“Uber had just come out. I wanted to have the same experience waiting for a bus. I wanted something that would allow me to finish having my coffee in the morning without having to stand at a bus stop for 10, 20 minutes in the rain.”

Import the magical feeling of a hot app into a boring daily ritual

The wedge wasn't 'better transit data' — it was importing Uber's delight pattern (watching a vehicle crawl toward you on a map) into a category that didn't have it. Pick a tired daily ritual (commuting, queueing, waiting) and clone the emotional payoff from a hot app in an adjacent category. The feeling sells the product before any feature does.