Rideshare services have been embedded for more than a decade, beginning with the launch of Uber in 2009, and later Lyft in 2012.
It has grown to a $15.2 billion industry over the last five years, according to data provided by IBIS World, a market research firm.
Yet, those numbers predominantly pertain to able-bodied customers, who are able to freely get in and out of vehicles being used by the rideshare programs.
For disabled passengers who use wheelchairs, those amenities are mostly not available. Instead, they must rely on pre-established services that require much more lead time (48 to 72 hours in most instances) — and all trips have to be medical related.
That’s where Louisville-based Dais comes into the conversation as a startup founded in 2023 as a way to address the needs of this demographic in the rideshare industry.
“The biggest limiter to everything, whether that be … being able to work or being able to engage in social or community activities or even to get their wheelchair fixed or to get in to get an assessment or new mobility equipment — [is] transportation. [It’s] always an ongoing issue,” said Christi Mckim, the co-founder of Dais.
We first discovered Dais after they submitted a self-nomination for the 2024 KY Inno Startups to Watch awards (and were later chosen for the recognition). The company flexed some marketing muscle several months later in the third edition of our KY Inno Madness competition, after it made it all the way to the semifinals out of 64 companies before losing to eventual champion Better Blend of Covington, Kentucky, by the narrowest of margins.
Mckim has spent close to two decades of her career working with people with disabilities as an occupational therapist. The last six years she has been working in the specialized field of comprehensive seating and mobility evaluations — and designing custom manual and power wheelchairs based on individual diagnoses.
“I’m able to just go on my phone right now, and I could have an Uber or Lyft here in a couple of minutes, you know?” Mckim said. “And for them, it’s so much more complex than that — and they’ve just never been able to have that convenience, and that comfort and security of being able to catch a ride anytime.”
Mckim said that her company is also addressing anyone else with a limitation or mobility issue, such as the elderly, referencing instances in which rideshare drivers did not wait for someone to get into their car, leaving the passenger behind.
“It’s about engaging a community of drivers that come together and are willing to go the extra step and take the extra sensitivity and passenger assistance screening,” said Mckim, adding that such training will be a requirement for Dais drivers.
Uber did launch its WAV (wheelchair accessible vehicle) program in 2015, and Lyft Healthcare started a year later. These services, as Mckim noted, are only available in major U.S. metro areas — and are not available in the Louisville metro area.
The idea of what Dais would become formed a little more than a year ago when Mckim first met her co-founder Karim Elatroush, who was the former owner of a non-emergency medical transport company in the metro area.
When the two began talking, there was a conversation of starting up the transport company up again, before Mckim declared that she “wanted to go a step further” with a rideshare startup.
Under its revenue model, Dais will take 20% of passenger’s fee, while also having ads running on the platform.
The company’s name is derived from the Latin word for “table,” that later took on the meeting of being a platform reserved for special guests, Mckim said.
“You’re our focus. You’re our exclusive guest,” she said. “This population is all that we want to serve.”
As of a recent date, Dais was working on building out its minimum viable product for both the iOS and Android platforms on its way to hopefully launching the product in July.
The early-stage company is still in the midst of raising capital. As of a recent date, it had raised close to 85% of its initial coast for mobile and web platform development. Mckim said she hopes that the app and website will both be live by July 1.
