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GoCar Rentals - San Francisco
If you're in San Francisco in the summer time you'll see plenty of these little yellow GoCars zipping around town.

This was a fun little T-shirt design project I did for GoCar, getting all the San Francisco icons as well as the GoCar and a touch of information about it all in one three color design.

Read News Story about GoCar >

Small businesses carve out a role
High-tech minicars lead to rapid growth
By J.K. Dineen
Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 10:59 PM PDT


With millions of visitors coming to town every year, trailblazing San Francisco entrepreneurs find plenty of creative ways to cater to the tourists and earn a living in the process. Here are some of their stories.

Like many an entrepreneurial dreamer before him, mechanical engineer Nathan Witherington found himself with a hankering to create a new business venture.

But the 32-year-old British expatriate was not sure exactly what he wanted to do. He knew he loved flying airplanes. He knew he loved building and working on motorcycle engines.

And he knew he wanted to do something in his adopted hometown of San Francisco. It may be a cliché, but Witherington says it really happened: "An idea went off like a light bulb in my head one day," he said.

"I just figured tourism is our largest industry," he said. "I love motorcycles. I'm familiar with global positioning systems from flying. No one I knew of anywhere in the world was combining the power of GPS and applying it to the tourism industry."

Two years later, the results of Witherington's inspiration, GOcar Rentals, are buzzing all over town. The bright-yellow, GPS-guided cars, which speak five different languages, cart tourists from Sea Cliff to Lombard Street, giving them a unique city experience.

In 18 months, GOcar's fleet — the cars cost $6,000 each — has jumped from six cars to 32 and demand for the technology has been so great that Witherington and his two partners have spun off a software company. The start-up has been profitable from day one.

"We've had inquiries from all over the world from people interested in the concept technology, from 15 different countries," he said. "We have very, very promising things in the pipeline."

GOcar is located on Fisherman's Wharf near the Hyde Street cable car turnaround. It has given him a fresh perspective on tourism.

"I think a lot of locals don't appreciate what the tourism industry gives San Francisco," Witherington said. "You're always dealing with people on holiday and giving them an experience of really, truly seeing The City. It's satisfying to have them come back in and say it was the No. 1 thing they did on their holiday."