Why ride-hailing app Fasten couldn’t make it against the big players

What a difference a year makes, especially for up and coming ride-hailing app Fasten.

Last year the tech, media, and music conference South by Southwest was a ride-hailing nightmare, with Uber and Lyft no longer operating in Austin, Texas, over issues with fingerprint background check requirements.

This gave smaller wannabe ride apps the perfect opportunity to show off different platforms and demonstrate what rides could be like in a Uber-less world. Fasten — which started in Boston in 2015 — swooped into the Austin opening.