The Future of Urban Last Mile Transit
Hello!
Last night I had the pleasure to sit down with Jeff Russakow, CEO of Boosted, a light electric vehicle company transforming last mile transportation to make it faster, fun, and, simple as part of an IVY Ideas Night in San Francisco. If you’re an urban dweller (like me) you’ve likely seen their boards effortlessly flying across town. I’m writing a post to capture our conversations and share a few takeaways that I got from our chat.
First, here’s a bit about Jeff…
He started his career earning a PhD in robotics and autonomous systems from Stanford University. The world just was not ready for his and his buddies’ ideas… (be it hardware, software, batteries, robotics etc. ). He’s earned a reputation as a transformational executive, working with Titans like Adobe, SAP, and Yahoo! Also served as CEO for 3 high-growth companies. When it comes to navigating rapid growth, he’s an expert.
His story of getting involved with Boosted is a serendipitous combination of coming home to his first passion for engineering, and how Jeff would describe as "meeting long lost brothers" in the founding team at Boosted, who took much of the same Stanford classes, and shared many of the same professors.
Jeff loves what he does and the product at Boosted. He hand assembled the demo Boosted Boards, gave me a brief tutorial, and a few pro tips on how not to eat it in front of a crowd. Before we began our conversation, we made a grand entrance crossing the stage skateboarding… an unforgettable moment for the personal highlight real. Let’s dive in!
We sought to understand three main areas…
Understanding “last mile” transportation, the challenges, and solutions.
All the factors that have garnered much media attention over the past few months: civic dialogue, policy making, acquisitions, and billion dollar valuations…
We closed our conversation with a look at the future, and the factors of emerging technology and existing infrastructure will shape the way we move.
Here are a few of my takeaways from my conversation with Jeff...
“Last mile transportation” is actually just jargon for “SHORT TRIPS.” (you might be like, "I know that Patrick..." I'm dense, this was an ah-hah! for me). Think walking to the train station, parking your car and walking to the office. Why does this matter? Why is there huge potential in this transportation segment? EVERYONE takes short trips…
If you’re a founding team considering bringing in an outside experienced CEO, there are two crucial things to consider... 1) Initiate the process. There’s power in admitting when you need help, and that sets a foundation for strength for your whole company. 2) “Onboard” during the interview process and make sure there’s a relationship fit between you and the person taking on the CEO role. Mutual respect, admiration and shared understanding will build a foundation of strength for your transition, leading to positive company outcomes and personal satisfaction.
~50% of the GLOBAL population live in urban areas... and is continuing to trend upward. Higher population density causes increased vehicle transportation. Large vehicles are becoming less and less practical as related to the space available and times to complete trips. These forces are causing a demand and need for SMALLER, LIGHT, ELECTRIC VEHICLES. Solutions like Boosted can saves time (average 40 minutes per day) and money (if you spend $200 per month on last mile transit ie. shared rides, bus etc. a LEV can replace that cost + save you time).
Common sense policy will be essential in enabling LEV’s to solve the last mile problem... We’re seeing this now in SF and there’s much debate on what should be done. But it’s seriously just common sense... where can these vehicles ride (street, bike lane sidewalk) how can/should someone ride (speed limit, age, helmet), and what types of vehicles can be used and how do you categorize them (toys vs. vehicles etc.). This seems straight forward but actually, California is the only state to have ANY regulations on skateboard form factors on the roads. That means there are 49 opportunities for a good common sense template model (California) to address these considerations. Other cities and sovereignties can model this for their adoption of LEV’s or they should at least talk to Jeff because he has some really cool, simple, low cost, non-invasive solutions that can be supremely helpful.
Whether your car flies or goes underground, the last mile problem will still exist.
There’s a HUGE funding gap and opportunity in the US for investments in the vehicle hardware themselves. Most US investment in transportation is in software and business model, not hardware. China has invested billions in this space and is completely dominating the category in development.
To conclude this post, it’s very apparent to me that Jeff Russakow needs to write the book "Common Sense Innovation." His pragmatic views on the forces that shape our lives are incredibly clear, accessible and easily digestible. We would all benefit, both with our time, and our public and private dollars saved. That would be a great contribution to our freedom and quality of life as human beings.