People Love Your Idea, But It Doesn't Make Money. Now What? The founder of Shift shares how he was forced to get rid of a feature everyone loved.

By Jason Feifer

Shift

This is an episode of our podcast Problem Solvers. Each week, an BIZ Experiences reveals how they overcame an unexpected problem in their business -- and were happier and more successful as a result. The show is hosted by BIZ Experiences's editor in chief, Jason Feifer. Listen below, or subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

People may like to shop for cars online, but they still want to test drive them in real life before buying. So when the online car sales company Shift launched, it created a system its founders were sure would win customers over: They hired "car enthusiasts" -- guys just really passionate about cars -- to drive a car to a customer so they could test drive it together. The car enthusiasts were a hit; people loved them, and praised them online. But Shift wasn't celebrating: As it turns out, the car enthusiast program was so expensive to run that the company wasn't actually making money. And that meant Shift needed to do something that felt crazy: Blow up the feature everyone loved.

Hear from CEO and founder of Shift George Arison on why he decided to get rid of something beloved by so many customers -- and what he did instead.

Related: This BIZ Experiences Shares How to Name Your Company -- or Fix a Bad Name

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Jason Feifer

BIZ Experiences Staff

Editor in Chief

Jason Feifer is the editor in chief of BIZ Experiences magazine and host of the podcast Problem Solvers. Outside of BIZ Experiences, he writes the newsletter One Thing Better, which each week gives you one better way to build a career or company you love. He is also a startup advisor, keynote speaker, book author, and nonstop optimism machine.

Want to be an BIZ Experiences Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

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