This case study describes the early beginning of the promising start-up BlaBlaCar, operating Covoiturage.fr; the leading website for ridesharing in France, which celebrated its 1 million members in spring 2011. Key points of interest are the clean tech's innovation process, its extraordinary company culture and imminent strategic challenges for future development.

The French start-up was founded in 2006 by Frédéric Mazzella. In order to survive, BlaBlaCar has to innovate permanently to stay attractive and viable in a competitive marketplace in order to create the large loyal customer base needed for its ridesharing service offerings. The small green-tech company employs a holistic, people centered approach, where innovation is fueled by human interactions. All employees share the vision of providing a sustainable travel offering that reduces CO² emissions, is affordable, and links people.

As a tech-startup, technology is an important driver of the company's operation, while also focusing on the three core values of sustainability infused by Mazzella: social, environmental and economic. These values are embedded in all of the company's main activities. Their culture is nurtured and reinforced by exchanges with the other start-up companies in their hub Chaz'up which are selected based on shared values making links between technology innovation for environmental benefits.

Word-of-mouth marketing, social networks and an excellent CRM system ensure an active community, necessary for an online market place like ridesharing. Their revenues mainly come from the cooperation with another startup (Ekodev) which sells the ridesharing website as a white label solution to corporate clients who usually integrate it directly into their intranet. The company is not profitable yet, as they focus on growth and development of a large membership base. However, according to the CEO Mazzella, they could be profitable instantly if they decided to launch their main business model, which they have not introduced so far, so as to concentrate on developing the service offering first (creating the largest offer of rides so that clients find trips corresponding their needs). At the time of writing, first tests are being launched, introducing premium services and an online payment option with a small transaction charge. This important strategic shift gives cause for discussion on the future development of the startup.