Nelson Azoulay ’09 has officially released RydeHopper, a ride sharing app for college campuses in Connecticut that allows students to safely and easily coordinate transportation.

“You can have a car on campus and actually monetize it,” Azoulay said. “You can make money on the side because there’s a lot of people that need rides everyday.”

The app has been released after administering beta tests and evaluating its success throughout the past few weeks.

“I created the app to, first, solve the problem of sharing the cost, and, second, to make it more of a safe environment,” Azoulay said.

For safety reasons, RydeHopper requires a college email address from a school in Connecticut to register. In addition, users can see how many mutual Facebook friends they have with whoever is offering them a ride. The increased safety aspect is key to what Azoulay and others think will make the app successful.

“Ride sharing is nothing new these days, but no service addresses safety concerns the way RydeHopper does by matching you through common connections,” Alap Koralturk ’08 said. “I think that’s fundamental in a college setting and a huge value add for students.”

Though the app is currently only available for college students in Connecticut, Azoulay has plans to widen RydeHopper’s scope drastically in the near future. This will depend how the app attracts students.

“I want to see how it catches on and also catch early mistakes, then expand to a broader market once it’s fully developed,” Azoulay said.

To help get the app launched, Azoulay is seeking college ambassadors to spread the word.

“They would have an assigned invite code, and anytime someone downloads the app with that invite code they will get compensated,” Azoulay said. “On top of that, within the first two months, they will get a percentage of the transactions of the driver’s revenue.”

Anyone interested in a position can contact Azoulay at nelson@rydehopper.com.