Traffic Ticket App – Fixed

David Hegarty brings a little bit of social justice combined with entrepreneurship when he pitches his traffic ticket app, Fixed, in a tech-heavy episode 707. Hegarty sounds more like a legal clinic advocate than a businessman when he discusses the mission for his company, but that passion is what makes the business so successful.

Hegarty believes everyone should have access to the legal system and that parking regulations are akin to a government endorsed racket run by cities. He believes most people who get traffic and parking tickets are those who can least afford to pay for them and need their vehicles for work. Since working folks don’t have the time or resources to fight tickets, they just pay them.

That’s where the Fixed traffic ticket app comes in. Got a ticket? There’s an app for that! When users download the app, they have access to the Fixeed interface which lets them collect photos of the scene and of the ticket. Once submitted to Fixed, and advocate gives the user a best guess as to whether it’s a “win-able situation.” If the user has Fixed “represent” them, they pay a percentage of what the ticket would have cost. With photo evidence from the scene, the Fixed team sends letters contesting the ticket and works the process for the traffic ticket app user.

Hegarty says: “it’s fine to say we live in a democracy and that we have rights, but your rights begin and end in your ability to access help to preserve them.” He wants to expand the scope of Fixed both geographically (they operate in 5 northern California counties) and from a service perspective. He’d like Fixed to expand from just a traffic ticket app to a full legal services app.

Fixed has some big VC backers already, but I wonder if the Sharks will see dollar signs in Hegarty’s vision for social justice and profits?

My Take on the Traffic Ticket App

One summer, while in school, I was a courier in downtown Boston. I had to use my own vehicle and parking tickets were considered a cost of doing business. I got many bullsh*t tickets, but fighting them could cost me a day of work – or more. Like most people without time or advocacy, I paid them. I didn’t like it, but I did.

I wish I had a traffic ticket app in those days – it would have saved me over $1,000! I can’t use Fixed now, because they aren’t in Florida, but if they were, that app would definitely be on my phone. Anyone living in Alameda, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties in California should stop what they are doing and download the traffic ticket app RIGHT NOW!

Will Sharks get Fixed?

Hegarty claims he’s successfully helped over 50,000 people so far. At about $150 a pop, that’s $7.5 million in “sales.” The Sharks will like those numbers! Hegarty is a smart guy and basically started the business as an experiment. While there are certainly lots of overhead expenses that eat into that big sales number, the company could be a profit machine, that’s why it’s attracted VC investors like Slow Ventures, Y Combinator, Merus Capital, and Structure.

Parking and traffic tickets are nearly as ubiquitous as death and taxes, so there’s a never-ending need for the service, the question is, which Sharks will “get it?” I can’t see Lori getting involved, but any of the other Sharks could. The obvious target would be guest Shark Chris Sacca. Fixed already has venture money in its corporate DNA and Sacca has a strong history of investing in sound tech plays, both in the Tank and out. Mark, Robert, or Kevin could be players too, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if more than one Shark got their teeth into the traffic ticket app.