Thinking

Numaan Akram: How to Build a Platform Movement

Numaan Akram

The 20th-century playbook for growth was about owning the factory. The 21st-century playbook is about owning the network. This strategic pivot from controlling assets to orchestrating ecosystems is the single most important transformation in modern business. It’s the core insight behind Rally, a company that moves hundreds of thousands of people without owning a single bus. Its founder, Numaan Akram, recognized that the value was not in the vehicle but in the connection. By building a platform that organizes a fragmented industry, Rally became the central operating system for community mobility, proving that future growth belongs to those who connect, not just those who own.

“Data is collected from the wisdom of the crowd. We often think of data as points on a map or numbers in a database, but there’s a collective wisdom that data-collecting taps into.” Numaan Akram, founder and CEO of Rally, believes platform businesses depend on the wisdom of the crowd to truly excel. Rally is a crowd-powered travel service that enables rideshare on buses with an underlying goal of connecting those who share a passion. In conversation with our host, Vivaldi CCO Tom Ajello, Numaan discusses how a platform should not only initiate ideas but also invite its customers to create inspiration and engage their own communities. Tune in to learn how the nature of ownership has changed due to the extent to which platforms and consumer behavior impact each other. https://vimeo.com/296866357 See below for highlights from their conversation:

From a Single Event to a Platform Movement

Great platforms aren’t born from business plans; they emerge from observing human behavior. They don’t invent new needs; they identify existing, fragmented energy and give it a central point to gather and amplify. The story of Rally isn’t about buses. It’s about the shift from solving a one-time logistical problem to building a self-sustaining system for community mobilization. It’s the classic strategic pivot from providing a service to enabling a movement, where the brand becomes the infrastructure for shared passion. This is how modern growth happens: not by pushing a product, but by creating a space where your audience can pull together.

The Spark: Organizing a Rally in Washington D.C.

The most powerful business ideas often solve a personal, deeply felt problem. For Numaan Akram, that problem was getting like-minded people to the same place at the same time. As Startupsavant.com notes, “The idea for Rally came after Numaan and his co-founder organized a political rally in Washington, D.C.” This wasn’t just a gap in the charter bus market. It was a gap in the infrastructure of community action. The real insight was recognizing that for any shared-interest event—a concert, a game, a protest—the journey is part of the experience. By focusing on the collective, Rally transformed travel from a simple transaction into a shared, communal event, building a brand that stands for connection, not just transportation.

Numaan Akram’s Path to Entrepreneurship

Passion is the fuel, but a powerful business model is the engine. Numaan’s vision evolved from simply organizing trips to creating a platform where communities could organize themselves. This led to the creation of “Crowdpowered Travel,” a model that turns passive passengers into active participants. Instead of guessing where demand lies, Rally allows users to create their own bus routes, essentially crowdsourcing market research and demand generation. This approach fundamentally changes the relationship between the company and the customer. The brand is no longer a provider but an enabler, creating a participatory brand experience where the users themselves build the network, drive the growth, and create the value for one another.

From the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute to a UI Developer

An idea needs a supportive ecosystem to scale. Numaan’s journey highlights the importance of translating a raw concept into a viable, technology-driven business. His time at the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute in 2014 provided the mentorship and structure to refine the Rally Bus model. This phase was critical for moving from a passionate founder’s vision to a scalable operational plan. Furthermore, Numaan’s background as a UI developer meant that from its inception, the platform was designed with the user at its core. It wasn’t just about backend logistics; it was about creating a seamless, intuitive interface that made it easy for people to connect and organize, proving that the best technology feels less like a tool and more like a natural extension of human connection.

Q: What is Rally?

A: Rally is a bus ride share platform. Ride share is something we’re all familiar with, and we’ve seen how much technology can affect personal mobility. Rally uses technology to affect high occupancy vehicles, or in other words, group mobility or community mobility. We apply the innovations of the sharing economy to the world of buses and vans.

