Why we built RydX.
An honest account of the frustration, the question that would not go away, and the model that emerged. By S. Haider, Founder.
The Screenshot
It started with a screenshot. A Tuesday evening in the monsoon. A colleague opened his phone and showed me a Rapido fare: ₹340 for a ride that costs ₹65 on a dry afternoon. He had paid it — because he had no choice. Because his bike was at the service centre. Because it was raining. Because every other app showed the same thing.
I had seen it dozens of times before. But something about that specific number would not leave me alone. (Illustrative example from the founder's own account — not live RydX pricing.)
The Field Research
Rather than design a solution from a desk, I signed on as a Rapido Captain myself and rode for roughly 10 hours a day, across different parts of the city, to understand driver economics, dispatch, and supply-demand imbalance the way it actually behaves on the ground.
From November 2025 through around March, my co-founder Faizan Murtaza and I personally visited riders and drivers across Delhi NCR, explained the RydX concept, and recorded structured feedback. That process — organic, in-person, without paid acquisition or incentives — produced 16,716 email-verified pre-launch registrations.
The Structural Insight
Platforms that earn a percentage of every fare have a built-in incentive tied to higher fares, including surge. A platform charging a flat subscription instead doesn't earn more from a higher fare — which removes that specific incentive.
The same logic applies to Captain earnings. A commission model means Captains give up a share of every rupee, always. RydX's Phase 1 model uses a flat subscription — ₹29/day or ₹499/month — instead, with 0% commission until a zone has proven it can sustain itself.
What We Are Building
RydX is not trying to out-market the incumbents. The plan is to build genuine liquidity zone by zone in Delhi NCR — density before geography, driver trust before commission — starting with a controlled pilot.
Two founders. Zero external capital raised to date. Sixteen thousand, seven hundred and sixteen people already told us, organically, that they want this to exist.
We are building something that should exist. Come be part of it.