So, um, get some background about myself, is I? I loved computer science and math towards the end of high school beginning high school. Not so much. My now wife actually does. My lab did my lab reports in high school. Um, unfortunately, um, but I got really, really interested in computer science and into math and went in to do a bachelor's degree in computer science at ah, at the University of ST Andrews in Scotland. Um, then I was afforded the opportunity to come to ah m I t and pursue a PhD in robotics and computer science. Ah, while I was studying an M i t. I became part of this optimization from ability on demand systems project. The lead for that project was mathematician and I was computer scientists, so I was there to help him with Visualisation and Data Analytics. But I eventually got really, really interested in the problem space itself. And once he left to become a professor at to you, Delfin melons, I absorbed the project as my own at M i t. Um and yeah, we We've got some really good results from from this this big ridesharing paper we published that showed we could service all of Manhattan's taxi demand with 80% fewer vehicles by having passenger share rides. So we got a whole bunch of media interest from this, Um And then, after a couple of years of continuing to work at it from an academic setting, we determined that the necessary burden to make credibly I a success and actually route people on the ground Ah, was to for me to leave university and, ah, and to start a business and to work on the engineering and the business development and operation side of this project. And that's what matter Billy I is now.

Yeah. So I guess when leaving the academic stuff to the side, I There was a really a moment. Um, in October 2018 um, when we submitted a 92nd pitch to the M i t 100 k pitch competition. Um, and that's really what? What started? That the business is really what galvanizes Teoh Think of this not as a project at university, but to think of it as an actual business. Um, and so the first few weeks was just me thinking, Don't build anything, right. That's like the I just constantly just tried to keep reminding myself not to build anything yet because that's an engineer you can very easy just to start building something to not think too much. And they just try and build. And regardless of if what you're wanting to build is what people want, right? And so I had to take press the pause button and sort of, you know, start Googling. How does the business work? What do you What do you start doing? Um, when do you hire people? How do you hire people? Right. Uh, what is fund raising? What is a seed round? Basically, just the first few months was just failing and failing and failing and failing really hard. Um, until I started learning what all these terms meant until I started learning What, uh, what fundraising meant and then, you know, then started feeling more like a day to day job.

no eso our founding story. Very interesting. Um, so we you know, we're in academic startup. So we had ah, two people who were instrumental in and founding the business was were Daniela Reus, who's the director of m I t c cell? Um, and ah ha ve airlines. Maura, who was that profess was that now, professor who wrote that amazing paper that I was lucky to be a part of, um And so But they were both academic founders, and, you know, they weren't gonna be running anything on a day to day. We're going to do anything operational. They both you know, Daniel is a tenured professor with so many responsibilities. And Javi Air, you know, trying to become a tenured professor are on track to become a tenured professor. So we had to try to find someone that could come in and maybe feel a bit of our business gap. And that's when we originally hired this guy from from HBs named God Sabra, who were who has an MBA student and work with us throughout the summer toe start rideable, but ultimately decided to go back to HBs to finish his degree. We also hired to intern for the summer. This is the number of 2019. Um, we hired two interns because we got accepted This thing called the, um underscore you first summer accelerator program into the summer accelerator here in Boston, hosted by underscore BC eso We hired two interns it to join us on that on that on that ride. But then ultimately, they left, um, and went back to school. Ah. And then it was just me and my co founder, Meno, um, that were left on the team. And then we really started from nothing. And at that point, we had toe start hiring people and build and reach out toward network. So it was really just Ah, you know, come September of 2019 it just scramble of trying to see who we knew that was looking for work, who we knew that was experienced. Um, who we knew that had the comparative advantage to really help us. And that's where we started looking. And, ah, we actually got a really, really good break earlier. Lucky break, Quinn, One of our advisers, He his name is James Cox. He was, um, the global head of ah, writer at product operations at Uber and he was one of our advisors and we eventually convinced him to come on board. And now he's our CEO, and since then our growth has been in terms of our team has been really crazy. A lot of former uber people are joining right now.