Reimagining an Overlooked Industry

Most innovators chase the new and shiny, but true disruption often happens in overlooked spaces. Rally’s strategy isn’t just about improving bus travel; it’s about building the central operating system for an entire industry that has been largely ignored by technology. By creating what they call “crowdpowered travel,” they are transforming a fragmented network of bus operators into a cohesive, demand-driven ecosystem. This is a classic case of platform thinking, where the goal is not to own the assets (the buses) but to own the network that connects riders, drivers, and operators. It’s a powerful example of a business model transformation that creates value by organizing a market that was previously inefficient and disconnected, turning individual trips into collective movements.

The Untapped Potential of the U.S. Bus Market

The scale of the bus industry is staggering and almost completely hidden in plain sight. Every year, buses in the United States carry 680 million passengers, a figure that rivals the 850 million passengers carried by domestic airlines. Yet, while the airline industry has been a focal point for technological innovation and optimization for decades, the bus industry has remained largely analog. This massive gap represents a significant market opportunity. Rally recognized that this wasn’t a problem of demand but of coordination. By applying a technology layer to aggregate that latent demand, they are able to unlock a market that was always there, just waiting for a platform to bring it together and make it accessible.

The “Crowdpowered Travel” Model

The concept behind Rally was born from a real-world need: organizing transportation for a large group to a political rally in Washington, D.C. This origin story is key to understanding their model. Instead of a traditional top-down approach where a company sets routes and schedules, Rally’s model is bottom-up. Communities of people with a shared destination—whether it’s a concert, a sports game, or a festival—collectively create the demand. The trip only “tips” and becomes a reality once enough people commit. This de-risks the entire process for bus operators and ensures every trip is viable. It’s a brilliant example of service design innovation that shifts the focus from selling seats to enabling shared experiences.

Building Technology for Riders, Drivers, and Bus Companies

A successful platform doesn’t just serve one user; it creates value for every participant in the ecosystem. Rally’s technology stack is designed with this principle in mind, featuring distinct apps and tools for riders, bus drivers, and the bus companies themselves. For riders, it’s a seamless booking and tracking experience. For drivers, it’s a tool for managing routes and manifests. For bus operators, it’s a new channel for demand generation that fills their buses and grows their business. By building the connective tissue for all three sides of the marketplace, Rally creates powerful network effects. This holistic approach is central to building a defensible and scalable technology-driven business that can truly own its category.

Q: Who are Rally’s partners? Who are the businesses that participate in Rally’s ecosystem and how is Rally driving value for them?

A: Rally is a multi-faceted platform. Often, marketplaces are about connecting supply and demand, but we started with the demand. Initially, I wanted to help people get together and thought about how one could move a lot of people from one place to another. I was confident that buses could help solve this problem and with my technology background, I created an app and applied crowd power innovations, such as crowdsourcing, allowing people to sign up for a ride from wherever, letting them add stops along the way, and requiring a minimum number of signups to confirm each trip. This was my intro into the marketplace model, and since then I was able to learn about the network effects.

Strategic Partnerships with Major Leagues and Brands

Collaborating with the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, and MLB

Once the demand side was proven, the supply side—the bus companies—became easier to attract. But the real strategic shift happened when Rally moved beyond a two-sided marketplace and began building a true ecosystem. This wasn’t just about connecting riders to buses; it was about integrating the platform into the fabric of major cultural events. By creating official partnerships with giants like the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, and MLB, Rally embedded its service directly into the fan experience. This move transforms the brand from a simple utility into an essential part of the event itself, creating a powerful network effect where leagues, teams, and fans all see Rally as the default way to get to the game. It’s a masterclass in modern brand and experience innovation, where value is created by becoming part of the customer’s story.

