Zipcar founder: Entrepreneurs should learn from failure

Chase's business, the now-successful Zipcar that allows people to rent a car for as little as an hour, had had its fair share of challenges, she explained. Chase has since moved on from Zipcar and is now the CEO of Meadow Networks, a transportation consulting group she founded. She is also founder and CEO of GoLoco, an online ridesharing community.

"Entrepreneurs start out with no money, so you have to be smart with what you're doing," Chase said, noting that she believed her idea would be well-received.

"You have to find a need and fill it," Chase explained, adding that convenience for her customers was one of her top priorities.

"We wanted to make access to a private car as easy and convenient as getting cash from an ATM ... This was my elevator pitch," Chase said.

The "elevator pitch" - the quick opportunity you have to sell your idea to investors - is central to getting your business off the ground, she said.

Chase explained that one of the hardest aspects of starting a business from scratch is being honest with yourself about the realities of what you're setting out to accomplish.

"When you do a start-up, you're constantly selling [your product] ... the reality is that a lot of it doesn't work," Chase said. "People have these ideas for their start-up, and it turns out you have to do all this adjusting."

Chase noted that she was forced to change her business model to adjust to reality, adding that her close call with failure taught her a valuable lesson.

"Failure was fine. You're taking all these risks," Chase said, explaining that "being wrong was not a problem, but not correcting your wrongness was a problem."

On the whole, Zipcar seemed to resonate with consumers, she noted.

Flexibility is key to her company's service and distinguishes it from traditional car-rental agencies, Chase said. Customers don't have to go through a lengthy process to get a car, she explained, nor do they have to keep the car any longer than they need it.

The service benefits the environment, she explained, because people who use Zipcar, mostly in metropolitan areas, may think twice about driving needlessly when they realize the cost of using a car for that amount of time.

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Good service can lead customers to have a personal connection with a company. Chase receives e-mails from customers with photos of how they use their Zipcars. One customer, for example, took a photo of his wife and newborn child posing next to their rented Zipcar before leaving the hospital.

Another customer, she said, sent the company an e-mail saying "Have I told you lately that I love you?" She noted that she believes few people would go out of their way to do something for another, perhaps larger, company.

Students responded to Chase's tale of her entrepreneurial ups and downs.

"I think it's a wonderful idea to encourage students to follow their creativity and innovation," Leah Cohen-Shohet '12 said.