callers postcards with our number on them they can give to their friends in person after their first ride

We are learning more every day and will never stop trying to make Grandma proud.