Scaling Across North America

Connecting 3,000 Cities with 500,000 Rides

The result of this ecosystem strategy is staggering growth. With over 500,000 rides organized across 3,000 cities, Rally has achieved a national footprint without owning a single bus. This is the power of a platform model. Instead of being constrained by physical assets, the company’s growth is fueled by data and demand. Each new event and every new route is a direct response to the “wisdom of the crowd” that Numaan mentioned. This asset-light approach allows for incredible agility, enabling Rally to serve a massive Taylor Swift concert one day and a niche local festival the next. It’s a powerful example of how a deep understanding of community behavior can drive a scalable and resilient business model transformation, turning collective passion into a logistical powerhouse.

Q: How have you seen network effects change the game for you?

A: After Rally’s first trip to DC, I realized that it’s not about the bus or the transportation, but about connecting people with each other and their passions. Traditionally, buses were for pre-formed groups from a church, a school, a corporation, etc., but Rally brings together different individuals who are all going to the same place for the same reason (ex. a concert, a football game, a NASCAR race). It creates an opportunity for these fans to aggregate, network together beforehand, and extend the event experience through the travel time. We let fans and passionate people meet others in their town and have that community experience. Social networking isn’t only online.

How Strong SEO Fuels a Demand-Driven Platform

A platform built on demand doesn’t wait for customers to show up; it meets them where their intent is born. For Rally, that place is the search bar. By optimizing its online presence, Rally ensures that when someone is inspired to attend an event, their service appears as a natural solution. This isn’t just a marketing tactic; it’s a core part of their demand-aggregation model. Strong SEO allows them to capture interest at its peak, effortlessly connecting passionate individuals with a shared destination. This approach transforms a simple search into the first step of a community experience, proving that the most effective business strategies are those that seamlessly integrate into existing customer behaviors.

Building Trust When Things Go Wrong

In any platform ecosystem, trust is the currency that matters most. It’s not built during perfect moments but is forged when things inevitably go wrong. Rally’s commitment to transparency is a powerful example of modern brand resilience. When a mistake happens, their approach is to own it, communicate honestly, and work tirelessly to make it right for the customer. This does more than just solve a single problem; it sends a clear signal to the entire community that the platform is accountable. This level of integrity is essential for any business that relies on network effects, as it turns potential detractors into loyal advocates and strengthens the entire user base’s confidence in the brand experience.

Q: Data is important for platforms. How has your view of data changed since you started and what does it mean to the business?

A: Data is collected from the wisdom of the crowds. We often think of data as points on a map or numbers in a database, but there’s a collective wisdom that data-collecting taps into. All these people are getting into cars and traveling in the same direction, but they don’t know that others are as well, or they don’t have a means to connect with them. Rally looks at 1) the data of the people who let the platform know they want to go from point A to point B, and 2) the data of the bus, the driver, the supply side, which is what investors are interested in.

Q: Do you have news to share in regards to investors?

A: In addition to our relaunch and new sites and apps, we just closed with our new lead investor, the largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in the world – Daimler – the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. It was really important for them that we are building a platform and not disrupting the industry in a negative way.

Letting the Community Drive the Business

The real insight behind Rally isn’t about optimizing bus routes; it’s about understanding that the event begins the moment fans leave their homes. Akram realized the platform wasn’t just a transportation utility but a vehicle for connection. By bringing together individuals with a shared passion—whether for a concert, a game, or a cause—Rally transforms the journey into an integral part of the experience. It’s a mobile social network, a pre-event tailgate, and a post-event celebration all in one. This approach fundamentally changes the value proposition from getting people from Point A to B to creating a space where they can aggregate, connect, and deepen their engagement with what they love. It’s a powerful lesson in how to build a brand experience that is embedded in the customer’s life, not just a transaction within it.

Shifting from Top-Down Planning to User-Generated Demand

Most traditional marketplaces operate on a simple premise: connect existing supply with existing demand. Rally flips this script. It starts by aggregating latent demand—the unspoken desire of countless individuals all heading in the same direction. By using crowdsourcing, the platform doesn’t predict where the next big event will be; it lets the users declare it. A trip is only confirmed once a critical mass of riders signs up, effectively de-risking the entire operation. This is a profound shift from a top-down, predictive model to a bottom-up, responsive one. The data collected isn’t just logistical information; it’s the “wisdom of the crowds,” revealing patterns of collective intent. This model shows how a modern business model can be built on listening and responding, turning potential customers into active co-creators of the service itself.

