Snack: Go Rental

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Shawn O'Brien** (1:00)
Satisfaction is the delta between reality and expectations. If people have really high expectations and reality doesn't match it, like a brand like ours, if we fall short, it's a mistake, even if it's a small mistake.

**Dan Bova** (1:17)
Welcome to another snack size edition of our show, How Success Happens. I'm Dan Bova, writer and editor at entrepreneur.com. This summer, Entrepreneur Media teamed up with Athletes First produced The Summit, which was a three day event held in Park City, Utah, that brought together elite NFL athletes and the top minds in business to network, collaborate, and just make some magic. And it was magic indeed. We had athletes like Drew Bledsoe and Kyle Rudolph and business leaders like today's guest, Shawn O'Brien. Shawn is the chief operating officer of Go Rentals, which is this completely amazing car rental company that erases the misery of the car rental process. You know what I'm talking about? Waiting in line for a car that isn't even there, it's gross when you get inside, all of that stuff. This replaces it all with the most over the top hospitality ever. It's incredible.
So, Shawn sat down with me at the summit to talk about Go Rentals, his career path, his love of car racing, and just what color Lamborghini he thinks would go best with my complexion. So, I hope you enjoy our convo. Here's Shawn O'Brien. Why don't we start by you giving the elevator pitch for Go Rentals?

**Shawn O'Brien** (2:44)
Yes. So, Go Rentals is an elite car rental company, and what we really are is actually a luxury automotive hospitality company.
So, when you think about the travel experience as a traveler nowadays, you go to a common rental car terminal, you're lucky if there's a car there, you probably have to take transit to go get the vehicle. If the car is there, it's got 60,000 miles and has been smoked in and everything else in between. And Go really exists to take that entire experience and do away with it. And so, what we do is we ultimately have created a luxury experience in a commodity industry. And we really work to remove all friction in the travel experience so that whether you're traveling private into an FBO, whether you need a vehicle delivered to your home, whether you need a vehicle delivered curbside, wherever you may go, we can meet you where you are and actually bring you a beautiful vehicle with a Forbes 5-star hospitality and staff that actually are NDA compliant, TSA compliant, Secret Service compliant, whatever it may be, that they can respect you as an individual, as a VIP, an entrepreneur, whatever it may be, and get you on your way.

**Dan Bova** (3:53)
So all of that sounds amazing and also not easy. Can you give us any sense of all the stuff that's happening behind the scenes that when I step off the plane, there's my car?

**Shawn O'Brien** (4:05)
Yes. So that's actually where the magic happens. It's also the hardest part about the model.
So we don't rent car classes. It's not like you run a full size vehicle from us and whatever you show up, whatever we have is what you get. We actually guarantee the exact make, model, color, even down to the license plate if needed, if you have an executive protection firm or somebody that's actually driving the vehicle on your behalf that needs that. And if you're flying private, our team will actually track your tel number and your plane in. We will make sure that if you're diverted, say if you're flying into Aspen and get diverted due to weather, we can actually make sure that that vehicle is available in Eagle or Rifle. Or if you're flying down to Palm Beach and there's a TFR because President Trump's in town, we can actually move that vehicle over to Boca to help you get through. And the vehicles are hand detailed, they're hand sanitized. We clean out all the Bluetooth records so it feels like a brand new vehicle. We're making sure that the vehicle is staged at least 15 minutes ahead of time, preheated, pre-cooled depending on the market, drink of choice in the cup holder, a handwritten thank you note. And all of that obviously takes a whole team of people around the country that are trained in hospitality standards, legitimately care about creating a phenomenal guest experience, and honestly can do it the same and create a consistent experience no matter where you travel in the country.