We made it in the news this week and we are happy to announce it. 

Thanks to the support of all the local community, specially to reporters Dave Hodges and Nicole Tschetter  from the Tallahassee Democrat and to Kyle Touchstone from the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee and Leon County, Efficient Systems was featured on a great article about e-Bikes and how they are, and will continue, shaping daily commute in Florida's capital.

Clean transportation and daily activity are just a few of the benefits that Efficient Systems offers to the community and its users.

Read the article and find out more about our customized e-Bike solutions and how they can benefit yourself today.

Article link:
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/money/2014/05/25/ready-roll-e-bike-provider-alternative-daily-drive/9562331/

La Idea Business Pitch Competition will host its finals at Venture Hive from Monday December 8 until Saturday December 14th.

Efficient Systems LLC in partnership with El TomaCorriente was selected from 850 applicants and 60 semi finalists from all Latin America to compete with 16 other partnerships in the finals for a grant to promote trade between the US and Latin America..

The Efficient Systems Team is very excited and honored to participate in such an event and sure that good things will come from this new adventure..

 Here is some press coverage for the event from Univision (Spanish)

La Idea was a key initiative of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who announced the creation of the program in November 2011, during Global Entrepreneurship Week. In 2012, President Obama highlighted La Idea as a key component of the Small Business Network of the Americas (SBNA). - See more at: http://laidea.co/about#sthash.Sr1DawF0.dpuf
A dynamic public-private partnership was formed to launch La Idea. Partners include the U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, Boom Financial, Inter-American Development Bank, International Diaspora
Engagement Alliance, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Small Business Administration, Univision Networks, WellSpace, Accion and FHI 360.
Below are some pictures from the event:

It is funny to me how people deal with rising gas prices; some decide to make groups on social media sites suggesting that that you shouldn't put gas on "X" gas station or not to put gas on certain date to show the gas companies that we need them to lower the prices... well sadly none of those tactics work, why you might ask? well because there is no impact being made on what we as consumers can really control which is consumption; if we use less we will spend less and actually if enough people took this approach there will be a decrease in demand and therefore a decrease in prices (Supply Vs. Demand). 
The million bucks question is how to reduce consumption, well most of the world's oil is used for transportation so that will be a great place to start. Even if you choose to neglect the huge impact that green house gases have in our enviroment and how we are changing life in our planet for the worse look at it from an economic perspective and how much it impacts your pocket.  Here is my personal story and how I concluded ridesharing was the best thing I could do for my finances and the environment:
I commute every week between Orlando , FL and Tallahassee, FL about 270 miles each way and on average I spend about $43.50 per trip in gas, by looking at the numbers I rideshared last year and dividing it by all the number of trips I took I saved about $12.50 so I was able to reduce my gas expenses by about a quarter (I estimate my overall ridesharing allowed me a cost reduction on my gas expenses of about $1,300 a year), another great benefit is the reduction on carbon foot print, for every person that rideshares with me we are keeping about .2 metric tons of CO2 from going in the atmosphere per each one way trip (by comparison of having two cars on the road instead of just one).

But ridesharing is not only for long trip commutes, short trip commutes are also feasible for ridesharing, your own neighbors, friends and coworkers can also be interested on sharing the ride with you; you save money on gas and wear and tear on your cars if you split the drive.

Below is a link for an article about ridesharing from the New York Times that I had the opportunity to contribute for:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/travel/taking-ride-share-services-for-a-spin.html?ref=frugaltraveler&_r=0