Q: Why do you think busing is important to a company like Daimler?

A: Besides the fact of wanting to sell some more buses, perhaps it’s better to look at other markets again. Why is GM invested in Lyft, Volvos in Uber, Volkswagen in Gett? The nature of ownership is changing, the demand and platforms out there are changing consumer behavior, or maybe consumer behavior is causing platforms. The point is, who’s going to own that relationship with the customer? It’s not going to be the mom-and-pops who can’t keep up with the marketing changes and the technology. Rally is working with these mom-and-pops, acting as their brand, technology and platform, and that’s what Daimler is interested in – how to get access to that. See Vivaldi’s work with Rally. Tune into more of The Business of Platforms podcast here. If you’d like to learn more about Vivaldi’s platform strategy offering, contact us at hello@vivaldigroup.com.

Moving from Asset Ownership to Network Orchestration

The most transformative companies today are not defined by what they own, but by what they connect. This marks a seismic shift from a business model built on controlling assets to one centered on orchestrating networks. As Numaan’s conversation with Daimler illustrates, even industrial giants recognize that future value lies not in the manufactured product, but in the customer relationship and the data flowing through the ecosystem. This new paradigm demands a different playbook—one where strategy is less about building an impenetrable fortress and more about cultivating a dynamic marketplace. The goal is no longer to win a zero-sum game but to create a system where value is co-created and shared among all participants.

Core Principles for Building a Modern Platform

A successful platform is not built from a rigid blueprint; it grows from a set of core principles that act as a strategic compass. In a world of constant flux, these principles provide the stability to maintain a core vision while enabling the flexibility to adapt to the network’s needs. They are the operating system for modern growth. For any organization aspiring to build or even just participate in the platform economy, internalizing these concepts is the first step toward creating a sustainable advantage. Numaan’s journey with Rally offers a masterclass, providing a clear framework for building a business that is powered by its community and designed for exponential growth.

Have Passion for the Problem You’re Solving

In the platform economy, passion is no longer a soft skill; it is a strategic asset. It’s the gravitational force that pulls an entire ecosystem into orbit. When a platform is born from a genuine drive to solve a real-world problem, it creates a powerful narrative that resonates with users, partners, and investors. As Numaan Akram puts it, “Make sure you deeply care about what you’re doing and want to make things better.” This is the foundation of a resilient brand strategy. A deep-seated passion for the mission fuels the persistence required to overcome inevitable challenges and inspires a community to move from passive users to active advocates, becoming co-creators of the platform’s success.

Trust Your Gut, But Be Ready to Pivot

A strong vision provides direction, but the path to scale is never a straight line. The best platform leaders balance unwavering conviction in their mission with a profound humility in their execution. It’s a dynamic tension. “Believe in your main idea and values, but also be open to changing things if needed,” Numaan advises. This agility is a core competency, not an occasional tactic. The data and behavioral signals generated by the network create a constant feedback loop. The ability to listen to those signals and make decisive pivots is what separates platforms that scale from those that stagnate, forming the very core of a successful business transformation.

Surround Yourself with Great People and Advisors

A platform is not a product; it is a coalition. It is brought to life by a collective intelligence—a network of employees, advisors, and partners who share the vision and contribute their unique expertise. The founder’s most critical role is to be the chief architect of this human capital ecosystem. “You can’t do everything alone. Find great people and advisors, then trust them,” Numaan emphasizes. This means cultivating an internal culture of distributed ownership and empowering teams to make decisions. For large enterprises, this principle requires breaking down traditional silos to foster the cross-functional collaboration needed to bring a complex platform vision to life.

