If I Knew Then: Thomas Ableman

Thomas Ableman is the founder of Sn-ap, the world’s first on-demand coach network comprised of local, independent operators.

With family roots in Bristol, he was inspired by his love of the city to choose it as the second location to launch the service.

He founded Sn-ap following a 14 year career in public transport, most recently as commercial director of Chiltern Railways.

How did you start out in business?

I’ve been in public transport since I graduated. My then girlfriend (now wife) and I both wanted to work in public service, so she joined the NHS while I joined the transport sector. I soon realised that there was masses of untapped opportunity to do transport so much better than the service offered by the multinationals.

I founded Sn-ap in 2016, after more than a decade in public transport. I believe we are now at the stage where a transformation in customer expectations is going to make the big companies very uncomfortable if they can’t adapt.

If you knew then what you know now, what mistakes might you have avoided? 

When we first launched Sn-ap, we were inestimably proud of the fact that the model we’d created provided extraordinarily cheap but high quality travel. Who wouldn’t be? When we opened our first city, we were rather taken aback to discover that potential customers thought it was so cheap it was too good to be true and we had to spend the first month fighting accusations we were an online scam.

It turned out we needed to do much more explanation of how our model makes quality travel so cheap.

What advice would you have given yourself when starting out? 

Don’t catastrophise. Earlier in my career, I allowed myself to think through the worst-case scenario. That way, you risk freezing yourself. A combination of getting older and mindfulness meditation has enabled me to focus instead on developing the business day by day, which is far more effective.

If you knew then what you know now, would you still be sitting there?

Of course. I’d be overjoyed to see where we’ve got to. The fascinating thing, of course, is that Sn-ap is only possible because of always-on digital connectivity. When I started out, the iPhone didn’t exist and I’d have been utterly mystified by the business I’ve gone on to create.

What do you know now that you didn’t know then? 

Peoples’ experience is much less important than their attitude. Look at the meet the team page on our website and you’ll see incredible diversity of experience in an outstanding team of people.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received so far? 

Focus on the team. A great idea will remain a great idea unless you’ve got fantastic people around you capable of turning the idea into a business.

What is your business highlight? 

Raising the first £1m investment.

What is your business low point?

I spent nine months working in a startup rail operator called Wrexham & Shropshire. By the time I joined, it was already seriously struggling and ultimately didn’t survive. It really emphasised the importance of building a sustainable business model.

What keeps you awake?

My youngest daughter, who’s three.

What’s changed from when you started out? 

The collapse in Uber’s reputation. When we first started pitching the business, we were using the internal mission statement that we still use: “We create win-win results using tech”.

At the time, everyone was interested in Uber and the hyper-combative culture of Travis Kalanick. We were pitching a completely different approach and hoped that investors would be OK putting money into a business that didn’t want to crush the opposition. This is no longer something we have to worry about!

What’s still on your to-do list? 

I’ve set myself the target of talking to 30 customers every week. That’s still my goal, so it’s always on the to-do list.

What’s next for the business and/or you personally?

For the business, expansion to more cities and enabling us to serve more customers.

For me personally, it’s interesting. My life is utterly focused on the business at the moment. If I weren’t doing this, I’d probably be doing something to take forward the work I did in 2016 when I led our local Stronger In campaign during the EU referendum.

Our political culture has been badly damaged in the last two years, and I’d love to spend more time volunteering for outfits like More United that are focused on bringing people together.