How do you compete against Uber? Juno says be nice

BROOKLYN — How do you compete against Uber?

Talmon Marco answer: “In a nutshell you have to be nice.”

Marco is CEO of Juno, a ride-sharing start-up that will shortly launch in New York City, where he will attempt to apply niceness against Uber. Marco outlined his elevator pitch for Juno from the TechCrunch Disrupt stage.

Best known as co-founder of the Viber messaging service, Marco, an Israeli, talked about treating drivers (and by extension passengers) ethically and with respect, a direct dig against Uber, which he says treats its drivers like a machine.

Juno’s approach is to give drivers a 50% cut in equity, and the company has signed 7,500 so far as part of its beta program. But since Juno is just starting out, there’s no exclusivity here — so a Juno driver, at least for now, can also drive for Uber or Lyft.

Not every would-be driver need apply: Drivers must have earned a 4.7 rating or better (out of 5) on one of the rival services.

On stage, Marco wouldn’t confirm the $30 million figure that Juno has reportedly received from a recent investment round, but said Juno is sufficiently funded for the Big Apple launch.

Moreover, while acknowledging that autonomous-driven cars are “pretty much the Holy Grail in our space,” that is not his short-term focus. “The technology is not there yet (at) the right price point," Marco said. "But it’s coming.” Instead, he wants to launch Juno without cutting corners and with the “proper set of features.”

The ancient Roman Goddess Juno was seen as a “protector” and Marco sees Juno the company as the protector of drivers.

“It’s a social mission and a business at the same time,” he says. If successful, and the answer is obviously down the road, then Juno will disprove the old adage that "nice guys finish last."

David Plouffe, the former Obama White House adviser on Uber's board, will be speaking at TechCrunch later today.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow Paste BN Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig on Twitter