Focus on Execution, Not Just the Business Plan

In the fast-moving platform economy, value is created in motion, not on paper. The static, five-year business plan is an artifact of a bygone era. While a clear strategy is vital, it is only realized through relentless execution. Investors and partners are betting on a team’s ability to deliver, not just its ability to craft a compelling document. Numaan’s advice is to “Focus on *why* your idea is special, *who* your team is, and *how* you’ll win.” This shifts the focus from abstract projections to tangible actions: building the product, acquiring the first users, and proving the model in the real world. It’s a mindset that prioritizes rapid learning and iteration over theoretical perfection.

Establish a Strong Legal Foundation Early

Trust is the currency of any platform, and a sound legal structure is its vault. Far from being a bureaucratic hurdle, a strong legal foundation is a strategic enabler of growth and scale. It protects the platform’s most valuable assets: its intellectual property, its data, and the trust of its community. “Don’t cut corners when setting up your business legally. It’s important to protect your ideas and assets,” Numaan cautions. In a network model where value is generated by interactions, establishing clear terms of service, privacy policies, and partnership agreements from day one is a strategic imperative that reduces friction, mitigates risk, and gives participants the confidence to engage fully.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes Rally’s “crowdpowered” model different from just booking a bus? Think of it as the difference between finding a solution and creating one. Traditional charter services offer a top-down model where you book an existing bus for a pre-formed group. Rally’s model is bottom-up. It allows individuals with a shared interest to signal their demand for a trip. The route and the bus only become a reality once enough people commit, which means the community itself creates the service. This approach transforms travel from a simple transaction into a shared experience that begins long before anyone steps on the bus.

If Rally doesn’t own any buses, where does the real business value come from? The value isn’t in the physical steel of the buses, but in the network that connects everyone. Rally owns the customer relationship, the data on where demand is forming, and the trust of the entire ecosystem. By building the central operating system for riders, bus companies, and major event partners like the NFL, they become indispensable. They create value by organizing a fragmented industry and making it efficient, not by owning the assets within it.

The article talks about “network effects.” What does that actually mean for Rally’s growth? It’s a powerful cycle of self-reinforcing growth. When more fans use Rally to get to a game, it attracts more bus operators to the platform seeking business. When major partners like NASCAR officially team up with Rally, it brings in thousands of new riders. Each side of the platform—riders, operators, and event organizers—makes the other sides more valuable. This creates a powerful momentum that makes the platform the default choice for everyone involved.

Why would a massive vehicle manufacturer like Daimler invest in a platform that doesn’t own vehicles? This move shows a deep understanding of where the market is heading. Giants like Daimler recognize that future growth isn’t just about selling more vehicles; it’s about owning the relationship with the end customer and understanding their behavior. By investing in Rally, they are investing in the platform that organizes the demand for mobility. It’s a strategic play to be part of the system that connects people to transportation, ensuring they have access to the data and customer insights that will define the future of travel.

What’s the single biggest takeaway for leaders at established companies from Rally’s story? The most critical lesson is the strategic pivot from controlling assets to orchestrating ecosystems. For decades, success was about owning the factory or the product. Today, it’s about owning the network. Leaders should be asking themselves what fragmented industry or disconnected community they could be organizing. The future belongs to companies that build platforms to connect and enable others, creating value for everyone in the network, not just for themselves.

Key Takeaways

  • Focus on Orchestrating Networks, Not Owning Assets: True market leadership comes from building a platform that connects a fragmented industry. By owning the network, you create more value than owning the physical assets, becoming the essential operating system for your entire ecosystem.
  • Build a Demand-Driven, Bottom-Up Model: Instead of predicting what customers want, create a system where they can show you. This crowdsourced approach turns users into active co-creators, de-risks expansion, and ensures your growth is directly tied to real-world demand.
  • Transform Your Service into a Core Experience: The most resilient brands are not just transactional; they are embedded in their customers’ lives. By integrating your service into larger cultural moments and shared passions, you move from being a simple utility to an indispensable part of the experience.

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