04. July 2026 • Sima
Now the focus can be put back on FLINTAXI.
First day of summer holidays. Has it really been a year since the last blog post? That shows how consuming the school year is. Now the focus can be put back on FLINTAXI.
What happened during the year… phew… I had planned to shoot many reels last summer but apparently didn't manage to. Over the course of the year I received interview requests from FM4, Heute Zeitung, a podcast, Sorority (Sisters), Profil, a campus magazine, and from Der Standard. This public presence brought many new members to the FLINTAXI website and many new followers on Instagram. It builds trust within the community and shows me how important this project is. It wasn't just media requests that came in.
People also kept reaching out with their stories about assaults in taxis — from uncomfortable conversations heading in a perverted direction, to "groping between the legs", to "locked me in the taxi until the police came" etc. The signal is clear: FLINTAXI is needed. And that's exactly what keeps me going. Over the past few months I've often thought about giving up. I haven't received any financial support from any side, despite many emails and applications for funding. The Wirtschaftsagentur Wien, to which I was repeatedly referred, does not fund sole proprietorships (EPU); others want to see a first version of an app before committing further funding; and then again, you can't sponsor someone who has a full-time job… Frustrating. Even from the Ministry of Women, no helpful support came. So the entire load stays on me.
That's why I'm all the more grateful for the people who reached out to me during this time. Whether journalists who wanted to report on FLINTAXI, students who wanted to create a promotional video for my company free of charge, an IT developer who wanted to completely redesign my website for free, or someone who has now become a very important person for FLINTAXI — my app developer from Mödling. He wrote to me after the Der Standard article that he would like to support me with my app project. At our first meeting in Vienna I immediately knew I could trust this man, as he instantly understood the idea of the safe taxi app and stood behind it. The quotes I received for apps ranged from €0 (a university project) to €94,000 (a company from abroad). I decided to work with the developer from Mödling because I wanted to work locally with someone, wanted to be actively involved in the development, and it was important to me that the person developing it stands behind the idea and does it with passion. I simply found the right person there and I'm very glad I can work with him over the summer. I'll always remember that we signed the development contract in Podersdorf on Lake Neusiedl in his motorhome. Incidentally, it was my first contract that I genuinely worked on for a long time and actually helped draft, rather than just signing. You really have to thank the age of AI for that!!
How this will all look financially — also in the future, running and maintaining the app, paying employees, etc. — I'm still unsure, which often makes me doubt whether it will drive me to financial ruin. Because: are there enough drivers to generate enough revenue for the project to fund itself? Are there enough riders who will actually use the service despite longer wait times and fair prices? What if something does happen and someone feels uncomfortable or unsafe? What if a FLINTA* driver inadvertently says something inappropriate? What if FLINTAXI then faces a shitstorm? At the end of the day I think that people aren't machines and are therefore also allowed to make mistakes. What's important is that someone takes those affected seriously, investigates, trains, and bans if necessary.
Once the app launches, I won't be able to run FLINTAXI alone anymore. Over the past few months, 5–7 interested FLINTA* people reached out to me about driving for FLINTAXI. I met all of them and talked about getting a taxi licence and a possible position with me. You could tell they all want to support the idea. 4 of them have already obtained their licence. Next Monday I'm meeting my future driver and training her on the car. So it could happen as early as July that two more FLINTA* people are driving the taxi alongside me.
What I'll be doing this summer, besides employing two new people: I'll be shooting promotional reels (thank you to everyone who volunteered to take part <3), drafting legal texts for the app, setting up contracts, continuing to apply for funding — and of course also enjoying the summer, otherwise there'll be burnout!!!
What's coming up next:
The new version of the website, set up by my developer, will be launching soon. This will be a first version that makes it possible to book rides online (and pre-book), view the price, and also pay online. For this, everyone will need to register again so that everything is cleanly GDPR-compliant and separated from the old website (which was on WIX). Then we can test real rides and accept real payments. So your feedback is needed — use the feedback form for that.
Oh yes, and I should mention the crowdfunding. After the response following the Der Standard and FM4 interview was so huge, I thought that a community crowdfunding campaign would make sense to cover the initial costs of the app development. Over €1,500 has already come in, for which I'm enormously grateful! Another sign for me to KEEP GOING!!
Have a wonderful summer and I hope I can update you more often!
Appendix:
All newspaper articles over time:
- https://www.instagram.com/p/DVs5lMwjJo5/?img_index=4
- https://campus-a.at/2026/03/11/frauen-im-taxi-neues-angebot-will-ihnen-die-angst-nehmen/
- https://www.heute.at/s/angst-vor-uebergriffen-neues-taxi-service-fuer-frauen-120134170
- https://www.profil.at/oesterreich/sexuelle-uebergriffe-im-taxi-uber-bolt-belaestigung/403139458
- https://sorority.at/flintaxi/
VIDEO by the student group at FH Hagenberg (Upper Austria)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg9Rm7vS0ow