Meet Laura Myers, Founder of iCuDrive.com
Tell us about your business and how you came up with the idea for ICUDrive.com?
I was driving on I-75 with my 3 young boys when a young lady merged and went across 3 lanes of traffic without even looking up because she was texting. She almost killed my family and a few other cars close by. I screamed in fear, “You don’t even know you almost caused an accident, I wish I could call your mother!” My 7 year old asked why I couldn’t. I just told him it was impossible. He said, “Mommy, nothing is impossible, you just need to think about it some more!” Well, it didn’t stop there, he asked me every day if I had an answer. So I really had to think about the problem and together we came up with a simple solution. From my 7 year old icudrive.com was born.
What makes ICUDrive unique? Unlike high tech gadgets, iCuDrive.com allows the community to be a parent’s eye on the road. You see, the icudrive.com bumper sticker has a personalized one word ID. If you are driving behind a teen enrolled in our program you and you see them driving in a manner which you believe is not safe, like texting, you can simply call 1-855-icu-DRIVe. Our call center will then call the parent with your concerns. We believe this will create parent – teen teachable moments which in turn create a safer roadway for all.
What are the benefits of using your service? As a teen, I was driving my parents car with other teens as passengers. I was not driving as carefully as I should and that evening my father told me a friend of his called concerned over my driving behavior. Well, I denied it, of course. My father replied that I was driving the only red convertible Cadillac in Tampa. I was caught. More than that, I realized I was no longer anonymous and anyone could call my parents to tell them what I was doing. From that day on, I parked between the lines, drove more concerned for others, let people in, didn’t blast the music and most importantly, followed the rules my parents set for me. So the benefit of using icudrive.com is that for $8.99 a month you employ all the other concerned families on the road to keep your teen on notice that they not anonymous. We also want this to be a tool of communication between you and your teen. Our Family Driving contract gives you the way to open those lines.
How has it been received? iCuDrive.com has been well anticipated and we are excited to start our launch. We expect the launch to drive many families to us looking for answers to the seriousness of the epidemic to distracted teen drivers. Daily eight teens lose their lives to a distracted driving event. This is not acceptable.
How do you market ICUDrive Online? Offline? iCuDrive.com has opened its marketing with press releases and word of mouth as well as online media outlets.
In addition, iCuDrive.com has expanded its scope to include many charities and organizations. How do we do this? Simple, for each school or organization that wishes to join our efforts, we will donate back to them $1 per month per teen. Add it up, 1000 students from your local high school will generate $1000 a month for the schools PTA! Our nationwide program is also associated with safeteendriver.org and anyone who wishes to donate to them may also do so. The program safeteendriver.org was started when a teen was drag racing and killed Bruce Murakami’s wife and daughter. Again, this needs to be stopped. We need them to know we are a village raising the teens to be aware.
What or who has been your greatest influence in business and why? My 3,5, & 8 year old boys who yell out icudrive.com every time someone cuts us off or is texting and driving. I want to keep them safe and don’t want something as avoidable distracted driving to take anyone’s family!
What’s the best advice you have received in business that you wish to pass on to our readers? Don’t let your own fears of failure paralyze you. You have to push through to find success.
What one thing have you learned as a small business owner that has served you well over the years? We are a community and can reach out to others to help our dreams happen.
What do you do for fun/relaxation? Fun is time with my family. I have had 15 hospital stays over the last 3 years and couldn’t find a future until I looked into their eyes. Don’t take one second for granted, you never know when it may be your last. We owe it to our children to never give up. They need to see hope, love and goodness in our lives.
What is Number One Business Goal you plan to accomplish over the next year? We want to sign up 10,000 teens over the next 12 months. We know that our nation wide program will save lives and parents need to take the first step with their own family. The common theme with parents who have buried their teens due to distracted driving is that they were good kids and they trusted them without a doubt. Don’t let this be a false since of security. We might have the best teens in the world but it does not make them perfect. Maybe if they knew you weren’t the only one keeping an eye on them things would be different.
You want to write a book on … Safe Teen Driving
What’s the best way for our readers to connect with you? Visit our Website: www.iCuDrive.com, call 855-icu-drive or 813-469-1804, or email: laura@icudrive.com
