Urban Loop

26: Ben Volkow - CEO & Founder, Otonomo

Ben Volkow is the CEO & Founder of Otonomo, an Israel based startup building the future of connected car data. Otonomo is building a platform to collect, cleanse, secure, and standardize OEM car data from over 18 million vehicles. Third party service providers then deliver innovative smart city, traffic, fleet management, and mapping services for other companies and customers.  Internationally recognized by various industry groups  along with OEM support from some of the world’s largest automakers, Ben and Otonomo are on a mission to create a mobility ecosystem that uses data to make every driving experience truly rewarding. In this conversation, we dive into… Otonomo and interesting use cases for car & traffic data The role that Otonomo fills in the connected car ecosystem How Otonomo has helped transform legacy automakers into technology players Data security and privacy for the end consumer And finally Ben’s entrepreneurial journey and his advice for future entrepreneurs Season 3 is in the works, to be returning early 2021 - thank you all for the support thus far! None of this would be possible without this community.   Ben can be reached at the following: LinkedIn Enjoy the show! See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-26-ben-volkow -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

25: Curtis Rogers - Co-Founder, Parkade

Curtis Rogers is the Co-Founder of Parkade, an app that helps tenants in the same building share and rent parking. Parkade helps put your unused parking spots to good use. As for visitors to your apartment or condo, Parkade helps make visiting seamless, with finding parking just an afterthought. In this conversation, we dive into… Residential parking and why it’s such an exciting space The growth of Parkade and the initial MVP Thoughts on how mobility and transportation is moving away from cars, in general.  And as always, some comprehensive advice on finding problems within your cities and building some great products to solve them Curtis was also an early employee at Zimride (before it was called Lyft!), so we dive into some of those experiences and how Parkade was born out of a large-scale parking experiment at Lyft HQ. A book that’s played a pivotal role in Curtis’s world view about the role of mobility was The High Cost of Free Parking, by Donald Shoup. Check it out! Let’s dive in!   Curtis can be reached at the following: LinkedIn, Twitter See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-25-curtis-rogers -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

24: Khristian Gutierrez - Chief Revenue Officer, Passport Inc

Khristian Gutierrez is the Chief Revenue Officer at Passport, a leader in payments in the city space. Passport provides the only end-to-end digital operating system for mobile parking payments, parking enforcement, digital permitting, and micro-mobility. Nearly a 1000 cities and universities across the US work with Passport to make parking as simple and delightful as possible.  Most recently, Passport partnered with Google Maps to enable mobile payments directly from the maps app itself! Parking is an area that has long been troublesome for citizens and difficult for cities to manage as effectively as possible - Passport aims to solve both those problems. In this conversation, we dive into… The current parking ecosystem in cities, and why parking is such an exciting opportunity How Passport aims to make parking seamless for cities, for citizens, and for businesses The Passport operating system, which enables a comprehensive platform for city leaders to manage all the available parking and their costs Some interesting stories and guiding principles from the early days of building Passport And as always, some comprehensive advice on how to learn more about and begin working in the smart city space What stood out the most to me is how intentional Khristian and Passport are as a whole in working with cities as true partners, enabling better operations, insights, and convenience for all involved - enjoy the show!  Khristian can be reached at the following: LinkedIn, Twitter Enjoy the show!   See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-24-khristian-gutierrez -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

23: Phil Beecher - President & CEO, Wi-SUN Alliance

Phil Beecher is the President and CEO of the Wi-SUN Alliance, a global alliance developing and promoting inter-operable Internet of Things wireless standards for smart city infrastructure.Phil and the Wi-SUN Alliance have pioneered the Smart Utility wireless network (IEEE 802.15.4g), bringing together the best of reliability, bandwidth, and latency to deliver a robust network paired with industry backing and a marketplace of third party components and compatible products.  An early engineer on Bluetooth and Zigbee protocols amongst others, Phil dives deep into the Wi-SUN protocol comparing and contrasting this to the several other popular IoT wireless standards.  In this conversation, we dive into… Why the Internet of Things is necessary to realize the promise of Smart Cities The benefits that the Wi-SUN standard provides for smart city infrastructure The process, conversations, and debates behind developing a standard How wireless networks and their development has changed over time As a communications engineer myself, it was a delight to learn about the Wi-SUN protocol from a wireless technology pioneer. Hope you enjoy the conversation! Phil can be reached at the following: LinkedIn, Twitter   Enjoy the show! See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-23-phil-beecher -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram

22: Dr. Paul Van Buskirk - Founder, Cohoes Citizen Party 1963

Dr. Paul Van Buskirk is a legendary political figure from the city of Cohoes, NY responsible for founding the Cohoes Citizen Party in 1963 to defeat the Albany political machine, New York’s most corrupt machine. Today, he is the Founder and Chairman of Metro Forecasting Models, which helps several Southeastern US states predict population growth and movement, to accurately build infrastructure. His latest book, Big Mike, Uncle Dan and Me is available now, where he discusses his journey, learnings, and lessons.  In this conversation, we dive into… The social and economic climate when living under a corrupt political machine What led Dr. Van Buskirk to start the Citizens Party of Cohoes in 1963 How they effectively organized in a short time to defeat the political machine Why engagement in local politics is so low and why it’s important to correct that  And as always, some comprehensive advice on how to learn more about and begin working in the smart city space Dr. Van Buskirk helps compare political organizing then and now, and his learnings and lessons are just as valid today and especially relevant during an election year.  Enjoy the show! See more at https://www.theurbanloop.com/episode-22-dr-paul-van-buskirk -- The Urban Loop podcast is brought to you in partnership with Billion or Bust Media. You can find the latest episodes and show notes at our website and socials below. The Urban Loop: Website, Twitter Billion or Bust Media: Website, Instagram